Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries--lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all--her own heart.

Paperback, 335 pages

Published October 24, 2023

 by Del Rey

3.75/5 stars

I'm always happy to pick up a book by a fellow Canadian, Heather Fawcett has come up with a premise I haven't seen before. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a clever idea and made for a fun read.

It's 1909 and Emily Wilde is a Cambridge professor who is far more comfortable with faeries than with people. She heads to Hrafnsvik, a remote, snowbound village in the far north to study the local Hidden Ones for the encyclopaedia she's been compiling. The story unfolds through her field journal, which gives a front-row seat to her observations, her frustrations and her very dry sense of humour. Her plans are thrown off when her academic rival, the charming and maddening Wendell Bambleby turns up uninvited.

I really enjoyed the world building. The faeries aren't the sweet, glittery kind. They're actually kinda strange, unpredictable and even downright scary. The cold, isolated setting adds to the atmosphere nicely.

The characters are easy to like, the townsfolk with their little quirks and the banter between Emily and Wendell was genuinely witty.  The story itself had that folklore feel, which I love.

This is the first book in a series, so far 4 books.  If you enjoy fantasy with a bit of academic flavour, a slow-burn dynamic between its leads, and a heroine who'd rather be left alone with her notes, I recommend giving this a go.

This book was part of my 2026 Reading Off My Shelf Challenge - #37