Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales: Emily and Wendell fight to save a faerie kingdom

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett

When the third book in Heather Fawcett’s EMILY WILDE series opens, the irascible scholar Emily and her lover, the faerie prince and erstwhile scholar Wendell Bambleby have entered his realm and intend to reclaim the throne, after Emily deposed his usurper stepmother in the second book. Emily is far from optimistic about this plan, since the court is filled with traitors and those still loyal to the usurper queen. When Wendell bests his uncle Taran in a contest, in a surprising way, Taran swears allegiance to him, but Emily knows better than to trust the courtly fae.

All too soon, she and Wendell discover that the queen has put a curse on the realm. It seems that the only thing that will end it is the sacrificial death of the king—Wendell. Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales displays the lengths Emily will go to, to save Wendell and his kingdom.

Everything that makes this series so enjoyable is used here; Emily’s narrative voice, a mix of scholarly notes-to-self for future papers and irritation/affection for those around her; footnotes; the culture clash between the faerie and humans; her exasperation with Wendell; magic, and the upending of conventional folk and fairy tales, as Emily seeks solutions to insurmountable problems. As before, Emily is able to draw on the help of human companions, like Farris Rose, another drayadology scholar, and Lilja and Margret who we met in the first book. She also, reluctantly, accepts the help of the courtly fae. Searching for another way to save Wendell’s kingdom, Emily finds references to a folktale called “King Macan’s Bees,” but it seems to offer no option except the death of the king. It takes a human group reading the various versions to, maybe, find a different solution.

There’s been a lot of talk of “cozy” fantasy, (almost, but not quite, as “romantasy”) and Fawcett is textbook cozy. The stakes are high and they are real, and terrible things happen, but the story stays focused on people and relationships. Friendship, trust, imagination and hope are the things our protagonists use to save the day. In Emily’s case, a good dose of scholarship and complete stubbornness also round out the recipe.

I loved the descriptions of Wendell’s kingdom, and the shift of power as he involves the “small folk” of faerie into his court and his life. Without dwelling on it too long, Fawcett makes it clear that the “courtly fae” are not human or even very human-like, and their values and motivations are completely different. For this reason, the change of heart of one character at the end felt pretty coincidental to me, even though it was emotionally satisfying.

There is no new ground here, even though relationships change, one pretty dramatically. If you loved the other books, you’ll love this one. You must read the first two in order to understand what’s happening here, and who’s who, particularly at the end.