Wayward Bookshelf

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett This was more or less exactly what I'd hoped for from book 3 in this series! Emily continues to try and tackle problems using her scholarship and study, Wendell continues to be both fearsome and endearing by turns, and the majority of this book actually takes place in Faerie.  My only real complaint is that while I really appreciate how much our two have grown to trust each other to be competent in their own strengths, and it is very sweet to see them so in love, I did miss some of the bickering and banter that we saw in the first two books. I would have liked to have more of that, perhaps with a more playful or teasing tone as their relationship matured. I really enjoyed the nature of the problem that they were trying to solve, the stakes felt a little higher, and the application of storytelling and fairy tales applied to searching for a solution was excellent. And I especially liked spending more time getting to know...

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall I really enjoyed the world that Cathrall has created. With the under-sea setting, and all the lore that exists within both the scholarship and fiction of the world, I found it very intriguing. Without giving away any spoilers, let's just say I am definitely looking forward to reading the next book, and the promise of getting deeper into the world and it's lore. The epistolary format also made this the perfect book to pick up and read just a few minutes before bed during a particularly busy work season. By about the third letter, a mystery was revealed and I was hooked. I was pleasantly surprised that the investigative nature of the story meant that the letters, articles, and journal entries included are from a whole cast of characters, and not only going back and forth between two people. This added a lot more texture and nuance to both the world and the mystery that was unfolding, and allowed the author to remain really true t...

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett I really loved the first book, but I think I might've enjoyed this one even more. This book takes Emily and Wendell to the Alps, where the veil between the fae and human worlds is thin, in search of answers to some pretty old questions. Wendell is, as expected, surprisingly useful at seemingly useless things, while Emily is grumpy, academic, and frighteningly efficient. Their banter is excellent in this book, and I do think that's what pushed it just over the top in being my favorite of the two thus far. In addition to Emily & Wendell, we also have Emily's niece and one of her senior professors from Cambridge along on the expedition and they serve to both liven things up and complicate them in entertaining ways. This book gives us lots of cozy academic moments with stacks of research, and lively discussions over cups of tea, as well as a healthy dose of adventuring in the wilds the solve mysteries and make dis...