Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

I do love an academic novel, an historical novel, and something a bit weird.  I’m happy to say that Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett fit the bill perfectly.  Emily is a Cambridge professor who specializes in the study of the Fair Folk as she calls them.  She has taken herself to a small town called Hrafnsvik in the frozen north to meet and study them.  She knows what to do academically, but people, however, are not her specialty.  She is getting on with her research when she is invaded by a colleague, Wendell Bambleby (great name!) and his graduate student hangers on.  There are misunderstandings with villagers, a Faerie King that must be placated, and the attentions of Bambleby to be attended to.  It is a lot for Emily, but she gets it done, like a good academic.  There are two more volumes to the series and I look forward to them.

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