Hey all, Sam here.
I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. Sorry for the late post today. We had to make an unexpected trip to Ohio for the weekend, and we got home last night and have been trying to get all caught up at home. I had had my posts prepped up for a couple days, but I had expected to be able to write this one up last night or first thing this morning, and unfortunately that didn’t end up happening. So with needing to run errands and such today, I just now found the time to sit down and get this all typed up.
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to sit down and get a couple more posts prepped up, so I don’t need to have a late one again. Anyway, let’s go ahead and jump into today’s book review, because I’m still on a romance kick. Speaking of, anyone have any fun plans for Valentine’s Day? All right, review time!
A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love, in this heartwarming and enchanting fantasy.
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.
My Thoughts
Rating: 4.5 stars
Based on the cover and the book’s summary, I hoped and assumed this would be a cute and cozy read. Guess what? It was pretty cute and cozy. The whole thing is written as Emily’s journal as she continues her studies of the faerie folk, so a lot of it is academic observation and theories and tangents, and honestly, I really enjoy that aspect of it all.
But Emily also speaks on her interactions with the townsfolk in Hrafnsvik, and Emily is not exactly the most social of people. It is something she definitely struggles with, and honestly, I relate to that so much. When I find the right people (you know, people who share similar hobbies and passions), then I’m okay around people, but otherwise…I’m a big ole’ geek and I don’t fit in with “normal” folks.
Naturally we get to see Emily in contrast to Bambleby, who is personable and charming, and also happens to be a scholar specializing in faerie research and reports and the like. I mean…it’s pretty obvious that Bambleby likes Emily, and seeing them explore the area around Hrafnsvik, and get more intertwined into the lives of the townsfolk, as well as getting involved in the local faerie situations, only helps to push the duo together more and more…and get them to finally admit to their feelings and such.
I did bump the rating down slightly because it took a little bit for me to really get hooked on the story, because even though I found the information about faeries fascinating, I wanted something to happen. But as soon as Wendell Bambleby arrived in town and more action and interaction really started to happen, I was really drawn in and wanted to keep on reading.
There were so many smaller plots around various faerie folk and/or the townsfolk, and then there was the mystery of Wendell Bambleby, and of course there was the dancing around the possibility of romance.
Overall this was a cute read and I had a nice time reading it. I’m excited about the fact that we have another book coming, because I do want more Emily Wilde and Wendell Bambleby.
All right, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
Free State of Geek 