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.
Comment: When I saw the blurb of this book I was immediately interested because it felt as if we would have a sort of lonely heroine who would find herself in an adventure and would fall in love. While this might be seen as acceptable from a certain POV, I think it's safe to say that it isn't exactly what the story is really about...
Emily Wilde is a young woman who is already an expert in her field study at Cambridge. She is studying the world of faeries and she knows her lack of social skills contributed a lot for her academic success, for her dedication and focus rarely waver. She is in Scandinavia now, to investigate the folklore of the region and, perhaps, find something new, something she can use to present in conferences and get her name more known. What she wasn't counting on was her academic rival Wendell Bambleby suddenly arriving and getting on her nerves, while dazzling everyone she could not. But it seems his presence is actually good for Emily will need Bambleby's help in dealing with the fae they meet, which also proves fascinating when she learns much more about Bambleby than she imagined. Will they finally get along? Will their efforts really help the people in the village?
What happens when one doesn't pay enough attention is that sometimes we don't have exactly what we expected. Sometimes this is good, sometimes it isn't. I've read the blurb, I've pictured elements this book might contain but I didn't read carefully and so I didn't realize this would be an historical. I don't mind it, actually, for the historical setting wasn't so obvious we had no choice but to be in that reality... I think the fantastical elements were such that this reads as only that for me, and if this is historical or contemporary I would not see the difference in the big scheme of things.
Nevertheless, I was surprised a little but most of the action is related to the search for the faeries and the dealings with a small village in a distant location from the academic world the main characters inhabit, so I don't think some missed expectations regarding setting were that bad. Added to the fact Emily seems a bit aloof at first and the story seemed to be quite slow going, I confess I wasn't very impressed at first but the story was written in a quirky enough manner to make me want to keep going.
The story is told from Emily's POV, as notes in her journal. She is doing an academic work and her style is very formal, which can seem to lack sensibility or charisma, but which I didn't mind completely. She often mentions previous projects and her accomplishments and many secondary issues pertinent to what she is doing, but since her social skills weren't great, I struggled to connect with her at first and see why she was such a special heroine. When her rival co worker arrives, I was confused by where this plot was going to and I had already imagined Emily might fall in love with someone from the village, but clearly the author had other plans.
There is always a lot of content, whether in action scenes or references in Emily's journal, to the faeries and their impact in the village's life, how people deal with knowing some fae might be malicious and such, but from a certain point on this truly went into fantasy mode and a huge part of the plot, even what we learn about the characters, is heavily linked to the faeries, what everyone knows and learn about them, and some adventures in helping people who were unfairly affected by the actions of the faeries.
The author uses a lot of legends and common lore regarding the Fae, things we might find in other books (from a certain moment on the story I kept thinking about Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, which I have read before) and this shows her research and the amount of information she certainly collected. Having finished, I'd say this book is more a fantasy adventure with a small glimpse of romance because to be honest, there isn't an actual romance structure here to follow.
Emily is clever and resourceful but not perfect. I cannot say she is ready to be a woman in love, and her friend and co worker Wendell has many secrets - we discover many of them in this novel - which means it can't be easy to picture them in the same pace so that their relationship feels balanced. Some things happen here which lead me to believe they might become a loving couple but I suppose the aim of the author was to do this in small steps, a slow burn to last more than one installment.
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