Cambridge Professor Emily Wilde is a brilliant scholar and her field work is exceptional. While finishing her Encyclopaedia of Faeries she travels to a remote Scandinavian island to do her final research on the Hidden Ones, fairies no one has ever encountered. As soon as she arrives her antisocial attitude starts to turn the local populace against her. Her inability to interact with others plus her total focus on science isolates her as she comes off as cold and aloof.

I’ll admit it was hard to like Emily in the beginning, and it wasn’t until Professor Wendell Bambleby arrives unexpectedly that I really became committed to the story. Emily admits to herself that Wendell is her only friend and while he annoys her repeatedly, his ability to charm everyone soon has the town folk warming up and becoming more welcoming. She just doesn’t trust him not to take credit of what is really her research. She also thinks he might actually be fae, but isn’t sure.

Between Em’s diary, the banter between her and Wendell, and her beginning to have feelings, I fell in love with the book. It had wonderful detail and characters; her research of the local area and folklore was fun; the interaction with the local Hidden Ones was both sweet and frightening; and the unexpected turns kept me guessing.

Thank you, Random House Publishing Group, and NetGalley for a free e-ARC. This is my honest review.

This is slow to start (other reviews noted it isn't until about 25% into the book that the plot picks up speed and they were spot on) but once I was into the story, I was hooked and needed to know what would happen next. Emily is a tricky narrator; she is brutally honest so you never doubt her word but she isn't...the nicest person always so it can be hard to read about some of her decisions but her flaws are part of her charm. She is completely useless in relating to other people but I did enjoye her character growth throughout the story. Also...Wendell. He's fantastic and probably a bit much in real life but on the pages of Emily's journal, a complete delight. Loved all the fairy folklore and stories that make up this adventure but it did have a sort of unfinished feeling too it so maybe more of Emily's journals are in our future?

I liked the synopsis of this book and I thought I would have loved the story. That's not the case here. I had a hard time getting into it and I found my self skimming. So sadly and with a heavy heart I DNFing this book

This one is challenging for me because I did really enjoy the aspects of the story that had to do with the studying and classifications of fairies – an interesting proposal for beings that are inherently chaotic. I also enjoyed the fact that the main character is very clear that she is more interested in doing things for their academic merit than for the side benefits her actions could have for others. Or in some case, the danger they could get her into. Her selfishness made her a more interesting character to me, deviating a bit from the very established trope she fits in of ‘academic lady doesn’t know how to people’. I’m not saying I hate this trope, but I do feel like it could be shaken up a bit sometimes is all.

Anyway, the primary issues that I had with this book, and why it’s getting three stars, was the love interest. From the second his letters started arriving on our main characters front door all I could think was ‘oh no’. He’s very much the ‘I will bother you into liking me’ type character and I do not go for that, especially when he’s a colleague of hers working at the same university. Oh look how charming he is (?) making his students do all the work and falsifying his research but still being the most established researcher in his field. I’ve spent too much time in academia to not immediately want to fight this man in a parking lot, even before you get into the romance dynamic here. I didn’t really understand why they liked each other even, there just wasn’t enough between them for me to care about. It would have been way more interesting if they were just odd ball friends instead. Oh well.

This was a wonderful read. The beginning was a little slow because the narrator Emily is a bit socially awkward and singleminded but once she begins meeting fairies and her colleague Bambleby arrives, the story picks up the pace. As we see her interact with fairies, we see Emily's cleverness and its quite fun to see how she handles them. And Bambleby is a good foil to Emily and brings a lot of humor to the story.

Fans of Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik would probably enjoy this book. And if the author makes this a series, I'd love to read more of Emily's adventures.

This book was excellent! A fantastic fairytale of a curmudgeonly scholar and her associates studying the Fae in the field and having far more of an adventure than they bargained for.

Emily Wilde is a wonderfully witty, introverted intellectual. She is a well-rounded character whose competence and fae knowledge is perfectly balanced by her inability to understand people and curmudgeonly nature. Her relationship with her co-worker Wendell was full of quippy banter and a healthy smattering of romance that enhanced the story rather than co-opted it.

I really enjoyed the framing device of the book being Emily's field journal. The story was well-paced and packed with plenty of action as well as quiet moments of self-reflection and growth. It is a story about studying faeries that turns into its own fairytale! I enjoyed every moment of it, and would highly recommend!

*A full review will be added to NetGalley/Goodreads/my blog/Amazon closer to publication in January 2023!*

This was such a genuine delight that I am almost not sure how to convey my feelings about it. If you are looking for the coziest, most delightful read for Fall '22/Winter '23 then this is going to be the perfect pick for you. This has so much, from colorful and endearing characters to folklore and mystery to fantasy and so much more. I really loved the epistolary format of the narrative and thought it worked wonderfully for this particular story. It really allowed me to get to know the protagonist and feel as though I was really getting into the story and experiencing everything with them. And although I've already described it as cozy and magical, it also has some darker vibes that I loved since I love my books with a darker edge to them. Honestly, I absolutely adored this book and cannot wait for it to be released and to get my hands on a physical copy! Highly, highly recommended and I will be adding a longer, more fleshed out review closer to it's release in January.

I enjoyed this atmospheric story so much! This book was a great combination of fairy folklore and romance. Beautifully written! Thank you for my copy!

I absolutely adored this book. I loved the combination of fairy folklore, academia vibes, found family, and romantic ~yearning~.

Emily Wilde is a meticulous researcher, adjunct professor at Cambridge, and a renowned expert on Faeries. Her main rival in the field is Wendell Bambley, also from Cambridge, a full professor with an office across the hall. Wendell is also, perhaps, Emily's nemesis.
As her journal begins, Emily has just arrived in the town of Hrafnsvik in search of all manner of Fae, especially the ones they call the Hidden Ones, who are more human-sized than other Fae. Within a short time, Wendell unexpectedly shows up, planning to stay with her and "help" her with her research! Just what she needs!
I loved this story and am looking forward to more in this series!

3.5/5 ✨

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book as an advanced reading copy for an honest review.

I will say this book starts off rather slow in my opinion. And it does have some lulls within reading. There are some great moments that kept me engaged and then pages where I was bored. However, do note that most of the pages were it slowed for me did engage the plot by Emily building other relationships.

I did throughly enjoy Wendell and Emily’s little romance. I love how cat like in nature she is- she reminds me of me in that way. I also enjoyed her as a main character because, to me, she is very logic driven. I enjoyed how smart she was! And this is a plot focused element as she uses her knowledge to escape and circumvent many Fae circumstances.

There are a lot of sub plots to the over arching plot. I enjoy the channeling plot, rescue plot, discovering Wendell is a prince fae plot, and the winter king plot. Although I think the winter king plot was perhaps the main one it is not my favorite only last to the channeling one- although it does intertwine.

All in all I enjoyed that this book followed a main character who was logic driven and who uses her brain to solve problems. And let’s not forget shadow the glammored hound (a good boy!) and Poe who I equally found as cute (even though he’s not described as such lol).

I think this is my new favorite book. "Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries" is an enthralling novel, equipped with some of my favorite things: faeries, romance, and academia. It is nothing short of delightful, told through the journal of Camrbidge professor and renowned Dryadologist Emily Wilde, who is joined in a remote Scandanavian village by her colleague Wendell Bambleby while conducting research for her upcoming titular Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Fawcett crafts a story both plot- and character-driven that left me finding it difficult to put down. I both wanted to savor every word of this story and devour it as quickly as possible. It is a refreshing take on age-old fairy tales, injecting its own charming voice and vision onto pre-existing tropes. Emily and Wendell were absolutely delightful protagonists, and I hope I can see them again in future novels. In short I am obsessed with this book and I cannot wait to buy multiple editions of it and tell everyone about it.

I thoroughly enjoyed Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries! Thank to the publisher for approving this copy for me!

We meet Emily Wilde, a young Oxford professor who puts her research above all else. She's logical, level-headed, and listens to her head (not her heart). She's on her last research trip to wintry Ljosland to study the Hidden Ones of the area before completing her Encyclopaedia. While there, Emily makes some mistakes interacting with the locals, but more than makes up for it as her research on the Hidden Ones uncovers unexpected knowledge, friendship, and love.

This novel was fun, well-written, and exciting! I appreciated seeing a female protagonist with such a level-headed, unemotional approach to the world. Her professional curiosity is inspiring and I could absolutely relate to her personality. Fawcett (the author) does a great job of developing side characters who are three-dimensional and you root for even though they are "minor" characters.

I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

I received this ARC from Netgalley.com at no cost and am providing an unbiased review.

When I noticed this title up for review, I almost skipped by it without reading the story description. Normally I would think, oh, it's some picture book with paragraph descriptions of how this author thinks of how faeries look/act. Well, once I started reading it, that does fit the description, sort of. Emily is our main character, and is working on an encyclopedia of faeries. She is traveling to the arctic north from Cambridge to finish up her encyclopedia with a last section about the 'Hidden Ones'. She has just settled in for the winter in a remote village, when her rival, Wendall, shows up on her doorstep. They are polar opposites, him being the attractive, boistrous, friendly , outgoing one of the two of them.

I won't go much more into the story, as I am sure you want to enjoy it yourself. I liked how a bit of a characters story surprised me. but overall improved the story. World building was fine, nothing overly drastic, but how much is there to really describe about an arctic winter? There probably could have been a more descriptive narrative of the fae king's place, but I felt it left more for the reader to imagin. As I go back to post this review, I notice in the heading that this is book one of the Emily Wilde series, so I will be watching for further adventures to be written.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review "Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries".
What can I say about a book that not only posits the very real existence of the fae - Seelie and Unseelie, Hidden Ones, etc - but actually, possibly, has one as a main character.
This is a truly delightful tale, set somewhere in the north (think Finland, Greenland, Iceland, etc. but cleverly disguised) where Emily Wilde has gone, accompanied by her enormous hound, to commiserate with said fae and to write her Encyclopaedia.
Holed up in local accommodations (a hovel), her first encounter is with the townspeople who are less than accommodating - until she encounters not only someone who had been taken and later returned by The Hidden Ones/The Tall Ones, but also a changeling child with an attitude.
When a colleague - who is alluded to multiple times prior to his arrival - shows up, Emily's life becomes even more intertwined with the Fae and adventures ensue. Then, two of the local girls go missing and it's up to Emily and Hambelby to try and rescue them.
And other adventures.
I liked this book very much and recommend it highly.

I absolutely love this book and I think the patrons will love it, too. I can think of several young ladies that would look through it for a long time.

I really enjoyed this book. The idea of fairies being real and the subject of scholarly discourse led to interesting and funny situations. The character development of Emily as she learns to make friends in her own way is rewarding.

Although the journal style of the writing was a bit off-putting at first, I soon found it to be a great choice for the voice of the main character - a character whose reflection added to the events and experiences, but whose voice would have been exhausting had it been a first person present point of view. I enjoyed the storyline and the tension of the romance.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, is my first review for NetGalley after being away from reading and reviewing for three years and I am glad I picked this book to review.


Professor Emily Wilde is an expert researcher on the subject of the Fairy Realms (sorry, I am American and spell it Fairy instead of Faerie) and is looking to expand her knowledge and perhaps a better spot on the faculty of her college by exploring the Far North in search of elusive Hidden Ones- a type of mystical high class fairy and putting a new entry in her Encyclopaedia she hope to publish soon.


Like many academics, Emily is better at books and research then she is dealing with people. She is an introvert after my own heart. When she goes to the North realms, she will need to learn to relate to the townspeople in order to accomplish her goals and to survive. Along with her is her wonderful not-just-a- dog, Shadow, and a surprise guest; her academic and smoking hot rival, Wendell Bambleby.


Emily meets various human and non-human beings on her explorations, learns more about Bambleby and about herself. The story is told through journal entries with footnotes, which for the action scenes, tends to dull the excitement in this reader's opinion. In some ways, I wish the author had used both journal entries and straight forward storytelling so the tension and action are not dampened down. The format also has the book start slowly but not enough to lose my interest.


I think the author is planning a series of Emily Wilde books which I will definitely read when they come out. I want to learn what happens next for Emily and Wendell, and I love Shadow. I want to thank Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

The blog post was published 7/30/22

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was SUCH a unique take on exploring fae, and I feel like we need it desperately. The fae are the most written about species lately, and we needed a new take on them so they don’t all blend together. This book did just that, but in such an enrapturing way. Stunning.