This was fine. I really loved book 1 in this series but I think they've gotten less good as the series has gone on, and I found this one to be pretty boring. I didn't like that Emily was so self-conscious throughout this book, especially because she is so self-assured in the other books.

The Emily Wilde series has been a delight to read, and I hope I can interview Heather Fawcett soon – there is so much I'd love to talk to her about!

I haven't read many fantasy novels in the past, but several people recommended this series to me and I knew I had to check it out because of the premise. It's the early 20th century, and Emily Wilde is a young Cambridge professor specializing in dryadology, the study of faeries (think Spiderwick Chronicles... some are cute and harmless, some are tricksters, and some are eldritch horrors beyond human comprehension). Emily suspects another dryadology professor, Wendell Bambleby, is a faerie himself, and they go from frenemies to spouses in an extremely cute way. The series takes the form of Emily's journal entries, and she has a wonderfully endearing voice – I especially love all the footnotes and how effectively we're immersed in the world of the story, by which I mean both the literal, physical world of Faerie (and environs) and the scholarly world of dryadology.

Across all three books, Fawcett does a beautiful job describing setting and imagery... I was also really struck by her descriptions of the phenomenology of being a human under the effects of faerie enchantment and faerie magic in general. The series consciously borrows a lot from folktales (which are a major part of the third book especially), and I feel like Fawcett vividly fills in a lot of what folktales tend to leave out. What does it feel like to be unmoored from ordinary space and time as a human in Faerie? What does it feel like to fall under a faerie spell and to resist it?

In Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, Emily and Wendell return to his realm as queen and king. It's a big adjustment for Emily, because Faerie is an insane place for any human to be, and she's expected to be queen. The main conflict arises when they realize that the realm has been cursed by Wendell's evil stepmother, who was poisoned by Emily in the previous book and is apparently not fully dead. Emily has to hit the books to figure out how to lift the curse without sacrificing Wendell, and she finds a folktale that might provide a solution, but not one she's really happy with.

My only quibble with this book is that the ending felt a little rushed... [SPOILER} did Emily really just go into the Veil, rescue Arna, and come back out over the course of a short chapter? But I suppose I might just have been loath to see the series end. I will definitely be checking out more Heather Fawcett books in the future!

“Hand you the right storybook, and you are capable of anything.”

this was exactly what i hoped for from book 3!

“It’s been a while since I had so much fun.”
“He nearly decapitated you,” I exclaimed.
“Yes, but besides that, Em,” he said patiently.

we of course get the same banter and delightful dynamic between the ever practical, pragmatic emily and the flamboyant, waggish wendell as they return to wendell's faerie realm to reclaim his place on the throne.

however, it's not a smooth transition as a curse is setting in on the lands. emily must use all her scholarly knowledge to find the answer in the numerous and effervescent fables and tales of faerie to help wendell find a cure and restore balance to the kingdom.

the idea that stories are what hold the true shape of the fae realm, define it, makes me reflect on how stories are how we define our own humanity as people.

“For all you have read about and studied the Folk, you have never truly lived with them, dear. They are like—like nature. Can you understand the feeling of a winter night, or a spring wind, if you have only read about it?”

as usual, heather fawcett writes from emily's POV that immediately takes me back into her mind. in fact, i'd read the first two books with audio and i couldn't help but read book three with Ell Potter's voice in my head. she so perfectly encapsulates emily for me and does a great irish accent for wendell, so i highly recommend reading (or rereading) with the audiobooks!

while there's cozy light academia vibe to this series, fawcett never shies away from staying loyal to old school fae lore - that is to say, every now and then a faerie does or says something abruptly brutal that reminds me even the friendliest of them are not to be fully trusted. you must always stay on your feet and ten steps ahead with the tricky fae.

“Most of them have fled,”
“Or they’ve been killed,” Lord Taran said. “Oops.”

something that i found especially pleasant in this installment was the romance felt a touch dialed up. not too much as we know emily is not the most emotionally driven of characters, but it was quite heartfelt at times and called for considering the circumstances. it was in a subtle fashion, but nonetheless enjoyable.

“Don’t tarry here too long,” he murmured against my lips. “I shall miss you too much, and come to regret this.”

A world that I wanted, even after all I had seen, and amidst such a thicket of danger. I wanted it very much. And I especially wanted to share it with Wendell.

“I have learned there is one thing a person never tires of, no matter how long they live. And that is being in love. All else is ash and ember.”

i thought this was a final book of the series, and while it ends wrapped up, there is definitely room for more - i'm certainly hoping there is!

just in case you wanted to know dog or cat-wise: don't worry, nothing happens to them :)

an honest arc review ♡

I think cozy fae stories are not my preferred genre, and I much prefer magical realism and some spice to keep it interesting. This was a cute, cozy fantasy where Emily and Wendell, with the help of Shadow, fight to save his kingdom. The story was a bit slow for me, but it built well to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

t's been about 24 hours since I finished this book. I couldn't wait to read this book when I received it, as I had just finished Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands recently. I wanted to know what was next for Emily, Wendell, Shadow, and all the other characters that have been introduced in the first two books. I struggled with savoring the story in Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales while also being sad about finishing the book. Now that I've finished it, I am sad to have no more to read in this series, but incredibly satisfied with this book and the story of Emily and Wendell returning to the Silva Lupi to face Wendell's stepmother.

There are many stories intertwined within this book, and characters from the first two books that contribute much to the story. Emily uses her scholarly skills not only to become accustomed to being a Faerie queen, but to help Wendell take his rightful throne. As Emily and Wendell navigate returning to Faerie, there's love, action, new friends and acquaintances, travelling, and more in this third installment of the Emily Wilde series.

While I think I would have enjoyed the book more if the first two in the series had been a bit fresher in my mind, I can't blame that on anyone but myself. This third installment had the same grumpy scholarliness, charmingly unsettling fairies, and sweet romance as the first two books. A great comfort read for fall/winter!

This was the perfect continuation of this series! I absolutely loved Emily and Wendell's dynamic throughout this book and it just made me love them more. Wendell was a golden retriever boyfriend to the extreme and I loved it, and he also let Emily go off and do her own thing and have some time to herself. They are the definition of if they loved you they would. Emily was fierce as always and it was great to see her still having that research and always learning aspect to her even though they were going through a lot in the fae lands. I also really enjoyed how the plot progressed in this book and I felt that this book was a great way to end this series!

4.75 rounded up, close to perfect for me.

I’ll start off with the negative, because it’s short: the book takes a long time to pick up (we truly get on the main plot like 30-40% of the way in). I didn’t mind the character moments up until then, but I felt a bit aimless as a reader because I wasn’t sure if things would actually pick up.

once the plot got going, it GOT GOING. this is a more plot centric EW novel, but we get a lot of excellent Emily and Wendell moments as well. we get to see them actually together and head over heels in love in Faerie, and working out how to do the whole “running a kingdom thing.” Wendell is obsessed with his gf (as he should be) and Emily is equally besotted though much better at keeping it to herself. the cute moments abound.

we also get such good Emily internal monologues. from the start, she’s been my draw to these books. in my head, she’s 100% autistic (not sure if author-intended, but the characterization is there) and reminds me of my fave tv character Dr. Temperance Brennan. Emily has some very caring moments in the book, and also some insecurities that it’s lovely to see her work through. she’s also adorably enraptured by all the new possible Faerie information she can gather.

the main plot is solid and interesting- not quite a mystery but still something you are guessing at through the read. I really wasn’t sure where it would go, and we get a big shock at around 2/3 of the way through that threw me for a loop. one downside is that we get fewer moments with cute common fae, though few doesn’t mean none (plus the animals are around to fill that niche). less academia drama due to the whole “being in Faerie” thing, but we get court drama instead which isn’t a bad trade.

overall, a killer book. with a faster start, I’d be giving it a full 5.

Let me tell you—I *loved* every single moment of this book! From the thrilling adventures and heart-pounding action to the reunions with old friends and the introduction of new ones, it had everything I could have hoped for. Normally, I race through books, but this time? I slowed down on purpose. I just didn’t want it to end!

Now, I know Heather Fawcett said there would only be three books in this series, but oh, I am *hoping* she changes her mind. The way this one wraps up leaves so much room for more tales and adventures, and if you loved it as much as I did, I know you’ll feel the same. This is a story you don’t want to say goodbye to. Pure magic!

How fun to spend so much time in Fairie in this latest installment of the Emily Wilde series!

Fawcett does such a delightful job of crafting an atmosphere of whimsy, magic, and a touch of darkness. Poor Em is desperately trying to fit in and Wendall's reclaimed court, but she finds herself still out of place and adrift. Even as she is determined to use her wits and knowledge to understand her new home, her compassion is also tested. Em is in her early thirties and she knows who she is and what she wants, she just doesn't always integrate well with others, in the real world or in the fairie realms.

I loved seeing a few characters from the first two books make an appearance. The stakes got much higher than they ever have before in this series, and the ending was quite dark and disturbing, though readers can be assured that it ends well.

4.5 ✨

Heather Fawcett does it again!

Emily Wilde continues to be a cozy read, with incredibly cool and creepy visuals that satisfies my eerie loving heart. Emily continues to be bat shit crazy (that third act? Girl, we need to talk), and I, as well as Wendell, continue to absolutely love her. I especially love how Emily continues growing with the community she’s built when she started as a loner and embracing her love and fear of the new (and her ever growing love with Wendell). Wendell continues to be the greatest and his love for Emily just makes me stupidly happy.

All scenes:
Emily: *does something crazy*
Everyone else: Are you insane?
Wendell: *shrug* that’s the woman I love

Anyways, I hope we get a 4th book!!!

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales
Book Three of the Emily Wilde Series
By Heather Fawcett
Genre: Fairy Tales
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Pub date: Feb. 11, 2025

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an e-copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

It’s time for Wendell to re-claim the throne to his Faerie kingdom. Will he and Emily succeed against his evil, maybe dead maybe not, stepmother?

It’s time for Wendell to reclaim his throne, and Emily is by his side. Unfortunately, Wendell has no training in how to run a kingdom. For Emily, running a kingdom in a totally foreign environment is an even bigger challenge. As a scholar, though, she has a deep well of information to draw upon, to help guide her through what’s proving to be a precarious effort. But will it be enough? Wendell has many enemies, and in a blood thirsty, violent realm, assassination attempts are expected.

Adding to the danger is the news that Wendell’s stepmother, the former queen, is still alive. While weakened, she is still powerful enough to exert enough magic to destroy Wendell’s kingdom. But her whereabouts are a mystery. Wendell and Emily must find and stop her before the kingdom is destroyed. All while tending to the day-to-day details running a kingdom requires.

Emily Wilde’s world is a world I want to immerse myself in, and through her writing that is exactly what I do. Her ability to write matter-of-factly about worlds and people from her imagination is what keeps bringing me back to this series. Along with the fantastic world-building is the humor Heather Fawcett weaves throughout the books. The characters, human and other-worldly, are fully developed and beings I enjoy reading more about. This series is one of my favorite series, ever. Highly recommend. 5/5 stars.

As I believe I’ve wrote in past reviews for this series: “Disney, please make this into a movie!”

It truly does read Disney-esque!
100% Jungle Cruise vibes… but improved! 🙂

On Goodreads this book, and the entire series, is considered a “romance” or “romantasy.”
Lol absolutely not! 😅 This book is very much PG!
I would be comfortable using this book as a read-aloud to my 8 year old… that’s how PG it is. But do not think that diminishes the story! The lack of romance benefits this plot. 🙃

I was so delighted by the first two novels in the series and couldn't wait to read this. Ultimately, I couldn't get into the story and felt the pacing was off. Emily and Wendall are their usual charming selves.

Thank you to Random House Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

Emily Wilde, my beloved... I'm so so sad this series is over! Emily and Wendell were amazing as always and I loved getting to know Wendell's home world. If there was anything I didn't like or something that changed the vibe in comparison to the others, it would have to be the plot as a whole and it following a different sort of genre structure. I enjoyed the academic mysteries of the first two books, but the third takes a more typical fantasy and political intrigue twist. I didn't dislike it, but I really missed getting to see some of the more scholarly aspects and Emily get to do her experiments and research, which isn't necessarily /absent/, but it notably smaller in frequency. I'd still definitely recommend the series though and consider it one of my all time favorites!

Welcome back to Climbing Mount TBR where I, your humble Book Kaiju, struggle to climb to the top of my “to read” pile one book at a time. I want to begin by saying this isn’t what we originally had scheduled for today. We here at Kaiju & Gnome (at least the Kaiju half) have big plans for the month of November. How big? About thirty stories high, breathing fire, his head in the sky!

But with *vaguely gestures everywhere* happening, we decided to take the week off and do something different: actually, read a book we want to read! The world is crappy enough at the moment without having to read bad books. Instead, we’re taking the time to do some self care and escape into better worlds where heroes triumph, love conquers all, and there are dragons.

With that in mind, I decided to dive back into my favorite cozy(ish) fantasy series “Emily Wilde” by Heather Fawcett. This time I’m looking at the third book in the series, Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales. I also want to give a shout out to the publisher, Del Rey, who gave an eARC to Kaiju & Gnome for an honest review.

Since this is book three in the series, this review is probably going to contain minor spoilers for the first two. If you hate having even the mildest of plot developments spoiled, then go read Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies and Emily Wilde’s Atlas of the Otherlands right now. They are great tales about a female academic who is trying to discover how the Fae world actually works told through her journal entries. Emily is stiff, awkward, and all too human, and the prose captures her perfectly.

So, what’s Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales about?

Emily and Wendell have finally found a door to Wendell’s home “The Place Where the Trees Have Eyes.” No, that’s not a euphemism. Yes, it is very creepy.

After the events of the last book, the Queen is nowhere to be found, meaning that Wendell has an easy time taking the throne. Sure, he must do a few sword fights, make a grand entrance, and convince Emily to be his queen, but Wendell is charming enough to make it all happen.

Sadly, the “just became your monarch” honeymoon period ends quickly when the old queen reveals a final trick. She has placed a curse upon the land that will turn it into what can best be described as “a zombie apocalypse.” Now Emily must stop it using the most powerful weapons known to humankind: the library and the power of research!

Will Emily find the answers she’s seeking, but are they the ones she needs? And what does a forgotten story of a minor fairy lord have to reveal about her and Wendell’s future? And what’s going to happen to Shadow, the best supernatural doggo in existence?

Let me be blunt, I needed this book. It was a nice, cozy read filled with the kind of wonder and excitement you find in a travel vlog. You’re reading about fantastical places and people in such a way that it feels like your friend is sending you postcards from abroad. You feel envious that they’re on this grand vacation, and you’re stuck in the Midwest.

It also at times reads like an anthropologist talking about their newest field of research. They’re explaining the interesting culture of the tribe they just made contact with for the first time. They use footnotes to cite their research.

Sure, at times the story drags a little, but then again, who’s life is constant hair-raising episodes? The slow moments help us appreciate the excitement. Plus, after three books, Emily’s character growth has really made her a wonderful character. Her rough edges are still present (thankfully!), but lightly sanded. The reader is less likely to get a splinter.

This series is simply perfect for me. It’s cozy, it’s worldbuilding, and there’s footnotes! Plus, a romance that doesn’t suck! What more could you ask for?

Sometimes you don’t need high fantasy with swords and wizards. Some days you just want a professor with a notebook and a library card. Not someone that can change the world because they’re the chosen one, but because they’re willing to ask questions and find answers.

If you want a break from the world, then give Emily Wilde a chance. You’ll leave with a warm fuzzy feeling and hope. I highly recommend this series as a whole, and Compendium of Lost Tales is a wonderful addition. It’s coming out in February, so you have plenty of time to binge those first two!

That’s another book down off the pile. Only… 554 to go!

What are you reading right now? What’s your favorite cozy book? Which author utilizes footnotes the best, and why is it Terry Pratchett? Feel free to answer all these questions and more over on Bluesky @kaijuandgnome.bsky.social.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The third installment of the Emily Wilde's series by Heather Fawcett was such a lovely continuation of one of my favorite cozy series. We follow our prickly, endearing professor as she embarks for the faerie realm and is thrust into the inner workings and political intrigue of her fiancé's new faerie court.

One thing I love about this series are all the relationships that we've met along the way and how they come to play as the story continues. I think both Emily and Wendell are characters that you wouldn't necessarily think of as being good at fostering relationships, but their societal flaws are what make them so loveable, and it really gives a fresh look at the innerworkings of community. It doesn't have to be one way; it can be as unique as the people themselves.

I'm not sure if this will be the final Emily Wilde book, but I loved how everything was wrapped up in the end with a tidy bow. If the author chose to end it here, I think she's done a perfect job of doing so. Overall I gave this read four stars and would recommend this as a cozy fall read to enjoy with a hot beverage before the fire...hopefully while it's snowing/raining!

What a LOVELY follow up to the second book. Well done, Heather! I really enjoy this writers' prose, creative storytelling. I am looking forward to getting this one in. We struggle to keep the first two books on our shelves at all!

Thank you to NetGalley, Del Rey and Heather Fawcett for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Emily Wilde is one of my favorite series of all time, so I was thrilled to receive an ARC of the latest installment. I hope Fawcett will write spinoffs because I'm just not ready to leave these characters behind! As one of my most anticipated reads for 2025, this book did not disappoint.

I thought this was a great conclusion to Emily and Wendell's story, and tied up the series neatly with help from some familiar faces. I was intrigued by the premise of the story, especially with its focus on fairytales and their prophetic nature in Faerie. As usual, I loved that Emily is a competent, self-assured protagonist that gets things done using her wits and the friends she has (reluctantly?) made along the way!

If there were two things I would give feedback on, it would be that 1.) I wish E + W had more time to really connect and be honest with each other. It felt like there were some things that were left unsaid that could've given both sides some clarity and reassurances. And 2.) I wonder how readers will react to Shadow's fate? It seemed odd to me that so much focus was given to Shadow's age in the second installment and in this one, but I don't believe we worry about this when it comes to Poe or Snowball? Plus, being a Grim, I would've just assumed he was immortal. At the end, though it was supposed to be a grand gesture or give us readers a sense of relief, it felt like Wendell was building up to a cure for Shadow, even going so far as to mention that if they had gotten to this solution sooner it would've been manageable (or something along those lines). So when it just came down to an extension of a few years, it almost seemed a disappointing last note to end on. That confused me a little, so I wonder how others will feel!

Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I will be eagerly awaiting Fawcett's next title!

Thanks to NetGalley, the Publisher and Author for an ARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales is an absolutely delightful and utterly enchanting read. As a lover of this series and Heather Fawcett's writing, I WAS NOT disappointed with the latest volume that will undoubtedly beguile fans of fantasy, academia, folklore, and historical fiction.

The whole series is all about strong, intelligent heroines in academic swoon-worthy adventures with lighthearted, humorous magical banter and self-discovery. The setting in this book was just cosy as the previous books, and I loved how we got to see more of Emily and Wendell's relationship. The author stays true to their natures and creates a connection built on banter, trust and pure love of one another and their true selves.

The story took so many turns, I never wanted it to end! Heather Fawcett has created a consumate cosy academia fantasy series: I look forward to more from her!