Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

I feel like this book is a minor Victim of the Hype for me; by all means I still gave it a very good rating but it isn't superb like I was expecting based on all the dazzling reviews about it.

★★★★☆
What I liked: The vibes are immaculate, the overall feel of the book is very cozy as promised. The book manages to feels low-stakes the majority of the time even when the plot is primarily revolving around abducted children and evil enchantments. I found Emily to be a funny little narrator. She was quirky without trying too hard to be different, and her scholarliness was part of the charm in her writing style. I liked several aspects of Wendell; I thought it was interesting how he was constantly aware of and manipulating people's view of him while simultaneously being pretty indifferent to their wellbeing. I found him very tame given the way faeries were described, but we can chalk that up to his having been exiled from the faerie world for so long. 


I think I struggled a bit with the relationships. I felt no romantic chemistry between Wendell and Emily, so for their friendship to take that turn felt very odd to me. Surely that is part of the charm for most people: a curmudgeon and a Faerie fall in love. But for me I didn't buy into them being in love. Prior to Wendell announcing his love for her and proposing marriage, I would've have sworn there would be no romance in this novel. I also felt that the relationships between Emily/Wendell and the townspeople could have been better; I was not believing that they would all march into faerie lands, risking their own lives, for Emily. Perhaps if the book had been padded with 50-100 pages more development both of these relationship issues would have been less apparent.

This is a very minor critique but I simply must comment on the hair. Every other page hair was mentioned. Whether it was Emily's hair which is ALWAYS falling out of her messy bun, even with faerie magic enchanting it, or Wendell's hair which is always so golden and perfect that Emily just wishes she could run her fingers through it, I feel that I have been thoroughly informed on the characters' hair.

Final verdict: It's cute and cozy and only lacks in the characters' relationship development.