Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

In the second book of the Emily Wilde series, we follow Emily as she tries to locate the door to Wendell’s kingdom. Emily, Wendell, Rose and Adriane all go in search to Austria. Adriane is Emily’s niece whom she reluctantly takes on the journey and Rose is a professor who has learnt Wendell’s identity and insists on joining them.

Although the book was enchanting, I could not help comparing it to the first book. There was hardly any footnotes describing the faerie world and the relationships felt forced. I found Emily annoying at times. She takes reckless decisions that causes or could have caused harm to others but does have any significant character development.Most of the book being from her perspective did not help. The final battle was anticlimactic. It felt rushed and convenient. Wendell was able to summon a veil during the battle that had not been mentioned at any point before in the series. I have to confess that I love world building in fantasy and like to be informed as to how the world works. I hope that the veil will be explored more in the final book.

I did like Snowbell and the Guardian Owls. I loved Wendell’s cat, Orga. She has the attitude of a normal cat but with extraordinary powers. I think Heather Fawcett could have added more dimension to the faerie world and Emily and Wendell’s relationship could have been more compelling. I will still read the last book in the series and hopefully will like it more.