Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands

EMILY WILDE'S MAP OF THE OTHERLANDS is our second adventure with Emily Wilde and Wendell Bambleby. This time, Emily has a new project and a determination to help Wendell find the door to his realm. Their travels take them to the Austrian Alps as they seek to escape from faerie assassins. But the Alps contain more than just beautiful scenery and charming mountainside villages. Soon, our heroes find themselves in over their heads and uncovering unexpected secrets.

After two novels, I can say that Heather Fawcett's creations remain delightful. For all her curmudgeonly ways, Emily is so lovable. Wendell woos Emily with such lovely attention that I can't understand why she still won't answer his proposal. Their banter is sweet, affectionate, show more and charming. I could read about them all day.

Ms. Fawcett continues to impress me with her writing. Her descriptions of the Alps put you there among the action, but the Folk and Faerie come alive under her pen. While Wendell makes the Folk look fun-loving and safe, Ms. Fawcett ensures we understand how dangerous they are. Some of Emily's encounters are downright scary, and there is no doubt that not all of the Folk are as innocuous as Wendell is.

EMILY WILDE'S MAP OF THE OTHERLANDS is every bit as charming as the first book. While we now know the characters' truths, we lose nothing in the knowing. If anything, we are more vested in their story, and it works. With its tension, a frisson of horror, and all the awkward love that Emily feels toward others, EMILY WILDE'S MAP OF THE OTHERLANDS is a fantastic way to start the new year. show less

Emily Wilde, now-tenured Professor of Dryadology at Cambridge, is thrust into a new Faerie adventure in a new region. I really enjoyed the continued adventures of Emily Wilde, and her continued clear-eyed analysis of her own mistakes and failures—but especially her triumphs! I was fascinated by the expanding cast of characters, and how Emily's worldview and methods of relating to others changed (or didn't) based on various influences. This sequel was a bit heavier on romance than Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Fairies, but without sacrificing any exciting adventure or intriguing mystery, so I'll allow it!

I felt like this one had more of a cliffhanger at the end than the previous in the series, which I don't love, but on the other hand show more I can't help but be thrilled there will be more sequels! show less

I read an advanced copy via NetGalley.

I adored the first Emily Wilde book it delivered an innovative twist to fairy lore, all through the viewpoint of a sassy academic. I found the sequel fantastic, a light-hearted romp, though a bit slower to engage me at first. Emily and Wendell are back at Cambridge as the story begins. Wendell is still under a considerable threat from fairy kind, and Emily is seeking means to save him--but hasn't moved fast enough. Assassins go after Wendell on campus, expediting their journey to the Alps, where they hope to find a magical door in the area in which two scholars vanished decades before. This is where the story really picked up for me, as adventure blends with book savvy to delightful results.

Absolutely delightful except for the parts where the faerie folk were torturing Emily Wilde and her love interest Wendell Brambleby. Much of the story falls into the realm of what a scholarly, not to mention grumpy, woman won’t do for her annoying indolent monarch boyfriend to repatriate him to his Kingdom. Set in the Alps the scenic descriptions include snow, more snow many faerie doors, and nasty things that go bump after dark. The dialogue and inner thoughts are so cleverly delicious and sometimes outrageous, you can’t help but smirk. Hoping that Ms. Fawcett would be able to keep the sequel fresh and entertaining, she has bested her first effort. There is a lot more to this story and I am looking forward to the next installment. show more

Whoever says you can’t make fantasy, love and sarcasm work has not read the first two Emily Wilde books. Imbued with near normal and realistic people and creatures there is just the right amount of magic, left turns and disbelief to make this a great series. Many thanks to Random House - Ballantine and NetGalley for a copy. show less

After their adventures in Ljosland, Emily Wilde and her fellow Cambridge scholar Wendell Bambleby have returned to the school and are planning on looking for the door to Wendell's Faerie land. Then his step-mother attempts to assassinate him, so a poisoned Wendell, Emily, Emily's niece Ariadne, and their department head Farris Rose, travel to St. Liesl, Austria, where Emily believes they will find a nexus - multiple doors that would go to various lands in Faerie.

I found this one just as delightful as the first. Emily is a fabulous scholar of Faerie - now that her Encyclopedia has been printed, she's working on a Map - but she doesn't quite know how to relate to people. One of the fun side stories in this one was seeing her relationship show more with her niece develop, and how often Emily felt like she was making a muddle of things while Wendell and Ariadne had an easy camaraderie. The investigation of the nexus and the scholar Danielle de Gray who had gone missing some years ago and had been largely ignored by scholars was the main focus of the book, while Emily seeks out a way to get to Wendell's home and cure him. show less

Book two of Emily Wilde's adventures find Emily and Wendell back within the hallowed halls of Cambridge. After the successful publication of her encyclopedia, Emily has gained tenure and has begun a new project: drawing a definitive (as much as possible) map of the Otherlands. This, too, is sure to garner her more scholarly acclaim for there are so many uncharted lands - many completely forgotten. Meanwhile, Emily's work pulls double duty as a way to continue to gather information on Wendell's door and may have found something in the notes of missing famed Dryadologist Danielle De Gray. So they leave Cambridge and head to the Austrian countryside where De Gray was last seen. If I can be honest, it's less choosing to casually leave show more Cambridge and more time is of the essence as Wendell's stepmother has escalated her efforts to keep him out of his home.

I actually heard of Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands before I had heard of the first book Encyclopedia of Faeries. I honestly don't know how I had missed such a delightful book the first time around, but I knew I had to quickly fix the situation before I delved into the second book. So coming into this book a newly minted Emily Wilde fan, I can say that I really enjoyed this second book the same if not moreso than the first book.

Right off the bat, the thing I really loved about this book is that the beginning section takes place at Cambridge. The first book begins with Emily well on her adventures and we only hear about her scholarly life through ruminations in her journal, but here, again technically ruminated on in her journal, I feel like we get to experience Cambridge a bit.

Even though it's not long before Emily and Wendell - along with their colleague Dr. Farris Rose and Emily's niece Ariadne - are off in search of Wendell's door, I still appreciate the snapshot we get of Emily's time at Cambridge. It's a little calm before the storm so to speak.

I like the addition of Rose and Ariadne. It's felt very insular between Emily and Wendell and these two new characters bring an outside (on the inside) perspective. Different than that of the villagers, they aren't truly in the inner circle of research so they are held at a distance. Whereas Rose and Ariadne are in the thick of things so their perspectives have weight.

I thought Rose was particularly interesting. He is a fellow scholar, turned head of the department at Cambridge. He has years of field experience searching for and studying the Folk. He's witnessed how "other" they really are and so he looks upon Wendell with different eyes than Emily. It's interesting because we only really know Wendell in the way that Emily knows Wendell seeing as how this story is told from her point of view. We've witnessed various times the aspects of his power that he's heretofore kept hidden. Could there be more about himself that he's kept hidden, for better or worse? It comes down to trust. If you're Emily you trust who Wendell is down to your bones. If you're Rose, you have a little doubt about his true motivations. I'd like to say I'm firmly in Emily's camp, but honestly, Rose brings up some sound points.

Ariadne provides a nice contrast in that she's so new to everything. She clearly adores Emily and is keen to learn from her and go out in the world and live her life like Emily has. She kind of brings to light the fact that Emily does have family. She does have people who care for her and she can, in turn, care for them without sacrificing her independence.

I hope these two characters pop up in the final installment of the series.

I also really enjoyed the idea of the mystery surrounding De Gray's disappearance. Of course when the Folk are involved it's never anything so simple, and seeing how that aspect of the story unfolds and also leads into other threads of the story is brilliantly done by Heather Fawcett.

Being in familiar territory with the characters and kind of knowing the score, I think helped the story really expand. I almost felt like that first book was very remote and this one is vast. The Austrian countryside in which they find themselves is also kind of like an intersection of many doors so we're already seeing a lot of varied kinds of Folk. This, in turn, ups the dangerous aspect because if nothing else is apparent it's that you never know what exactly you're going to get when crossing a Folk, whether friend of foe.

Overall, this is such a great continuation of the first book but also pushing out of it's shadow and really forging it's own path. I'm now eagerly anticipating the final book of this series. show less

In the second book in the Emily Wilde series, Emily is determined to help Wendell Brambley, her friend and fellow scholar, find the lost door to his faerie kingdom. He was overthrown by his stepmother when his father died and fled to the human world. He must find a door to his kingdom if he wants to overthrow her. Especially since she is now sending assassins to Cambridge to get him out of the way.

Emily is a genius at research and has decided to follow the path of noted scholar Danielle De Grey who disappeared in the Austrian Alps while searching for a faerie door. The need is urgent because one of the assassins managed to poison Wendell causing his magic to become unreliable.

Besides Wendell, along on the journey are Emily's niece and show more assistant Ariadne and her department chair Dr. Farris Rose. And, of course, Emily's dog and grim Shadow is along with them too. After making their way to the Alps they discover that the area is littered with doors and the various creatures that make use of them. finding the correct door, the one that leads to Wendell's kingdom, isn't going to be an easy task especially since Wendell is getting weaker with every day that passes.

It will be up to Emily to enter into Wendell's kingdom alone to retrieve the object that can cure him of the poison that is killing him without becoming enchanted herself. And why not take care of the evil stepmother and get material for several scientific papers at the same time?

The worldbuilding is wonderfully creative in this story, which is told through Emily's journals, completer with footnotes. There were so many wonderful creatures and situations. I greatly enjoyed Emily who is a focused scholar and very single-minded about her research. I liked her awkwardness when she needs to step out of place as a scholar. show less