4.5/5

For fans of: fairytales, folklore, faeries, fae, grumpy/sunshine, pining, light academia, cottagecore, forestcore, low stakes, comfy fantasy, pining

The Big Questions:

• What genre is this in? fantasy

• Are there any swoon-worthy characters? Wendell Bambleby is rich, charming, arrogant, and has a very poorly kept secret

• Is it spicy? No

• Is it violent or gory? No

• Should I buy, borrow, or pass on this book? If you are looking for comfy fantasy, buy this book!

Synposis: 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.

Review: You know what this reminds me off, straight away? 1999’s The Mummy. Emily Wilde is a wonderfully awkward, adventurous but for a reason, no nonsense academic with something to prove. I love Emily and will do anything to protect her, much like her long-suffering colleague Wendell Bambleby. Wendell (I cannot think of a more pretentious name and I love it) is, if you could imagine, Draco Malfoy had he not been raised by bigots. Arrogant, smarmy, charming, but with secrets. The delightful village of Hrafnsvik is full of colorful characters wary of strangers and the Folk, but welcoming nonetheless. Now, if you are looking for a fast-paced plot, this is not it. This is a comfy, slow-paced discovery of a world full of magic, history, horror, and mischief.

Reader, you are in for a treat as you read through Emily’s extremely thorough journal of her study of the northern Folk, interactions with the townspeople, and her hilariously oblivious relationship with Wendell’s pining. There are hints of a larger world and bigger plot, but that is by the by. For this first installment of what I hope will be a lengthy series of academic adventures into the magical wild with Emily, Wendell, and her ever faithful hound, Shadow, I had a blast.