By Ava Shaffer
In this cozy, enchanting academic fantasy, professor Emily Wilde is on a mission to document all manner of Faeries. This curmudgeonly professor (for that is the best word to describe her) travels to the wintery village of Hrafnsvik to study the allusive Fae Folk, and she is quickly followed by her charming yet infuriating academic rival, Wendell Bambley. Convinced he is a Faerie himself, Emily teams up with Wendell to conduct their research, as well as use his charm to befriend the people of the village who haven’t taken too kindly to the stoic Emily. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a spell-binding story of friendship, faeries, winter, romance, and also bread. Lots of bread!
Read This Book If You…
Appreciate creatively written footnotes
Love the academic rivals trope
Want to curl up with a wintery fantasy book
Are looking for a sweet romance that isn’t spicy
“One doesn’t need magic if one knows enough stories.”
Well this was a romp and a half! I had such a wonderful time reading this book! It was the perfect wintery, academic, slow burn romantic fantasy for the end of January.
Two things really stood out to me in this book: the writing style and our main character. Heather Fawcett achieves the perfect academic yet humorous tone, showing the readers the intelligence of the narrator Emily Wilde. The footnotes especially were some of my favorite stylistic choices! Emily is shown to be so smart, and awkward, and pedantic but I love her so much because of that. The story was never making fun of Emily for her ambitions and her quirks, instead those characteristics were celebrated and were central to the plot. Especially in terms of the romance, the love interest never tried to change anything about Emily’s disposition, he just loved her more for it. This was really just so lovely and sweet to read.
And the characters! Every single person I met in this story captured my attention and my heart, effortlessly creating a village of characters I cared deeply for. The plot of this wasn’t what kept me reading, because I honestly found it a bit winding, but I didn’t mind. I could spend 300 pages with the lovely characters in Hrafnsvik even if they weren’t doing anything particularly exciting, which shows how much I cared about them. The quick witted banter between characters also helped keep the story entertaining despite the story feeling a bit plotless.
I also adored the romance in this. It’s got all the best tropes (slow burn, academic rivals to lovers, he falls first, he’s a faerie, etc.) but executed those tropes in a very tender and new way. Wendell was the perfect love interest, in the first few chapters when he read and annotated her entire manuscript I knew I was already gone. There were longing glances out the wazoo in this one! Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries was cozy, fun, and so very sweet. If you’re looking to feel like you’re wrapped in a warm hug, read this book!
This sounds delightful!