Book two in the Emily Wilde series. After reading and loving the first book, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries, I was so happy to be approved to review this one as well. It’s becoming a great end-of-year tradition for me!
I love the same things about this book that I did with the first: the journal format, traveling (though there wasn’t much of that here so kind of had a gothic feel to it), and the world and creatures of the fae. I feel like this didn’t get going until after I reached 40% of the book though. I liked Emily less than I did in the first book. She’s cold with few feelings and her awkwardness really comes through. She’s not written poorly, I just feel like there’s not much to like about her so I don’t have much of an interest in what happens to her. Wendell has asked her to marry him, repeatedly, but they don’t seem to have any romantic relationship to point to. For some reason he is in love with her and she seems quite indifferent to him. I would like her to have a bit more warmth and personality and fewer thoughts about academic papers.
Despite not connecting with Emily, this book is still unique with an imaginative world and I highly recommend giving both books in the series a read.

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands will be released on January 16th, 2024. I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.