The nitty-gritty: Adventure, danger, magic and a touch of romance, Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales brings all these elements and more together in this satisfying series conclusion.

I have enjoyed my time with Emily Wilde immensely, and now Heather Fawcett has wrapped up her magical, funny, feel-good series in a very satisfying way. Emily and Wendell are back, along with some old favorite characters and new ones as well, but unlike the first two books, Emily steals the show this time, and I grew to love her even more. Make sure you read this series in order, though, you wouldn’t want to miss anything!

Please note, because this is book three in the series, there may be minor spoilers ahead for the first two books. 

We pick up right after the end of Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands. Wendell and Emily are headed to Wendell’s faerie kingdom to take back his rightful place on the throne, after the demise of Queen Arna, Wendell’s evil stepmother. Emily, though not yet married to Wendell, will rule at his side as Queen, although she’s feeling a bit uneasy about this idea. But when they arrive, they are shocked to discover that the forests of the kingdom are beginning to die, and that the sickness is creeping closer and closer to the castle. Before he can settle into his new roll as King, Wendell knows they must figure out how to stop the sickness before the castle itself disappears.

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales moves at a slower pace than the first two books, so I’ll admit it was a bit hard to immerse myself at first. We also get quite a bit of faerie politics in this book, since most of the story is set in the realm of the Folk and Wendell is faced with his new responsibilities as King. That, along with Emily’s ubiquitous footnotes, made the beginning a little shaky for me. Luckily, things smooth out and the pace picks up once the quest part of the story takes off.

Once again, Heather Fawcett’s imaginative world of the Folk comes to life on the page, and I’ll admit I’m going to miss this world now that the series is over. From creatures that are familiar to me (brownies) to the unfamiliar (tree fauns), Fawcett’s faerie creatures are beautiful, ugly, kind and deadly, and each one has a peculiar otherworldliness to them that added a bit of unknown danger to the story. I also loved the way Wendell and Emily travel through the doors between faerie and the real world, which are constantly moving or changing appearance. Even with an underlying sinister feel, this darkness is offset by Fawcett’s witty dialog and the warmth of the relationships between her characters.

Emily takes center stage in this book, and I think I loved her even more. She’s been forced out of her comfort zone—her cozy office at Cambridge where she’s an expert in dryadology—into some very new experiences. For one, her relationship with Wendell is headed towards marriage, and she isn’t completely sure how she feels about that. Emily is the best kind of female character, one who has a purpose and passion in life outside of romance and knows she doesn’t need a partner to be happy. However, she is deeply in love with Wendell, and so she manages to have the best of both worlds, but not without some struggles, of course.

As you can tell from the title, Emily has decided to compile old tales of the fae, tales that have been lost over time or simply passed down aurally and never written down. In her research, she finds a story that almost mirrors what Wendell is going through with the dying forests, and she makes an intuitive leap that perhaps the answers they are looking for can be found in such a tale. I loved this idea and thought it was handled brilliantly.

And I can’t end this review without mentioning my favorite animal character of the series, Emily’s “dog” Shadow (who is actually part fae). She has had her loyal companion for many years, and she notices that Shadow is starting to slow down and it’s worrying her. Of course it worried me too, but Wendell has a wonderful surprise for Emily at the end of the story that brought tears to my eyes. I know the series is over, but I’d love to see more adventures that star Emily and Shadow, so fingers crossed that the author will take pity on us readers!

If you’re a fan of fae fantasy with wonderfully drawn characters and lovely writing, you don’t want to miss this series.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Heather Fawcett may own my soul at this point? I squealed when I got this eARC and promptly read it in less than 2 days. What a delight. A great wrap up to the trilogy and I'm genuinely sad I will not be hanging out with Emily and Wendell any longer. I hope Fawcett writes more in this world.

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales is a cozy fantasy read by Heather Fawcett, it’s such an enchanting blend of faerie folklore and academia. It has a unique charm in the way Emily experiences the faerie culture and writes her academic journals.
The adventure this book was so much fun.
The characters are adventurous.
And the writing is so engaging.

I love the Emily Wilde books. They are cozy, with just the right amount of romance, drama, and tongue-in-cheek humor. They deserve to be read wrapped up in a warm blanket, in an isolated cabin surrounded by trees.

This book is a little different than the ones that came before. For one, Emily is now in a settled relationship with Wendell, and it was so lovely to see how that relationship works. I feel like you rarely get to see established relationships play out on the page, and it was nice! Also, much of this book doesn't take place in the human world, so we have lots of new world-building that still managed to be accessible and understandable.

I highly recommend this series, although I do add the hint that Emily's voice can be a bit challenging at first- it's so different from what you usually read in this genre. But keep going- you'll be glad that you did!

Thank you to Del Rey/Ballantine Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales is a delightful continuation of the series, full of adventure, folklore, and just the right amount of whimsy. I thoroughly enjoyed following Emily and Wendell’s relationship—it’s absolutely adorable. My only complaint is that the pacing drags in places, but overall, this was a fantastic follow-up that has me excited for the next one!

Finally, a gratifying conclusion to an exceptional series! The series was phenomenal, and its writer crafted it to feel like the journal of an old friend! I adored this series from the beginning to end, but like most books that are the conclusion of a loved series, the book was too short! The characters are still full of love and mischief!
This time, Emily and Wendell experienced even more romance and love throughout the book. The faerie lore is in full swing still in this book and Emily proves she will still do anything to protect Wendell despite his own tribulations. When they go on the hunt for his stepmother, they find her eventually. When they do like most faerie instances, her power played them and forced Wendell's hand and thus Emily saves him once again.
While this one was slower paced and Emily was the focus but I loved Wendell's letters to Emily! His writing always had like a enchanting whimsical tone, and they are always fun to read! Let me say this is one of the series I will buy to have on my shelf! I absolutely recommend this series and definitely this book! Thank you Heather Fawcett for the adventures of Emily and Wendell, I am surely going to have a book hangover from this one! Thank you Ballantine Books/ Del Ray Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this one! It was a treat!

I loved the other books in this series, but, unfortunately, this one fell a little flat for me. The endings of the book felt a little formulaic and I found my interest dipping in and out throughout the book, which made it take much longer to get through than previous ones. While I would still recommend this series, this one is not my favorite of the three.

Emily Wilde is a really fascinating protagonist, and these books are really fun, ever-so-slightly twisty fairy stories. This one saw usually intrepid-to-the-point-of-foolhardiness Emily frequently suffering from crises of self confidence, which wasn't really in character with the sort of single-minded pursuit of academic excellence (plus some romance, as a treat) I'd come to expect from this character. I also found these little episodes of, for lack of a better description, whinging, boring after the first couple times. Otherwise, an exciting and intriguing fairy story as the previous entries were!

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales is the third and final book of the series. Emily Wilde has spent her lifetime studying the faerie realm. She is about to go on her most dangerous mission with her faerie fiancé Wendell Bamleby and join the faeries as their queen. Emily and Wendell must navigate the politics of Faerie including facing off with the curse left by his stepmother.

I have absolutely loved this series and it is going out on a high with this book. Emily and Wendell have been such a fun couple to follow. Both are great on their own but they just compliment each other so well. It was great getting to spend so much time in Faerie during this book. I can see this series being one that I continue to come back to on a regular basis. I'm already excited to do an audio reread of this book but may just start over from the beginning again. I will follow Heather Fawcett anywhere and can't wait to see what she does next!

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

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House et al, and Ms. Fawcett for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

I am completely shocked by how I upset I am, that this is purportedly the end of the series. SAY IT ISN'T SO!!!!!

If you're here for book 3 then you know what you're here for. Pragmatic, no-nonsense, scholarly, slightly curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde, who almost against her will (I said ALMOST) is romantically linked to the glib and slightly frivolous faerie prince, now King, Wendell Brambleby. (Or King Liath, I suppose.)

Emily is full of trepidation about returning to Faerie as a permanent resident; studying there temporarily was thrilling but ruling as Queen both intimidates and stresses her out. As it turns out, the former Queen was deposed but not killed, and left behind a curse for her stepson. Emily, who was not comfortable with her new role as monarch, eagerly seizes upon the search for the former Queen and the opportunity to research what to do in this situation. Helpfully, Wendell opened a private door out of Faerie just for Emily, intended for her to have a respite from the zaniness of the Sylva Lupi, but she utilizes it to travel to the nearby university library. She feels that an answer could be found amongst the various written and oral stories of Faerie, the study of which is rapidly turning into her newest project in general.

I really liked the characters that people Sylva Lupi, particularly Niamh and Taran, and while I'm not excessively a cat person I found Orga's character very satisfying. And Shadow too *crying* ((((Wendell's last wedding present legit made me tear up; what a thoughtful thing to do, and why oh why is that not available in the real world 😥). I also felt that Emily has unbent a little bit more towards Wendell; in each successive book I feel like she softens towards him a little more but this is the first time I felt like she actually LIKED him, as opposed to just being worn down by him until she gives in.

I got the impression that Ms. Fawcett COULD end the series here, although it is certainly an open-ended ending. I would LOVE to revisit Emily and Wendell, and find out what becomes of Deilah, so here's hoping that we get to revisit Emily Wilde at some point. PRETTY PLEASE!!!!! If this is all we get, then I must admit it was a lovel, magical ride and one that I will most likely revisit periodically. Five stars, easily.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

DNF

This isn’t a bad series. It’s cute and cozy. Great for someone who wants an easy fantasy read….well except for the names (wish there was a pronunciation guide). I enjoyed the first two books, but they were a little hard to get through. Still was optimistic about this one, The beginning of this book was great, but unfortunately it failed to keep my attention shortly thereafter.

Again, I think this series is well written. It’s just not my cup of tea. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this title.

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett is the third installment in the Emily Wilde series, and likely the last. This book picks up shortly after Map of the Otherlands and immerses the reader from the very beginning.

Personal thoughts: I’ve been awaiting this book as I loved the first two in the series, and I wasn’t disappointed. I love Emily and Wendell’s relationship! I also love the descriptive language used throughout the books, Heather Fawcett has a true talent for it. I don’t have as many thoughts on this book as I typically do in my reviews, but I did enjoy this read all the same.

I would recommend this book to anyone who read the first two books in the series and enjoyed them! Thank you very much to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for allowing me to read this e-arc.

A much slower burn than the first two, but the second half of the book was SO well worth it. Loved all the Wendell drama and it was a nice tidy end to the series.

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales is the third and likely final installment in the Emily Wilde series and it ended on a very satisfying note indeed. I absolutely adored the Encyclopaedia of Faeries and Map of the Otherlands, so I was naturally awaiting the final installment with much anticipation. This picks up very shortly after Map of the Otherlands and though it seems to dump the reader right in, it actually took me a while to get fully engaged in this latest tale of fae trickery and scholarly exploits.

Our favorite and foremost scholar of dryadology, Emily Wilde, has followed her new fiance into the realm of the Silva Lupi so that he may reclaim his throne from his wicked stepmother. Emily, though now somewhat familiar with the realm, is still unsettled by the numerous strange things - oak trees with eyes on every leaf, the multitude of deadly fae, and her new role as Queen. Plus, all those dresses are far too fancy for a scholar and they simply don’t have proper pockets for a journal and notebook. All this aside, Emily and Wendell must turn to saving this strange and deadly realm because Queen Arna placed a curse upon it and now the groves are dying and the fae within are being transformed into lifeless husks. It seems the most obvious course of action (for our scholar at least) is to begin researching similar tales of monarchical treachery and vengeance. 

Despite a somewhat slow start journeying through the forests of the Silva Lupi, this story managed to really capture my attention and once it had that, I finished the story quite quickly. I continue to love Emily and Wendell’s relationship, as the two are quite different but foil one another so well. Besides, how can you not love a guy who builds you an entire library, gifts you enchanted doors to other worlds, and then proceeds to not only treat you like a queen but make you one too? Emily of course remains practical and scholarly, seeing old patterns woven into new stories and trying to stop them to save her dearest Wendell from his own fae nature. The setting itself is a major factor in the feel of this installment and Heather Fawcett did a wonderful job of making it feel like a truly otherworldly place not meant for mortal kind. 

Overall, I thought this was a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy and didn’t stray too far from its roots, which I personally loved. The beginning’s perceived slowness did leave me feeling a bit frustrated, and it took me nearly a week to make myself sit down and just read through that part. Once I did I sped right along and loved the remaining 75-80% of it, particularly the ending which was sweet and left me feeling quite happy. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the entire trilogy to anyone looking for a somewhat cozy academic leaning, slow burn romance with the more traditional fae elements. The Emily Wilde series has cemented Heather Fawcett as a talented storyteller who I would love to read more from!

This is the third installment of the Emily Wilde Series and it has been a phenomenal journey. I am sad that this is the ending to the series but I can always pick it up again and wander through the cozy fantastical world.

In this installment, we see Emily and Wendell finally finding their way into the fae realm in order for Wendell to reclaim his throne. As with book number two, we see a good portion of the plot surrounding Emily while Wendell (though present)seems to take a bit of a backseat. I think I would have loved to see them share equal amounts of page time, but we do have to remember this is "Emily Wilde's Compendium", so it does make sense and keep continuity from the others in the series.

The romance is cute and continues to grow. I do not feel they have stalled or passed the honeymoon phase of being with each other, and its such a cozy, cute relationship .

I do have some critiques such as the ending and the plot being just a bit lacking in action. However, I have enjoyed this series thoroughly and was utterly entertained. It would be great to get a bit more but I suppose we shall see.

We're bringing it all the way back to the first book, here, because I read this one the same way I read that one: slowly, and then all at once. Seriously, I read 75% of this book in one day. I loved this final installment in the series so much. Emily and Wendell's relationship is so sweet and so them! I loved bringing elements back from the first book (POE!! My beloved!!) to tie the story in a bow very nicely. I did sort of feel like the old queen's change of heart was a bit convenient, but when the genre is cozy fantasy, yeah let's go with it.

Thank you PRH Audio for the gifted audio copy. Thank you Del Rey for the gifted digital copy.

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales
Heather Fawcett
Publishing Date: February 11, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Narrator: Ell Potter & Michael Dodds 🎧

The third and final installment of the Emily Wilde series has arrived! If you read the first two books you are surely going to enjoy this one and Heather Fawcett leaves us with a satisfying conclusion.

Emily and Wendell are really couple goals. They are just so fun and cute together. Their banter and bickering is so entertaining. And their love for each other is unstoppable despite differing personalities and a wild faerie world that doesn’t always make things easy for them.

The fur characters, Shadow and Orga, are also the most lovable and often the stars of the show. A book that can deliver animal characters with such personality automatically gets love from me and it is done so so well in this series!

While not my favorite of the series, that honor goes to book two, I still very much enjoyed being back in this world with these quirky and lovable characters. Fans of cozy fantasy, faeries, cottage core vibes will absolutely adore this series as a whole. I’m sad to say goodbye to Emily, Wendell, and the gang but am so happy to have had this journey with them!

🎧 Ell Potter is the primary narrator here and she delivers Emily flawlessly. Michael Dodd pops in as Wendell and is also fantastic. You can’t go wrong reading this series with your ears, but also the books are gorgeous so I highly recommend adding them to your shelf! I may or may not have two different sets that I will be completing with this one 🥰

Cozy Fantasy • Cottage Core • Faerie Lore
Pub Day • 11 February 2025

Happy publication day to one of my most anticipated reads of the year! ‧₊˚🎧⊹ Thank you @prhaudio and @delreybooks for the free ALC & e-book.

In order to avoid spoilers for the first two books, let me just comment upon my favorite parts of Compendium:
❥ The banter between Emily and Wendell is top notch and in book 3 we see the softer side to Wendell
❥ Wendell is broody, moody, even capricious, but morphed from purely an academic rival
❥ I loved their sweet romance, which is closed door but still swoon-worthy
❥ Shadow, Emily’s grim is the best dog and companion out there 🥹🐾
❥ Orga, my feline favorite whose cantankerous swagger made me chortle with laughter

Although book 3 is my least favorite of the series, I still had a great time being back in this enchanted world and was sad for it to be over at the end. If I had complaint, it’s that I wanted more time with them together, as Emily and Wendell shine brightest whilst bickering, as opposed to when Emily is off gallivanting solo on quests to deliver Wendell from harm.

·˚ ༘₊·꒰➳: ̗̀➛ Final verdict: Fawcett delivers a satisfying conclusion to the series.I love the academic study of Dryadology [faerie folklore]. I highly recommend this series to any fans of cozy fantasy and cottage core faerie lore.

‧₊˚🎧⊹ Narration of the audiobook by Ell Potter brought so much life to Emily Wilde’s character. Michael Dodd only cameo’d for the voice of Wendell’s penned letters. I recommend the audio format, although I’ll be buying the physical book to complete my collection.

The much-anticipated final chapter for Emily Wilde, this book had everything - footnotes, Shadow, old friends and new, magic, an exploration of fairy tales, and a library or two. Knowing this is the last book of this series is so bittersweet. I will miss Emily, Wendell, Shadow, and the gang so much. This last installment takes place mostly in Faerie as Wendell navigates a kingdom inching closer to despair, and Emily investigates whether a story as old as time can be changed or if it’s doomed to repeat itself. In a race against time, Emily has to use all her wits to save the kingdom and her love to get the happy ending she’s always deserved.

Pub Date: 2/11/25
Review Published: 2/10/25
eARC received from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The third installment in the Emily Wilde series is such a cozy and satisfying way to end things. I’ve never really considered myself a faerie girlie but Emily’s enthusiasm and love of dryadology had me just as folk-obsessed as she was. Her nerdiness and Wendell’s charm work so surprisingly well together and I just love how much they respect each other.

The stakes in this final book feel a bit higher than they have in the previous two books but it still is cozy and warm with the most lovable cast. Heather Fawcett has done an incredible job of building these complex characters (even the pets - Shadow 4ever) over the course of the series and though I’m sad to say goodbye to them, this was the perfect way to do it.