Tag: faeries

Book Review | Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Posted April 15, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too late in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.

Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore—she just wrote the world’s first comprehensive of encylopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Folk on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival, Wendell Bambleby.

Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, and in search of a door back to his realm. So despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage. Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and danger.

And she also has a new project to focus a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by Bambleby’s mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambley’s realm, and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.

But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #51: Related to the word “Wild”)
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

Because I loved the first book, of course!

The Quotes

“Assassins are a monstrous breed. Either they attack when you are at your worst, or they are having a go at you on your birthday. I have never known a more dishonourable profession.”

“I’m afraid I have not gotten over my resentment of him for saving me from the snow king’s court in Ljosland earlier this year, and have made a solemn vow to myself that I shall be the one to rescue him from whatever faerie trouble we next find ourselves in. Yes, I realize this is illogical, given that it requires Wendell to end up in some dire circumstance, which would ideally best be avoided, but there it is. I’m quite determined.”

“The problem is not the packing, I admit; I simply dislike travelling. Why people wish to wander to and fro when they could simply remain at home is something I will never understand. Everything is the way I like it here.”

“One of the guiding principles of dryadology,” I said, “is this: do not cross the sort of Folk who make collections of human body parts.”

The Characters

I still love Emily and Wendell, and of course Shadow too. I was very happy to see more of Poe as well. Other than that, I didn’t connect with the characters in this book as much as the ones in the first book. Professor Rose grew on me, but I didn’t love him. Ariadne seemed like an afterthought, and the rest of the cast were mostly forgettable.

My Thoughts

Despite the characters not being as memorable as the ones in the first book, I still very much enjoyed this book. I love the way the relationship between Emily and Wendell is progressing. I feel like they know each other and are very comfortable with each other, and that’s everything. The story itself is interesting and I think my favorite part was discovering the doors. I also love the journey into Wendell’s kingdom and getting a glimpse of it. I’m excited to see more of it in the next book.

My Feels

I love this book because it’s a continuation from the first book and features characters I fell in love with, but I didn’t love it as much as the first book and I’m a little dissatisfied with how the rest of the characters were written. The characters in the first book were so vivid and alive, but the ones in this book felt like cardboard cutouts.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars. Still good, but I need better written characters!

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Posted February 2, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

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 the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

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, and the Fair Folk.

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.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #45: Chapter headings have dates)
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I love fairy tales. I love tales about faeries, and changelings, and magic, and folklore, and I love the whole idea of this book! I’ve been seeing this book everywhere, and of course, I couldn’t resist! It’s like I’ve been enchanted!

The Quotes

“Perhaps it is always restful to be around someone who does not expect anything from you beyond what is in your nature.”

“One doesn’t need magic if one knows enough stories.”

“There was something about the stories bound between those covers, and the myriad species of Folk weaving in and out of them, each one a mystery begging to be solved. I suppose most children fall in love with faeries at some point, but my fascination was never about magic or the granting of wishes. The Folk were of another world, with its own rules and customs—and to a child who always felt ill-suited to her own world, the lure was irresistible.”

The Characters

I love Emily Wilde! I love Wendell! I love Shadow! I love Poe! I love Thora! I love Aud! Omg, I love them all!

I relate so much to Emily. I found it painful and funny how awkward she was around people and yet, she was so amazing at her job, so resourceful and smart! To be clear, I relate to the awkward part, not the smart part, I’m not an intellectual and I probably couldn’t write a faerie encyclopaedia. I also relate to how practical she was, not really caring about her clothes looking good or her cottage feeling homey. It always seems to be the woman’s job to make the house homey and to look good, but I love that Wendell is the homebody in this book!

I love seeing Wendell through Emily’s eyes, I think I fell more in love with him because of her practical and objective descriptions. In fact, I loved seeing all the other characters from her eyes. There’s something about the way she writes that’s so matter-of-fact, and yet, you feel the feels she tries to downplay.

My Thoughts

What an adventure! I loved discovering this magical world of Emily Wilde’s, where faeries and faerie folklore are studied and discussed in academic circles. I loved learning about this world through Emily’s notebook. It was so interesting to be introduced to the different faerie folk, to see Emily’s interactions with each of them, to see her embroiled in certain situations in regards to them, and how she finds solutions to any issue she comes across. It is hard not to fall in love with her, even though she tries to be unlikable!

My Feels

Two words; found family. I am a sucker for it. I loved how she started out practically ostracized, and ended up with a whole community of people who loves her as family. I get choked up just thinking about it and how it all came about.

My Rating

5/5 stars. I’m a character driven reader, and this book has the best characters all around. I need to see more of them!

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

Posted January 26, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 7 Comments

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

Thornhedge is the tale of a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways.

There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #24: A cover without people on it)

The Reason

I am a huge fan of T. Kingfisher. So much so that I didn’t actually know what this book was about before going into it, only that I wanted to read it because it’s by T. Kingfisher. I guessed that it might have been Sleeping Beauty-related because of the title, but I didn’t know for sure until I started reading it.

The Quotes

“Learn what you can. Use what you learn. You have not failed yet.”

“Greenteeth did not slap one another—not out of any virtue, but because a slap was such a useless thing underwater. When greenteeth brawled, it was with teeth and strangling fingers, spines and claws.”

“It never occurred to her to doubt her welcome. Such was the gift of a child raised with love.”

“No. I have many mothers. If I am hideous, then we are hideous together. And that made it easier, because in her heart of hearts, she could not believe that her mothers were anything but beautiful.”

The Characters

Toadling – the main character. She is such an interesting character, even in a story as short as this, we learn so much about her. She was stolen by the fairies, lost her birthright and family of origin, and yet the family she found was loving and perhaps gave her a better life than she could’ve had. She is dutiful, a people pleaser, a little too harsh on herself, but she is also resourceful and steadfast.

Halim – the unremarkable knight. He’s not anything special. He is not handsome or renowned, he doesn’t have many conquests to his name. He’s not exceptionally brave or ambitious. I think his best quality is his curiosity and openness.

The princess – the sleeping beauty. The changeling. I think the quote below just about sums her up.

“The only curse is that she is a changeling. And she will be as cruel as she can, because that is the nature of changelings. Good spirits do not steal away babies to take their place. It is only the wicked that are sent to make mischief. And only the dutiful that are sent to try and stop them.”

My Thoughts

I’m a huge fan of fairy-tale retellings, and I’ve probably read a dozen retellings of the Sleeping Beauty story. I never get tired of them because there are always new perspectives, and even the “original” fairy-tales have so many different variations, and I love discovering them all. I love stories that flip the good guys and the bad guys because I’ve always believed that it depends on who’s telling the story, and we are always the good guys in our own stories. However, while this story is based off the Sleeping Beauty story, most of its charm comes from the “side stories”, the ones about Toadling growing up with the greenteeth, Toadling’s and Halim’s “meet-cute” and their conversations that help us get to know them, even the little snippets about how the world outside has changed, while the world inside the thornhedge makes its own little changes.

My Feels

I love how this story transports me to a different world. T. Kingfisher’s books has a way of doing that to me. It feels like a weird but pleasant dream, and I love that vibe for this book.

My Rating

4/5 stars. I loved it, but it’s not my favorite out of all her books (and she’s got so many amazing ones!).

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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The Child Thief by Brom | Book Review

Posted December 8, 2023 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

The Child Thief by Brom

Peter is quick, daring, and full of mischief—and like all boys, he loves to play, though his games often end in blood. His eyes are sparkling gold, and when he graces you with his smile you are his friend for life, but his promised land is not Neverland. Fourteen-year-old Nick would have been murdered by the drug dealers preying on his family had Peter not saved him. Now the irresistibly charismatic wild boy wants Nick to follow him to a secret place of great adventure, where magic is alive and you never grow old. Even though he is wary of Peter’s crazy talk of faeries and monsters, Nick agrees. After all, New York City is no longer safe for him, and what more could he possibly lose?

There is always more to lose.

Accompanying Peter to a gray and ravished island that was once a lush, enchanted paradise, Nick finds himself unwittingly recruited for a war that has raged for centuries—one where he must learn to fight or die among the “Devils,” Peter’s savage tribe of lost and stolen children.

There, Peter’s dark past is revealed: left to wolves as an infant, despised and hunted, Peter moves restlessly between the worlds of faerie and man. The Child Thief is a leader of bloodthirsty children, a brave friend, and a creature driven to do whatever he must to stop the “Flesh-eaters” and save the last, wild magic in this dying land.

The Reason

Another one of his books – Slewfoot – came highly recommended, so I went to check him out and saw that most of his books had high ratings. I went on Libby to borrow a whole bunch of his books and this one just happened to be the first one available.

The Quotes

“Men who fear demons see demons everywhere.”

“Everything comes with a price. Everything. Some things just cost more than others.”

“Both sides so blinded by their fear and hate of each other that they couldn’t see they were all fighting for the same thing.”

The Characters

Well, this is a mash up retelling of a few different stories, but most notably, Peter Pan and the Mists of Avalon, so we see some familiar characters, but also a lot of new ones.

I want to state upfront that I’m having a lot of trouble with this review because I am a character-driven reader, and I hated the character inconsistencies in this book. I wanted so badly to DNF by the time I was 75% in, but I also wanted to give it a chance because of the great ratings.

My Thoughts

To give credit where it’s due, I think the story idea is really good and I love how creative Brom got with fitting in the Peter Pan story with the Mists of Avalon, and a bunch of other Scottish folklore. I also liked that he didn’t shy away from the darkness and gory, and I think that the story in general was very well-written.

In trying to stay objective, I think that if I wasn’t a character-driven reader, and if character motivations and inconsistencies wasn’t such a big deal to me, I might have really liked this book. But I don’t.

My Feels

This book made me angry, and not in a good way. It’s mostly my own fault because the longer I stay with a book I don’t like, the angrier I get, and maybe I should have DNF’d earlier but I ended up finishing it instead because of the sunk-cost fallacy and wanting to mark it as finished.

The Issues

I’m going to put them in spoiler tags because I’ve got rants and they give away a lot of the story. Click on the arrows to read more, but only if you’ve already read the book or don’t care that you get spoiled. You’ve been warned!

Nick

Nick ran away because he was in an unsafe environment that his mother put him in and he was originally very angry with his mother. During a conversation with the Devils, they said something about him being a bad person for leaving his mom in that unsafe situation (that she put him in), and he began to feel guilty and wanted to go home to her. First of all, it’s not Nick’s responsibility to take care of his mother, but the other way around, but that’s another story and not really part of the character inconsistencies. What I didn’t like was that in the beginning of the book, Nick knew that it was a situation his mother put him and rightly blamed her for it and it was a reason for him to run away. Then later in the book, he started thinking he was the bad person for leaving his mom behind, and it became a reason for him to want to go home. His change of heart didn’t feel organic or reasonable, it felt like a plot point.

Not to mention the whole time he kept complaining about being there in Devil Tree and wanting to go home, he never actually tried to go home and kept inserting himself into situations and helping people whom he said he didn’t care about. I just didn’t connect to his character motivations, like there was no reason for him to do whatever he did.

The Devils

Leroy killed one of the Devils (I forget her name and I can’t check it because I listened on audiobook) and framed Nick for it. The rest of the Devils were upset because they liked Nick and didn’t want it to be true, but if it was true, they had to go after Nick for justice. Later on, they did find out that it wasn’t true, and instead of being happy, they were disappointed that they couldn’t get to kill him?! That doesn’t make sense at all. Again, I don’t get the character motivations.

It also didn’t make sense to me that they used Nick’s guilt about leaving his mother to make him stay with them. They tell him he’s a bad person for leaving his mother, so he wants to go home. But then they use the fact that he left his mother to guilt him into staying with them. It just doesn’t make sense, it’s counterproductive!

Leroy

As a character, Leroy just doesn’t make sense. He was a bully, and a blustering one at that, but yet he was so meek when it came to challenges? He was picking fights with everyone and everything, you’d think his fake bravado would at least get him fighting in the real world. He might not be good enough to win fights, and I can totally see him taking the credit for Nick’s fight, yes, but not running from fights. Especially when we find out later that he ran away because he killed his father! And not to mention he’s the one I’d have expected to take the Captain’s offer of water in exchange for betraying the Devils. His character is just all over the place for me.

I should also say here that after Leroy framed Nick, Nick was obviously not a huge fan of Leroy and wished him dead in not very kind ways. And yet, not long after, when Leroy was actually dying and Peter wanted to leave him behind, Nick defended Leroy and condemned Peter for being heartless. I mean… there was no reason for Nick’s change of heart, it felt like he just wanted to be contrary.

Peter

Was he a good guy? Was he a bad guy? I don’t even know. He believed in Nick, until he didn’t, because it was a convenient plot point. He was strong and resilient and independent, until he became weak and in thrall to the Lady’s every wish, because it was a convenient plot point. Look, I like character arcs, but there are no character arcs here. I don’t even know if there are any real characters here, they’re all just puppets and caricatures.


There are actually lots of other issues but I don’t want to get into them because the more I do, the more upset I’ll get. I actually still intend to read Brom’s other book, Slewfoot, because it was the original recommendation and there are 12 years in between the two books and authors can improve. But I’m also going to be more discerning and allow myself to bail at the first sign of character inconsistencies!

My Rating

2/5 stars. I’m sorry, I just can’t get past all the issues.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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