Thank you Heather Fawcett, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC E-book. Emily Wilde is at it again with a new adventure and a few new friends but her work never stops and neither do the fairies. This fun story again follows Emily and Wendell as they continue to search for Wendell’s door and get him back to his kind on.

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Atmospheric dark academia, but also 1900’s cozy light fantasy.

Last year encyclopedia of Faeries was one of my favorite reads, so I have been anticipating this read so much. Initially I was reeled in by their gorgeous covers, and it makes me so happy that the story is just as beautiful! Some of the creatures and places feel like a fever dream, but the way it’s written you can picture everything so clearly.

I do feel like the previous book have a higher volume of amazing side characters. This one has a much smaller group, but you still get a few new lovable characters. Snowbell made me snicker! Poe and Shadow are still some of my absolute favorite characters in this series.

Definitely a very slow burn on the romance because Emily is a more reclusive and educationally driven character. The previous book was more factual about faeries and this more academic/personal journal entries. There’s a little pov switch that is so cute!!! The ending feels fully finished, but also open ended at the same time for a book 3.

Slower paced, whimsical, easy to digest magic system, lots of adventure, beautiful world building and character development.

If you Spells for Forgetting, Divine Rivals, A Study in Drowning, Masters of Death then this should totally be a good time!

4.75⭐️

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Delreybooks, & Random House for this ARC

EMILY WILDE'S MAP OF THE OTHERLANDS by Heather Fawcett (Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries) is a much acclaimed addition to this series about a young women, Emily Wilde, who studies fairies (dryadology) and falls in love with a Fairy King, Wendell Bambleby. This time they leave Cambridge for the Austrian Alps along with faithful Shadow (a grim disguised as a dog), Ariadne (Emily's niece, an earnest, but inexperienced dryadologist), and Farris Rose (their department head). Numerous adventures, fateful poisonings, and often scary encounters with various fairies and beasts ensue. Fawcett does an excellent job of world building – some other minor characters from her first book reappear here as well as new scholars who lead Emily to the nexus, a door to Wendell's kingdom, called Silva Lupi. Once again, Emily's single-minded focus on the Fairie realm proves both dangerous and beneficial; she is a strong protagonist yet has opportunity to exhibit growth and change. The LibraryReads Top Pick selection for January, EMILY WILDE'S MAP OF THE OTHERLANDS also received a starred review from Booklist ("utterly enchanting"). Definitely recommended. 4.5 stars

This was the perfect sequel to the first book. I absolutely loved it. The perfect for cozy fantasy readers!

<I>I have made a solemn vow to myself that I shall be the one to rescue him from whatever faerie trouble we next find ourselves in. </I>

Emily Wilde is back and as charming as ever. If you enjoyed the first one, you’ll love this one too. It has all the elements I adored from book one with a new cast of lovable side characters and strange faerie creatures. The romance subplot progresses perfectly, but remains light and sweet. I loved it just as much as book one, and I’m enjoying how Emily is growing and changing as her circle of friends grows.

In this book, Emily is working of a new project, her map of the Otherlands, and working to find the nexus that connects all of faerie. Meanwhile, the department head is threatening both Emily and Wendell with exposure as frauds. Emily reluctantly agrees to allow the overcautious department head and her enthusiastic niece to come along on her latest venture into the field. Of course, strange events ensue and the crew meets many odd and vicious faeries.

We see Poe again, much to my pleasure. We also meet Snowbell, a foxlike faerie, who might be just as likely to eat them as he is to help them. This story, like the first, is cozy, with little bits of the horrific sprinkled in.

It’s a perfect winter read, and I was so pleased to enter this world again. I eagerly await book 3.

Thank-you to Netgalley, Heather Fawcett, and Random House Publishing Group for this free arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My Dear Review Reader,

It is with pleasure that I can assure you that if you loved the first installment of Emily Wilde’s journalistic adventures, you are sure to love this book too.

I will admit, I liked Emily’s Encyclopaedia and saw a glimmer of magic within that book. However, I struggled at times with pacing and Heather Fawcett’s need to put in too many things happening. But I could see potential in that book.

Well, to my delight, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands did exactly what I thought it could do. It improved upon the characters in the first one, followed a very linear story of searching for the missing faerie explorers and the Nexus to Wendell’s home, and had pacing that worked so well, I have not a single complaint of the book.

This story is packed with banter, adventure, peril, and the addition of two new characters that add a great dynamic to our Emily and Wendell duo. Ariadne, Emily’s Niece and Rose, their scholarly boss build a wonderful dynamic to make the whole group feel like a rag-tag bunch of adventurers.

Dear Shadow, the sweet and beloved Grim dog even had a terrific storyline in this one.

I highly recommend this one to anyone who loves fae, coziness, a mystery, and their light romance with a side of a severed faerie foot.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.
With all the love,
Mandy

PS: thank you so much Del Rey for the ARC provided for my honest review. I am so humbly appreciative of you.

This was such a cozy fantasy and such a worthy follow-up to Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries. We got to see more Emily and Wendell and meet some amazing new characters that just added to the richness of the story.
In addition to the new characters, we got to visit new places here in the mortal realm in the search for Wendall's door AND an on purpose visit to Faerie for Emily (definitely a good change of pace for her, haha).
My fave, Poe, and his bread were also back, but we also got to meet some new common fae friends. :) Definitely a fun read if you're looking for academic-minded, strong women, dramatic (but unproblematic) faerie men (I'm looking at you Wendell!), and a satisfying story.

Emily and Wendell are back and the next chapters to their epic adventure are just as cozy and charming as before!

Fawcett maintains her signature style with Otherlands, she delivered a cozy intimate feel while delivering a story that still has some legs. Readers are introduced to few new delightful characters here but I did find that it was still the Emily/Wendell dichotomy that really shines! The world-building does expand some with this offering but I did find it to mirror the first. In a way I think that helps maintain the cozy feeling by giving us something unique but familiar.

If the first installment worked for you,this is an absolute must for your 2024 TBR!

The second of the Emily Wilde series is just as enjoyable as the first. The world-building continues to be first-rate: late Victorian England with a rich overlay of somewhat terrifying fairyland. The cast gets a little bigger in this installment, but the characters are drawn in detail and come across as complicated and believable. The plot zips along, the dialog is witty, and the spoofing of academia (footnotes!) is a hoot. And Emily is a full-blooded hero.

Highly recommended.

4.5/5 (rounded down) Emily and Wendell are back in action in book two of the Emily Wilde series. Recently I saw author, Heather Fawcett, post and update on social media to let us know there will be a book 3 and I couldn’t be happier because I can’t get enough of Emily, Wendell and Emily’s dog, Shadow!

In Map of the Otherlands, Emily continues her scholarly research on the Fae by attempting to find the locations on the map that a door into the Fae world can be accessed. She doesn’t just have scholarly pursuits in mind, but wants to help Wendell get back home to retake his throne which was stolen from him by the current Queen of the Fae. The Queen has already murdered his siblings and is after Wendell as well! And we get to see how the slow burn romance between Emily and Wendell from book 1 continues to grow.

The Fae in book 2 are quite bit more scary than than the ones in the Encyclopedia of Faeries and the stakes are higher. However, this book still manages to be the cozy fantasy that Encyclopedia was. Both of these books make want to curl up with my softest blanket and drink tea while reading. And I don’t drink tea.

If you haven’t read Encyclopedia of Fairies yet, I implore you to pick it up today! It’s a great wintry read and now you have Map of the Otherlands ready and waiting when you are done!

Thank you to Netgalley, Del Rey books and Heather Fawcett for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this follow up to Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries. In Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands, prickly Emily is continuing to learn how to let other people in and form meaningful relationships as she further studies fairy anthropology. In this novel she is exploring an area in the Alps during the fall months and encounters a new vulpine fairy which manages to be both horrifying and adorable as much of faerie is.

Heather Fawcett does a great job of making faerie seem both fantastic and the place of your dreams but so imbedded into the society of the book at times it feels mundane. When someone Emily cares for deeply life is threatened, it is up to her to save him.

The story ends in a nearly happily ever after that will have readers excited for the next story in the series. I highly recommend checking this novel and the first in the series out.

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands is the second book by Heather Fawcett in a series following Professor Emily Wilde and Wendell Bambleby, dryadologists from Cambridge as they research and document the Fae of various parts of the world. These books are written as if it is Emily's personal journal used as she makes notes and recounts events whenever possible during her fieldwork. If you haven't heard of the series I recommend checking out the first book Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, these are great reads and utilization of the journal format is a refreshing changeup in book formats. I received a galley copy of the book some time last year and have only just now been able to get around to reading it this month, just in time to review it immediately after the book's release (January 16th).

Roughly a year after the events of the first book, we start this story at Cambridge as we discover that Emily and Wendell are preparing to conduct field research in the Alps in an effort to locate what they believe to be a nexus of faerie doors leading to all sorts of faerie realms, in hopes they will locate a back door into Wendell's old kingdom so he may return from his exile after his stepmother had his family assassinated,. Wendell wishes see his homeland once more, his beloved Fae cat, as well as potentially rule it with his mortal love by his side, who understands the way of the Fae often better than most Fae themselves. Emily's niece Ariadne is both a new Dryadology student and excited to tag along as a sort of assistant to her aunt despite Emily's objections, as does the head of the Dryadology department Dr. Farris Rose. Rose is a quite curmudgeonly man who Emily rather despises threatens to have them both fired, Wendell for being Fair Folk (and often embellishing his research), and Emily for working together with him therefore by proxy she must be enchanted and/or also committing various levels of academic dishonesty. After a disaster at the university, Emily and Wendell convinced the board that their actions in Ljolsland must have angered some Faerie and for the safety of the students they need to conduct research in the Alps to potentially locate some Fae that are able and willing to assist them if they earn their favor, stopping any other potential directed danger toward them and through proximity any students or faculty. Of course this isn't totally false, they DO believe they will find a nexus or some sort of door into Wendell's realm so they can deal with his stepmother.

While the first book in the series was a bit slow to start, this started up quick and from the moment I started reading it I didn't really want to stop. This is such a fantastic read and I hope look forward to reading more of Heather Fawcett's works in the future. 10 out of 10 stars, its a blast to read and absolutely work checking out.

I received a copy from Netgalley to review.

I think the pacing of this addition to the world of Emily Wilde was much better-paced than the first. I really enjoyed the additions of Rose and Ariadne as side characters. As always Wendell and Emily's relationship progression is going well. I really enjoyed the difference between the two remote villages in this world in regards to interactions with the Folk.

I think this is a slower series and it's nice to be able to take a step back and really enjoy the world that the author is creating.

Well, this is a first. I went into this second book with the general acceptance that perhaps it would not surpass the charm of its predecessor. However, comparing the first book with the second is a little unfair, considering the content and story of both books. The first was an entryway into Emily and her attempts to create an encyclopedia of fae folk. This one is a general continuation of that story, which still makes it a bit of a cozy fantasy, but the stakes have actually risen, considering that there's an assassination attempt on her former rival now love interest.

And that's where the charm of the second book has it five-starring the same way as the first book had become a favorite. Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands is a ride from beginning to end. Where the first book is this entry into Emily's world, the second book continues a few months after, and doesn't spend a lot of time building the story. It really just continues off of Emily journaling her thoughts and observations, and then hijinks proceed to go down. Before we know it, there is an attempt on Wendell's life that propels the story to go where it did.

And boy, the ride was spectacular! While the new characters were neither here nor there for me, I did enjoy some of the interactions they had with Emily and Wendell. But easily the starring characters of this show are the two main characters: Emily Wilde and Wendell Bambleby. Their banter, the little soft moments between them, their murmured sweet nothings, and even the action sequences, were absolutely EVERYTHING. I enjoyed every moment of their interactions, and I need more of them just going on adventures, because I could read several books of just the Emily Wilde and Wendell Bambleby Show and not get tired of then.

And that makes it equally surprising, considering how wholesome their entire relationship is. Easily another 5-star read.

But now I feel like I've made a mistake, because I will have to wait a year before reading the conclusion to this series.

First I must say that I absolutely adored the first book, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries. Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands is just as delightful with everything you would hope for in a follow up novel and some unexpected surprises along the way as well.

This novel is a bit faster paced with more tension than the first while retaining some of the slower cozy moments that gave the first novel a lot of its charm. Characters from the last book are not forgotten and are incorporated into the story in interesting ways. (I mean Danielle de Gray who is mention in the footnotes from the first book comes into play!) We are introduced to new characters including Emily’s bright eyed niece Ariadne and the ornery Dr. Farris Rose as well as other mysterious companions we meet along the way.

If you’ve read the first book I don’t need to tell you that Emily is a whole mood and quite frankly I’m here for it. I love the banter between her and Wendell and really enjoyed the call backs to the first book and the character growth they underwent in this story. We also see more of the world in this novel from the cozy offices at Cambridge to the territory of the Alpine folk and its inhabitants to the otherlands and the dangers lying in wait there.

This was one of my most anticipated upcoming reads and it lived up to my expectations in every way, I can’t recommend it enough.

A massive thank you to NetGalley, Heather Fawcett, and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*4.5 stars*

This was such a fun sequel to the first book! This has more of a mystery vibe which is totally my jam. plus I sincerely think the best parts are the footnotes which I simply adore. While the relationship between Emily and Wendell progressed at a slower pace than I usually prefer, this didn't diminish my enjoyment of the story. The addition of new characters added a fresh dynamic to the adventure, and I loved getting to know them.

One of the standout features of this book is the author's skill in worldbuilding. That Heather Fawcett creates this incredibly rich world that doesn't feel dense or false is a testament to her skill as a writer.

I also absolutely loved the footnotes! These were adorable, adding humor, playfulness, and more worldbuilding to the narrative. They were a definite highlight.

I truly can't wait for the next book!

Huge thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

Today, Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett is out in bookstores. (Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC.) It continues Emily and Wendell's story, with the search of a way to find Wendell's home, his realm in Faerie.
I absolutely loved this sequel. It gave all the adventure thrills and dangers as in the first book; Emily Wilde is just as clever and bold as before and, to top it off, she does so much by herself, the self-reliant legend that she is. My favorite part is when Wendell Bambleby inserts himself into her journals. It is done in the first book and in this one as well.He is so different from her, it is a welcome interruption to have his point of view.
I didn't like Professor Rose but I figured there's always gotta be one of those characters.

Was there anything to improve this book? I can't say, I enjoyed every aspect so much. I have no criticism, though I will say I miss the village interactions with Emily that I saw in the first book. And I love the writing style, the way the author has put her own spin on the Faerie fantasy genre, and the characters and world she built.
Definitely one of my top favorite series of all time.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands was one of my most anticipated 2024 releases and I LOVED it! It’s just as whimsical, enchanting and delightful as book 1 and it exceeded my expectations. I love it when the second book of a trilogy is even better than the first 👏🏻
This time around Emily is working on creating a map-book of all the known faerie realms but when Wendell finds himself in danger, they must set out to find the door to his realm before it’s too late.

I adore Emily and Wendell - they are perfect together. It was great being back with not only them but some new and old friends and I loved seeing more of the beautiful yet frightening side of Faerie.
One of the many things I enjoyed about book 1 was the journal format with Emily’s footnotes added throughout and I’m happy to report that hasn’t changed.

I love these characters and the world so much and I can’t wait to find out what happens in book 3!

If you like cozy fantasies and haven’t read Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries yet, now is the perfect time to start!

WOW this was so good (so good that I binged it all in one sitting 🫢)!!!!

This sequel takes us back to the world of Cambridge dryadologist Emily Wilde as she buckles up for yet another crazy adventure in the Alps to help her colleague (who she may or may not romantically adore) Wendell Bambleby find a way back to his realm. The story has everything amazing about the first book, plus more faerie shenanigans and cute banter.

I think I actually like this sequel better than the previous book: the pacing issues from the first book are very much absent in this story. You don’t feel a lull in the storytelling, nor do you feel “bored” with the series of events. The plot keep you fixated and interested the entire way through!

I really appreciate the worldbuilding in this series and the format in which the story is told in general. Using the structure of a personal journal really adds to the academic overtone of the story, and allows for some great introspection into the main character. The worldbuilding also fits very seemlessly into this format and its comprehensive but allows for story growth along the way. You definitely see more of the world of Faerie in this story in a really awesome way.

The continuing chemistry between the two main characters was fantastic! I really love Emily’s character (as someone with an academic inclination herself) and how she approaches the world with curiosity and understanding. She’s sympathetic in her own right and really reasonates with those who have a passion for what they love. Wendell is a classic foil to this serious gal, with his lackadaisical attitude that I am just a sucker for. I need more of them together ASAP 😭

All in all, this is a great continuation of a wonderful fantasy series, and I would heavily recommend this to someone who wants to dip their toes into fantasy with amazing character-driven plot and light worldbuilding.

EMILY WILDE’S MAP OF THE OTHERLANDS

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️
🤬

I love Heather Fawcett’s writing. Her characters have such a distinct voice. I’m about 40% into this sequel and I love it as much as the first. I love the development into this historical fantasy world. The continued field journal format is a delightful way to read this book; we really get a sense of who Emily Wilde is and her straightforward view of the world. I’m loving the Austrian setting, with new customs and scenery surrounding the Fae. Perfect if you like cozy fantasy!

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the eARC!