The fairy tale/fantasy lover in me was so excited when I discovered this book. To dive into a world where Faeries exist always sounds like a a good time to me! This book follows professor Emily Wilde and her discoveries about faerie folk so that Emily can document and complete the world's first encyclopedia of faeries. This book isn’t one you can skim through, but is brilliantly written and the world building is fantastic. Definitely recommend!

I received an advanced digital copy of this book, courtesy of the publisher, via NetGalley.

A wonderful read for any grown up fan of fairy tales and ethnographic fieldwork. The setting is absolutely a character, and the characters are all interesting. The narrator is mostly reliable, and there's just a touch of romance. The main story resolves quite well, but there's enough other threads left open that I'm eager for the sequel.

This book is the very definition of a cozy fantasy. Emily Wilde is on a research trip to Hrafnsvik, a village on an island off the coast of Norway, to learn more about “the Hidden Ones”, elusive faeries in the area. The book is a trip through her research journal cataloging the villagers she meets, the faeries she interacts with, and the reunion of her and her colleague, the enigmatic Wendell Bambleby. Over the course of her journey, Emily learns a lot more than she bargained for!
There were many times while I was reading that I forgot that it was a book and not Emily’s actual journal. Heather Fawcett does a great job trapping you in Emily’s world and you don’t want to leave. This book is a perfect read for snuggling up with a cup of hot chocolate and watching the snow fall. While you’re watching the snow, don’t forget to look for signs of the faerie king!
**I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

4/5

This was a wonderfully fun fantasy read. The characters are well developed and well written. They are very detailed and well thought out. One issue for me was the pacing, the main story line was wonderful but the folktales thrown in between really made the pace choppy. I did like the strories but I wish they had been at the end of the book instead.

Emily is a passionate character where her job is the most important aspect of her life. She will finish the encyclopaedia if it's the last thing she does. While I don't really connect with that mindset I did appreciate her determination and hard work.

This book does get dark at times but I did not get creeped out or felt like I would need to sleep with the lights on that night. I also enjoyed the almost hidden humor that was thrown in. I laughed out loud at quite a few parts in the book.

Thank you Netgalley and Heather Fawcett for gifting me a copy of your book in return for an honest review.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Fairies is a fresh addition to the genre of lower stake, cottagecore fantasy. Unfortunately, I found the prose to be incredibly dense and difficult to follow. This is likely due to the author trying to capture the voice of a woman's diary in the early 1900s. While perhaps historically accurate, I found it conflicted with the overall sense of coziness and magic the story was trying to convey.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is excited about her upcoming trip to Norway. She is top in her field of fairie research. Unfortunately she is not as good with people as with fairies. Emily has to maneuver her way to Hrafnsvik with only her faithful dog as a companion. Her goal is to set up a station to research the elusive Hidden Ones for the titular Enclopaedia.. She prefers to work alone and is quite happy doing so until fellow researcher Wendell Bambleby shows up to muck up her study. Not to be foiled she makes her way closer to contacting the fae, holding her own in the rigors of the Norwegian countryside. Perhaps the bigger mystery is who is Wendell Bambleby and what on earth does he want? Read the book to find out! Readers who enjoy Holly Black and other authors of fae/human interaction will enjoy this story and will anyone who wants to escape to Norway and an entirely different world. Many thanks to Net Galley for the chance to read an ARC.

I loved this story. I’m not sure if it qualifies as a cozy fantasy or low stakes fantasy, but that’s what it read like. A professor goes to an isolated Norwegian island to study the fairies that live there and learns more than she bargained for.

I'd like to thank the publisher and Net Galley for allowing me to read this book.

I think this book had a lot of potential and could have been better than what we got. I've read books with first person narratives and books told entirely through journals. So it's not that.

I personally believe Wendell and Emily have no chemistry what so ever. So even though their characters were interesting, the author could have *tried* to make that come across better in the story. I've read enemies to lovers or friends to lovers, but this has to be the poorest example of one done.

While there was also a story, I feel there wasn't a lot of backstory or explanation of what was going on in terms of how these actions the characters made either hurt or helped the human world. There is keeping your reader in the dark but showing a light, and there is completely keeping them in the dark without any sort of light.

I think this book will come down to what you're aiming for in your read. If you're looking for something cozy and cute then you'll enjoy it and give it 4 - 5 stars. But if you're on the fence you'll give it three. Or if you find it absolutely crap you'll give it 1 - 2. For me, I gave it three because while there were interesting ideas, the plot and world building was just poorly done.

This book was the cozy magical winter read I didn't know I needed. I loved Emily's awkwardness and her hyper-focus on faeries- she's someone that so many neuro-divergent people, including myself, can really relate to. The polarity of Emily and Bambleby, both within themselves and compared to one another, was superbly done and gave them depth, and I loved their growth throughout the book. The setting was unique, and continuously added to the story, and the writing was fantastic. There isn't a thing I would change about this story, and that's a rarity for me.

If you enjoy fantasy books where the characters are adults with lives and careers, if you enjoy faeries or folk tales, if you enjoy beautiful descriptions and a balance between humor and plot, this is a book you will love.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a different kind of fantasy/romance. Emily is determined to complete her exhaustive compendium of the Faeries without the interference of rival scholar, Wendall Bambleby, but to say this is a slow burn enemies to lovers story doesn't really do the plot justice.

The story is presented as entries in Emily's journal as she travels to a small northern town to observe first hand the ways of the "fair folk." She is coded as autistic in her preference for her academic study over people, her inability to understand social cues and her special interest in the faeries. Even so, her character is fairly complex and I was happy to see her presented as more than a set of stereotypical traits. Bambleby, on the other hand, is quite annoying and difficult. I was not thrilled with him as the love interest through much of the book because he does come across as a jerk the majority of the time. But I must say that by the end their chemistry works well. Fawcett just does a great job of placing us in Emily's perspective and seeing him as truly annoying, something that is often glossed over when using this trope, so it works that we don't really like him much in the beginning.

While I enjoyed the style of writing that mimics late 19th century prose, it may not be for everyone and does create a bit of distance from the story at times. This book takes a while to get into and get moving, and even then it doesn't move incredibly fast. However, I would not describe the story as "cozy " as I have seen some reviews characterize it. There are real stakes that include stollen children and grim fight scenes, not to mention the pervasive threat of freezing or starving to death (or both).

Overall I enjoyed the book and found it to be a unique and entertaining story. While it is the start of a series, I was happy the ending provides a satisfying conclusion on its own. I'll be. happy to see where Emily goes from here, but it's nice to read a "book one" of a series that doesn't leave me in a frustrating cliffhanger.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey /Orbit books for allowing me access to an eARC in exchange for this fair review.

This book was excellent! 6/5 stars

I can not picture a perfect book than this one. It was engaging and fun. The dry humor was the ideal level that gave the MCs great personality.

This book was amazingly cozy and such a refreshing fantasy read. I really enjoyed the characters and how well the story was written! I can't wait to secure a physical copy and I've requested some copies at our library branch for the teens!

I have been in a severe reading slump for the past several months. Although I have plenty of books to read, I just haven't been motivated to read. But Emily Wilde's Encycloaedia of Faeries, by Heather Fawcett, was the book that made me fall in love with reading again! It was full of engaging characters, set in a small village, and had a charming romance. The story was full of mystery and intrigue, as well. I just loved this novel so much, and I hope the next book comes out soon!

What I Liked:

Characters:

Emily is an unconventional main character. She is messy, not conventionally pretty, and incompetent in social situations! But, she is lovable, all the same. I really like that Emily is in her thirties, and has no thoughts of finding a mate. Emily is in love with her research. And who wouldn't be? It is about chronicling all things related to faeries! She is so absorbed in her work that she doesn't know how to make friends, or even recognize when someone is interested in her. I felt that she set herself apart from others because she really didn't know how to relate to most people (and perhaps didn't want to get rejected from others).

Wendell is her colleague, and fellow Faerie researcher, who follows her to the small Nordic village where Emily is studying the local Fae. He is her exact opposite, easily charming anyone he meets, and effortlessly getting others to do his work. Although Wendell exasperates Emily with his ways, they do get along quote well, and accept each other for who they are.

The people of the village don't know what to think of Emily, and (of course), don't like her at first. The village has strict traditions of hospitality, which Emily hasn't bothered to learn about. So on her first evening at the pub, she immediately gives offense by refusing to let someone pay for her dinner. But Emily eventually wins the affections of the people with her knowledge and assistance with the Fae.

I really liked the townspeople. They were naturally cautious about outsiders, and needed to see that they were being respected by Emily and Wendell. As they come to see Emily as a deeply caring person, the villagers slowly begin to cooperate and help Emily.

Setting:

Emily is researching the Faeries of the Nordic regions of Europe. Winter is setting in, and there is a stark, yet majestic beauty to the landscape. Full of forests, crystal-clear lake, and towering mountains, this is already a magical setting. The author does a wonderful job of integrating the landscape into the story, and made me want to visit this fictional place!

I loved the small village, where Emily is quite the outsider. Having lived most of her life as an academic in England makes her ill-equipped to handle the unforgiving weather. At first, Emily is constantly cold, and hungry, as she must learn how to chop wood, make a fire and fetch her own water. As expected, the townspeople find this hilarious, but do step in when they realize Emily really doesn't known how to do things. They teach her how to survive in their harsh climate, showing Emily great patience.

Romance:

Although Wendell and Emily are colleagues, and are used to each other, they are really thrown together in this situation. The reader gradually sees that Wendell is in love with Emily; but the character herself is oblivious. There is also the mystery of why Wendell is in the village in the first place. Is he really there to do research on Faeries? Or is this just a ruse to spend more time with Emily? I love how the friendship evolves over time. As I really liked Emily, it was lovely to see that others really valued her as she was.

Overall, this was a highly entertaining book with characters and situations that made this a quick and enjoyable read.

Honestly, this book very quickly goes from enjoyable to an absolutely investment of a time. I got lost in wanting to know what Happened next.

My rating is a 4.5 out of 5 stars. It was a little bit slow in the first chapter or two, but overall it was a good book. I really loved the story and characters. Emily seemed like a relatable character for me when it comes to how she is in social situations. Which made me love her even more. I also liked how the chapters were all set up like journal entries. Its a one of a kind book that I will definitely recommend!

I also loved this book enough to where I plan to buy a physical copy and I'm really looking forward to book 2!

From the publisher:
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, muddle Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.

My thoughts:

The story is told as a series of journal entries from Emily Wilde as she goes to the far north looking for faeries. This is effective because it allows us to see how Emily views the world, people, and her chosen subject. What we find is that she is that she is single-minded in her research pretty much most of the time. She is also socially inept and a bit of an introvert. I really liked her.

Wendell Brambleby, her associate, is very much her opposite. He revels in the attention of the townsfolk and thrives on his interactions with them. There is also something mysterious about him. As it is revealed that he may be Emily's only friend, she also finds she may be drawn to him in other ways as well. I enjoyed the banter between the two and watching their relationship grow and change.

It's a little slow in the beginning as we meet the characters and get acquainted with the world they live in. After a while, it almost seems like a loose series of fairy tales. Each tale moves a little faster and maybe a little darker.

The bits of Faerie lore that are sprinkled throughout her journal entries are interesting and lend authenticity to her writing. And her interactions with the brownie Poe, set the stage for her other interactions with the Fair Folk.

Overall, I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. I liked the characters and enjoyed their banter. The action in the book is very fairy tale -ish interspersed with accounts of daily life. I also like that it ends in such a way that it is open to the possibility of sequels. If you like fairy tales and tales of the Faeries, then you will probably enjoy this book set in the early 1900s far north.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This did not affect my opinion and review.

I wanted to love this one so badly and it just didn’t stick the landing for me.

What I thought was just a slow start because I was trying to get myself out of a reading slump turned into a slow read all around, and ultimately sank me further into my slump. I kept waiting for the story to pick up and it never really did. Emily and Bambleby weren’t super likable characters, nor did I vibe with the romance in the story..

For me, the writing itself left a lot to be desired – and that isn’t to say the book is poorly written, but that I didn’t connect with it. While I actually really enjoyed the diary format, every sentence had too many words. I’m in the camp of less is more except when it’s important to the story — everything Emily experienced or thought was described in such excruciating detail that I felt as though I was back in my high school English class, trying to cram every word from that year’s vocabulary list into the final essay purely to meet the word count.

I read nothing but great reviews before diving into this one, and was hoping for something at the intersection of cozy fantasy and dark academia, but overall did not have a good time with it.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"'Stories are of great use,' I said. 'Indeed, they are the foundation of dryadology. We would be lost without them, as astronomers cut off from the sky.'"

Well, this was a joy to read and I highly recommend it.

Oh, you need more?

I won't bother recapping the plot, since the summary does a pretty good job. Suffice it to say that Emily, a socially inept Professor of Fae Studies, and Wendell, her infuriating but hot colleague, end up in a tiny Norwegian village to learn more about the local Fae, common and courtly. Hijinks ensue.

EWEoF is an epistolatory novel, told in journal entries and field notes. Refreshingly, these entries actually read like a journal or notebook. Some novels that use this format have journal entries read like standard prose, which kind of detracts from the point. 90% of the narrative is from Emily's POV, but there are a few entries from Wendell as well. There are also footnotes, which I thought were a fun way to flesh out the world and made sense given the narrative focus on Emily's Encyclopedia. The writing itself felt very fairy tale, which was enhanced by the random acts of savage violence sprinkled throughout. (Have you ever noticed that fairy tales are lovely and whimsical and then really effing brutal out of nowhere?)

Both our MCs are eminently likable, and the relationship between them was great fun to read. The banter was witty but still a believable way for actual people to speak. The Fae representation felt more in line with actual folklore than a lot of the "sexy Fae" stories popular rn (no knock to those, but we love to see variety). The secondary characters were vivid and fun to read about also.

Now for some downsides. The writing is repetitive, though this could be a nod to the format - people's diaries and notes are often repetitive IRL. The plot was predictable but whatever, I don't think mind-bending twists were the point here. (Emily is also very smart, so she figures things out pretty quickly. Since you're reading from her POV, you figure things out pretty quickly too.) I mentioned above that I like the journal entry/field notes structure of EWEoF, but the way notes are interjected into the narrative does odd things to the pacing. I didn't mind, but some sections of the text felt a bit disjointed as a result. The journal format also makes the action a bit anti-climactic, since clearly whoever wrote the entry survived to tell the tale. These are all pretty nit-picky issues though and didn't hamper my enjoyment overall.

Honestly, "fun" might be the primary adjective I associate with this book. The characters were fun, the plot was fun, and I will definitely read the next entry in the series and expect it to be fun also.

Rating : 2 out of 5
Blurbs :
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, muddle Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.

Thoughts : Good blurbs and beautiful cover. Sadly not for me.

This book is a diary of the main character, Emily Wilde, through her journey studying the last type of Faeries for her upcoming encyclopaedia that will be published soon. She is a Cambridge University professor and she is obsessed with Faeries. She knows nearly everything about Faeries and now she wants to complete her research about Faeries with the last chapter of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries that apparently can be found in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik. Her friend, Wendell Bambleby, that also is her academic rival suddenly wants to be there too...researching about the Hidden Ones with her.

I don't really care for Emily at first and when Wendell arrived at the village of Hrafnsvik, I also realized that I don't care and gradually hate him too because later in the book, I found out that what he did is just lazy around, flirted here and there and probably humping around girls that are available in the village. He didn't work at all and somehow he got this ambition to dethrone and kill her stepmother and be the king in his Faeries kingdom (yep, he's a faerie prince). Since then I don't like him. Emily is also not a likable character, she's obsessed with the whole faeries and she should mind her own business, not stamping around faeries and shit. There is one time when Emily and Wendell went to a specific place that actually exist in both reality and fairy tales. Wendell already said that it's dangerous for humans to be there and that she should get away from the sacred tree. That bitch ignored him, do smth stupid as in got even closer to the sacred trees, and now she was enchanted and started hallucinating. They definitely deserve each other. Then on the last chapter that I read, one girl got taken by faeries and the villagers want Emily and Wendell to help them but they had the audacity to even consider lying to the villagers who had helped them so far.

They are supposed to be a smart-ass adult for Cambridge University and what I get is a stupid and careless YA FMC and spoiled faerie prince MMC. Is this Jude and Cardan 2.0??

I love the format of this book. Sometimes journals are distant and hard to read, but this helped to develope the character as she opened up to the place she was and the people around her. It was just good fun to read.