📖 Blog Tour ~ Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

 

Orbit

19 January 2023

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book and to
Compulsive Readers for the invitation to the blog tour

Enter the world of the hidden folk - and discover the most whimsical, enchanting and heart-warming tale you'll read this year, featuring the intrepid Emily Wilde...

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 encylopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at 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

But as Emily gets closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones - the most elusive of all faeries - 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 Review..

Emily Wilde is a Cambridge professor who is on the hunt for faeries in a remote part of  Norway and her considerable knowledge of faery lore is being added to her encyclopaedia which will, hopefully, be the definitive work about these elusive little beings. Emily's arrival at Hrafnsvik, with her canine companion, Shadow, gets off to a shaky start which is not helped by the unwanted arrival of  her academic rival, Wendell Bambleby.

What then follows is a quirky story which encompasses myth, legend, folklore and fantasy, there's even a smattering of romance and does so in a lovely believable way so that even if you don't share Emily's fascination for faeries you are still quickly drawn into a totally magical world which is so cleverly portrayed. It's not at all about twinkly faeries and Emily has a few challenges as she searches and tries to gain the confidence of the faeries, known as the Hidden Ones who guard their secrets well. The author has a lovely way with words and brings an almost lyrical quality to the narrative which succeeds in bringing a sense of history, the story is set in 1909, along with the closeted atmosphere of a small and rather isolated community.

Magical fantasy is not usually my go to genre but I was attracted to the story firstly by the description of the book and its Norwegian setting which totally piqued my interest and secondly by the beauty of the book's cover which really is quite special. I haven't been disappointed and have thoroughly enjoyed travelling with Emily Wilde as she brings this quirky, magical world to life.

 

About the Author

Heather Fawcett is the author of the middle grade novels Ember and the Ice Dragons and The Language of Ghosts, as well as the young adult series Even the Darkest Stars. She has a master's degree in English literature and has worked as an archaeologist, photographer, technical writer, and backstage assistant for a Shakespearean theater festival. She lives on Vancouver Island, Canada.

Twitter #HeatherMFawcett

@OrbitBooks

@Tr4cyF3nt0n