Name: Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde #3)
Author: Heather Fawcett
Publisher: Orbit
Date published: February 2025
Genre: Fiction, adult, fantasy, romance, cosy, academia
Pages: 368
Rating: 5/5
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.
- From Goodreads.
This was another excellent book in the Emily Wilde series, I could honestly read an endless amount of stories about Emily and Wendell's adventures. They're never predictable, and have a wonderful amount of humour, romance and fascinating folklore. I think the way stories and legends of the faeries were used in this book was especially clever and it was exciting the way the stakes had raised over the series as we spent the majority of the story in faerie for the first time, but Emily and Wendell were still as endearing as ever.
I think it was lovely how the author managed to include all the familiar and loveable characters from the previous books without it feeling forced, and also introduced us to other interesting new characters who were all very intriguing. I think this along with the creativity in the world building means that there would always be more to explore in the world and it wouldn't be possible to grow tired of new stories within it. Even though this book felt it wrapped up the story that was started in the first book well, there is plenty of room for more, and I would always be happy to come back to this world, especially if that meant seeing more of Emily and Wendell, who I just adore. Their relationship was just as heartwarming as in the previous two books, and I can't get enough of how devoted they are to each other.
I will definitely continue to read more of Heather Fawcett's books, I think she has a brilliant writing style and her books always have a wonderful imagination. I will be very excited to see what she comes out with next.
