I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde, #2) by Heather Fawcett Published by Orbit on January 16, 2024
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads
When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late, in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore who just wrote the world’s first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Ones on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival Wendell Bambleby.
Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother and in search of a door back to his realm. And despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and dangers.
She also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by his mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby’s realm and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.
But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors and of her own heart.
I read Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I was looking forward to reading the sequel.
Unfortunately, it did not work for me.
All the whimsical details I enjoyed in the first book were lacking here. The worldbuilding was not as detailed as in the previous book. When interesting facts were given to readers, nothing was done with it. For a book following an academic, Emily could have at least attempted to show some research skills.
Emily remains the same as in the first book – but there is some charm missing. She came across very flat to me. Her relationships with other characters was glossed over, which is a shame. I would have genuinely liked to see some real growth in her relationship with Wendall. They seemed very platonic and lacked that cute spark from the first book. The introduction of Ariadne had a lot of potential but was not explored. I really don’t know why Emily didn’t interact with her more; she treated everyone better than her and there was no good reason for it.
The plot also bored me. I’m not sure if it was the writing style, the pacing, or simply the events – none of it piqued my interest.
Maybe this is middle book syndrome and things will pick up in the next book! I’m hoping the next one in the series will redeem it for me.
