Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett – Review

Published: January 16, 2024

Publisher: Del Rey

Series: Emily Wilde #2

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 352 (Kindle)

My Rating: 5 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.

Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore—she just wrote the world’s first comprehensive of encylopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Folk on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival, Wendell Bambleby.

Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, and in search of a door back to his realm. So despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and danger.

And she also has a new project to focus a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by Bambleby’s mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambley’s realm, and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.

But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart.

Picking up soon after the events of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, the second installment follows Emily and Wendell as they search for the backdoor into Wendell’s realm. The book starts off with quite the show, as Wendell’s stepmother has sent assassins after him and he’s forced to stave them off with a show of magic in front of countless witnesses. It’s clear that finding the door is of utmost importance, Emily and Wendell, along with the head of the dryadology department, and Emily’s niece set off for the quaint Austrian village of St. Liesl. This village is home to numerous doors, but the most promising clue was from a researcher who went missing many years before in those very mountains.

When they arrive in St. Liesl, the group finds a village marauded by fauns – a particularly vicious type of faerie that originates in Wendell’s realm, the Silva Lupi – which only serves to confirm the group’s suspicion of a door. The search begins in earnest and proves to be quite dangerous thanks to the numerous doors and the wibbly nature of the borderlands of Faerie. The plot is quite an adventure and retains the sense of discovery and danger that was so well done in the first book.

The true delight, let’s be honest, is Wendell and Emily! He proposed to Emily toward the end of the first installment and she has resisted giving an answer because being married to a Faerie king comes with a unique set of dangers all its own. Oh, but Wendell is an absolute darling and it’s so hard for Emily to resist his charms despite Professor Rose adamantly warning her against such a ‘foolish’ decision. I’m here for the slow burn romance, but for those who might not want a romance-centric book you have no need to worry! The relationships between all the characters are quite important and the plot is so well done I don’t think you’d mind. Besides, the fae are properly vicious – even Wendell when he needs to be!

I am so thoroughly charmed by both installments in this series and it’s most definitely one of my favorites now. I love how the Folk are properly mysterious and capricious and aren’t just beautiful humanoids as they are portrayed in the popular romantasy books.The Emily Wilde books are the perfect blend of plot, worldbuilding, atmosphere, and characterization and I absolutely cannot wait for news on book three!