Official blurb:
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 this heartwarming and enchanting fantasy.
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.
My rating: five out of five stars
I loved how different this book was! I’m not going to lie, I picked it up because I heard it was like Pride and Prejudice with faeries—and it’s true. If Jane Austen and Holly Black had a book child, this would be it.
The way it was written in journal form, I thought was very clever. It fit with Emily’s scholarly personality. And I was pleasantly surprised when Wendell ended up writing in it as well and we got to see a bit of his perspective.
Emily and Wendell as characters were great. There’s tons of witty banter, and they both call each other out on their flaws. I think they’re perfect together.
The faeries of this world were amazing. They’re crafty, tricky, and altogether different from humans. It was fascinating to see them come to life on the page.
Bonus: There will be a second book! I went into this thinking it would be a standalone, so this was quite exciting to me. I can’t wait!
This book is adult, but clean.
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