Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett.

Synopsis

Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project studying the inner workings of a faerie realm-as its queen.

Along with her former academic rival-now fiancé-the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell’s long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare, filled with scholarly treasures.

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world-how could an unassuming scholar like herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in-Wendell’s murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell’s magic-and Emily’s knowledge of stories-to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.

Review

4 stars

Thank you Orbit Books for sending the last book in what remains one of my favorite cozy fantasy series, with a world becoming more complex and vivid with each passing book.

In Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales, Emily and Wendell are back in his realm, determined to have him take his rightful place as King of the Silva Lupi.

What will follow is another tale full of adventures, dramatic twists and hopeful turns. Thanks to now Emily’s many friends from the past adventures (shocking when you think how antisocial she was at the beginning of the first book) she will be the heroine of the day, proving that a scholar with her astute mind and encyclopedic knowledge can outdo even the vilest Faerie.

Emily has « mellowed » from her first book, being less curmudgeonly and opening up to people. That’s probably one lesson from these books: friends help you in dire circumstances even if she mostly saves herself and Wendell alone.

Wendell is still his flamboyant self with an extra pinch of magic being now the King of his realm. I loved that he was still completely besotted and smitten with Emily, trying to grant her every desire. That was sweet and endearing. And he knows Emily so well, admiring and loving every bit of her quirks.

“Anyway, Em, I am sure you are happily ensconced in your native habitat, that dreary monument to mortal rumination that is the library, no doubt thinking of me hardly at all. Well, why would you give a thought to romance or the faerie kingdom that now belongs to you as much as to me when you have a limitless supply of dusty old tomes to mutter and scowl at? I see now that my downfall as a suitor lies in my ability to offer you only a castle, great quantities of faerie silver, and various enchantments.”

I have said it from the start, this is a reverse grumpy/sunshine where the grump is the woman. It’s also a reverse damsel in distress as once more, it’s Emily who will go save Wendell from his wicked step mother’s machination.

From weeping trees to Emily’s grandfather tragic adventure going through Wendell’s flourishing prose in his letter to Emily  and with heart stopping twists, you will find this installment worthy of Emily and Wendell famous adventures.

Thanks for reading.

Sophie