Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett Series: Emily Wilde #1
Published by Del Rey (1.11.2024)
Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy
Format: eARC, 352 pages
Source: NetGalley
When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore—she just wrote the world’s first comprehensive of encylopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Folk on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival, Wendell Bambleby.
Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, and in search of a door back to his realm. So despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and danger.
And she also has a new project to focus a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by Bambleby’s mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambley’s realm, and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.
But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart.
My thoughts
Ugh, I adore this world so so much! I loved going back to it, I just want to crawl into the pages and live there! I daresay this book was just as good, if not maybe even slightly better than the first. I wanted to re-read it as soon as I finished! I can’t WAIT until the audiobook comes out, I’ll be listening on release day because Ell Potter and Michael Dodds KILLED IT in the first book. (I actually could hear their voices in my head as I was reading, especially Wendell’s voice with his sexy Irish accent *drools*)
I think Wendell and Emily are my OTP of the year. Their banter gives me life!! I actually laughed out loud many times because they cracked me up. Emily would be all practical and Wendell would poke fun at her for her practicality…he never took anything seriously and she took everything too seriously. I just freakin’ love them together! In addition to their banter, they had some incredibly sweet and tender moments that made my all mushy inside! View Spoiler »
This one BROUGHT the action! There’s action in the first book, yeah, but there’s even more in this one! I loved taking a deeper dive into the world of Faerie and getting a glimpse at more of the Folk. We’re introduced to a new set of characters (umm, ORGA!! and Snowball), but we still get to see beloved characters from the first book. (Poe!!!) You don’t really get to know the human characters very well, though – that would be my only real complaint. When Emily was in Ljosland, the human characters play a prominent role, and you got to know them by personality. It’s not like that in this sequel, which makes me kind of sad.
While some of the side characterization was lacking, Emily’s character more than made up for it. She and I would totally be friends in real life. She’s just so incredibly relatable. She loves her books (and prefers them to people), is totally socially awkward, and can’t handle emotional attachment to people. She’s also kind of selfish sometimes in the fact that she gets so wrapped up in her research that she forgets that people have feelings, resulting in hurting those around her on occasion. She’s a bit obtuse when it comes to people, despite the fact that she’s so smart. I like that she was able to admit her faults, though, and would actually think on it when she realized she was wrong and tried to make up for her wrongs. She never meant to come off as callus as her intentions were always in the right place, but she was totally blind to others’ feelings.
In addition to being brilliant, she’s also a total badass! She’s confident in her ability to deal with the Folk because of her extensive research, so she shows almost no fear in the face of some of the more terrifying Folk. She unfortunately tends to go blundering into some less than ideal situations, but she always handled it with a level head and thought her way out. View Spoiler »
Umm, Shadow is getting old?! I CANNOT DEAL with that fact. I thought he would live forever because he’s a grim. He is the bestest boi and I will be heartbroken if he dies in the next book *puppy eyes*
I will be anxiously anticipating the third book (and more Orgaaaa, please please please!!!), but in the meantime, I’ll be re-reading via audio. If you haven’t read these books, I 10/10 recommend audiobook format!
Overall Assessment
Plot: 4.5/5
Premise: 5/5
Writing style: 4.5/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
World-building: 4.5/5
Pace: 5/5
Feels: 4/5
Cover: 4.5/5
Overall rating: 4.5/5
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