#emilywildesmapoftheotherlands

[lilithsaur]

The Emily Wilde series by @heather_fawcett is such a charming series!

I loved it so much! I specially liked Emily's love for shadow, her dog😭❤️❤️

Wendell's wedding present had me shedding real tears!!

Anyways, I wanted to do art for them before I go back into my crate :)

[ace-reviews-blog]

ARC review of Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Emily Wilde, #2) by Heather Fawcett

Original Goodreads review can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8808767586

If I hadn’t been generously gifted with a promotional copy of this book by NetGalley and Ballantine Publishing, I would have never read what is now my favorite opening line for any novel, ever:

“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.”

Talk about hitting the ground running! I was, of course, immediately hooked. However, let me back up a bit and start from the beginning.

When I saw this copy being offered by the publisher on NetGalley, I instantly requested it—I’d read and very much enjoyed the first book in this series, and was eager for an excuse to continue along the journey of the main character, Emily the scholar/scientist/researcher.

In the first book, Emily was competent without falling into the “One-Dimensional Overly Competent Female Main Character Whose Entire Personality is Their Practicality” trap. She was awkward and a bit of a social failure without falling into the “Character Who Cannot Manage a Single Successful Social Interaction” trap. The writing had that distinct “primly Edwardian” feeling without falling into the “dry and boring to read” trap. In short, I loved it.

Happily, this trend continued in the second book, too. Emily is still absolutely living her best life in her own head (entirely focused on scholarly pursuits, and thoroughly annoyed by the fact that the rest of the world wants more from her than spirited debates about her newest research notes), still missing every possible social cue while being perfectly aware that this is a personal weakness/shortcoming of hers, and still failing to fully comprehend just how thoroughly besotted Wendell is with her. I’m sure these are facts that will aggravate many readers, but I personally loved it.

Another thing that the author succeeded in was changing my opinion of a character in a surprisingly short amount of time in a way that felt completely natural, albeit unexpected. Character growth (including from side characters) is essential to a great book, and since Emily’s particular personality doesn’t give her a lot of wiggle room for growth of her own—she does grow, but it’s almost always in very small ways that aren’t always obvious until much later on—it was nice to have growth showing up elsewhere in the book.

I don’t want to spoil anything about the book, so I’ll just say that the second book in this series was a great ride: lots of scholarly observation mixed with characters on an adventure mixed with an alternate Edwardian world that’s fun to exist inside. I highly recommend this series to anyone who doesn’t mind a female main character who is extremely focused on her goals and does not care a single bit about being the belle of the ball (unless the ball can be examined for anthropologic reasons and turned into a scholarly paper).