To save her fae colleague's claim to a throne, the scholar ventures into the Otherlands — and deeper into him.
- Score
- 81.5
- Spice
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Sweet
- POV
- first
- Ending
- HEA / HFN
Tropes
Content warnings
Curated signals, not an exhaustive guarantee.
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What readers think
Readers who loved the first book generally adore this sequel for deepening the Emily-and-Wendell dynamic and expanding the faerie world into vivid Alpine territory — the banter, animal companions (including a toothy faerie fox and Wendell's cat Orga), and Emily's neurodivergent-coded scholarliness continue to delight. The supporting cast of Ariadne and Rose is widely praised for adding warmth and friction. The most consistent criticism is pacing: the first half is slow and exposition-heavy, with reviewers noting that the middle drags considerably despite the book's modest length. A minority feel Wendell remains underdeveloped as a love interest, and some find the journal-format structure keeps the most exciting scenes at arm's length. Overall sentiment skews positive (Goodreads average ~4.25/5 across 87k+ ratings), with series fans calling it a worthy continuation even if not a leap forward.
Read it if
- · Fans of Book 1 who want more Emily and Wendell slow-burn romantic tension with higher romantic stakes (the proposal looms all novel)
- · Readers who enjoy atmospheric, folklore-rich cozy fantasy with dark fae undercurrents and academic wit
- · Those who love found-family dynamics and animal companions woven into a fae-mythology quest
Skip it if
- · You haven't read Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries — this picks up immediately after and assumes full familiarity
- · You want fast-paced action or steamy romance — the pacing is leisurely and all content is closed-door
- · You found the journal-format narration distancing in Book 1; the same structure applies here
If you liked this
- · For fans of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke — scholarly British voice, dangerous faerie lore treated as academic subject, and dry period wit
- · For fans of Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones — mismatched academic-meets-magical-being dynamic with warmth, banter, and an enchanted atmosphere
- · For fans of The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton — rivals-to-romance in an eccentric, witty academic-fantasy setting
- · For fans of Piranesi by Susanna Clarke — careful world-building of a strange magical reality narrated by a meticulous, obsessive scholar
In this series
Part of Emily Wilde — read in order:
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