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Book Review

Publisher's Note:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 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 who just wrote the world’s first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Ones 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. And 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 dangers. She also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by his 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 Bambleby’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.…

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Overall Book Review:

Emily is back and she does not disappoint! In this second installment, Emily is back with Wendell, but there are several new characters to keep things fresh. All in all this is just an enchanting read with a resourceful and unflappable heroine, and Wendell is, well, he is just Wendell and he will make the reader smile. Continued world-building occurs in this book with the faerie mythology being expanded and Wendell’s exile taking a strong role in the narrative. Emily also seems to open up more emotionally to herself and others. The layout continues with the format of the first book in a journal layout with an occasional footnote thrown in for good measure. This is the kind of story and writing that makes the pages fly by and time stop.

This is a great read for those who love strong female leads, droll humor, and fantasy. Reading the first book, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, is an absolute must in order to follow the storyline and for maximum enjoyment. Do yourself a favor and discover this author and series!

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 19 religious exclamations; 8 mild obscenities; 1 religious profanity.

Violence/Gore: Character is carrying around a foot of a creature in her backpack; extended scene of attack by faerie creatures, no blood; various stories recounted of people killed or injured by fairies; human bones are found; scene in which faerie creatures attack people with mention of blood and description of an ear left dangling; faerie kicks another faerie; extended scene of faerie attacking, swords used to slay with brief statements of how some of their horses where killed violently; poisoning of an individual with intent to kill; enchanted beast kills a fairy and sounds are heard and animal has a bloody snout; enchanted beast severely injuries a human; faeries try to drag off a human to his death; creature has a collection of figurines made from frost bitten remains of humans; report of fights and battles; character is knocked unconscious; creature attempts to drag off a character and drown her; brief references to people being killed; cat scratches a character; poisoned wine; faerie creatures attack humans and animal kills one.

Sex/Nudity: Male and female characters kiss, hold hands, embrace, touch face, brush hair; male and female character spend night together, sex is understood to have occurred, no details; man refers to his husband.

Mature Subject Matter:

Assassination (attempted), death.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

Reference to taverns; reference to getting drunk; wine is drunk by adults; poisoned drink.

Overall Book Rating
Profanity/Language
Rating:
3
10
Violence/Gore
Rating:
4
10
Sex/Nudity
Rating:
4
10

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About the Reviewer

An accountant and CPA by profession, I found myself a book reviewer for Squeaky Clean Reads by happenstance. When the opportunity came to transform that website into Compass Book Ratings, I was excited to seize it and meld my business background with my love of books. As the mother of three teenage sons, I have read a large number of children and young adult books and I believe that there is great value in a content review service. As much as we would love to read everything our children read, there just isn’t enough time. I also appreciate being able to select books for myself that are really worth my precious and limited reading time. I believe there is a book out there for everyone–they just have to find it!