Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands

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. (Jan.)