مقتطفات-

• From the cover 14th September 1910
  
  
  The foot would not fit in my briefcase, so I wrapped it in cloth and wrestled it into an old knapsack I sometimes carry with me on expeditions. Surprisingly—or perhaps unsurprisingly, as it is a faerie foot—it is neither dirty nor foul-smelling. It is, of course, long mummified and would probably be mistaken for a goat’s foot by a casual observer, perhaps an unlikely offering excavated from the tomb of some ancient pharaoh. While it does not smell bad, since bringing the foot into my office I have at odd moments caught the scent of wildflowers and crushed grass carried on a little breeze whose source I cannot trace.
  
  I gazed at my now-bulging knapsack, feeling entirely ridiculous. Trust me when I say that I would rather not cart a foot around campus with me. But faerie remains, mummified or not, have been known to slip away as the fancy takes them, and I can only assume that feet are particularly inclined to such wanderlust. I shall have to keep it with me until its usefulness has been exhausted. Good grief.
  
  The soft chiming of the grandfather clock alerted me that I was late for breakfast with Wendell. I know from experience that if I miss our breakfast appointments he will bring the meal to me himself, in such a quantity that the entire department will smell of eggs, and then for the rest of the day I shall have to suffer Professor Thornthwaite sniping at me about his delicate stomach.
  
  I paused to pin my hair back up—it’s grown far too long, as I’ve spent the past several weeks descending into one of my obsessive periods, when I can think of little else beyond the subject of my research. And the question of Wendell’s door has consumed me more than any other academic mystery I can remember. My hair is not the only area of my appearance I have neglected of late—my brown dress is rumpled, and I am not altogether certain it is clean; I found it in a heap of other questionably laundered items on the floor of my closet.
  
  “Come, dear,” I said to Shadow. The dog roused himself from his bed by the oil heater with a yawn, stretching his massive paws. I stopped for a moment to glance around my office with satisfaction—when I was recently granted tenure, I also inherited a much more spacious office, now three doors away from Wendell’s (naturally he has found a way to complain about this additional twenty feet of distance). The grandfather clock came with the room, as did the enormous damasked curtains lining the sash window that overlooks Knight College’s pond—presently dotted with swans—and the magnificent oak desk with its drawers lined with black velvet. I added bookshelves, of course, and a ladder to reach the uppermost volumes, whilst Wendell insisted on cluttering the place up with two photographs from Hrafnsvik that I did not even know he took, one of me standing in the snowy garden with Lilja and Margret, the other of a village scene; a vase of dried flowers that somehow never lose their scent; and the newly reframed painting of Shadow he commissioned for my twenty-eighth birthday—all right, I cannot complain about that. My beast looks very fetching.
  
  I passed several students sunk deep into the armchairs of the dryadology department common room, an open space beyond the faculty offices that boasts a cosy fireplace—unlit on this warm September day—as well as an impressive row of windows taller than several men, with little half-moons of stained glass at the top, which face the Gothic grandeur of the Library of Medicine, its proximity the subject of innumerable wry remarks concerning a...

المراجعات-

• 

  November 6, 2023
  Set in September 1910, seven months after the conclusion of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, the entrancing second volume in Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series focuses on her protagonist’s attempts to locate a faerie nexus in the alpine village of St. Liesl. Emily’s interest in the cozy-yet-sinister village is not strictly professional: though she aspires to publish a map of Faerie kingdoms, she also wants to help her colleague and love interest, Wendell Bambleby, find the mystical door leading back to his home realm. Joining them are straitlaced Farris Rose, the head of Cambridge’s dryadology department who is constantly threatening to fire them both, and Emily’s enthusiastic but inexperienced niece, Ariadne. The presence of these characters helps contextualize Emily’s personality, and her grumpiness plays better here than in the first installment. With Wendall’s stepmother out for his blood, their search becomes even more urgent. Along the way, they must rescue two other dryadologists who have been trapped in time. Fawcett handily expands the scope of the series, building on all that worked in the first volume and largely doing away with anything that didn’t. Upping the danger and the darkness while still retaining all the beauty of the prose, this takes Emily’s story to new heights. Agent: Brianne Johnson, HG Literary.

• Narrators Ell Potter and Michael Dodds return for the second book in the Emily Wilde series. Bambleby's marriage proposal lingers in Emily's mind as she works on her next project--a comprehensive map of the faerie realms. Assassins sent by his murderous mother complicate matters, so the two travel to the Austrian Alps to find the door to Bambleby's faerie realm. Potter narrates primarily with an English accent, voicing the prickly and practical Emily with aplomb. A variety of faeries are voiced in a childlike pitch, amusing listeners with their antics. A short segment voiced by Dodds in an Irish accent captures Bambleby's optimism and romantic feelings for Emily. A.K.R. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
• 

  Starred review from March 1, 2024
  

  In the follow-up to Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Emily's new research project/adventure is more dangerous and action-packed than her last. While the work on that previous reference book almost compelled Emily to marry a cruel fairy king, research for her new atlas involves poison, assassins, and ravenous fox fairies. It may also require marriage to a different fairy king. Eli Potter and Michael Dodds return as audio narrators. Potter performs the bulk of the book, narrating the contents of Emily's journals, while Dodds narrates the portions of the novel where Emily is absent or incapacitated. Having one primary narrator adds extra depth to the audiobook, as Potter allows the careful portrait she's crafted of Emily to fray at the edges. Potter conveys that (no matter how measured and professional Emily believes herself to be) her relationship with academic rival Wendell Bambleby and her harrowing adventures are changing her, improving her ability to socialize and imparting a kind of cruel practicality that suggests Emily could be an excellent queen of the fairylands. VERDICT This excellent series installment will leave listeners desperate to find out what Emily's up to next.--Matthew Galloway

  Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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