The titular curmudgeonly scholar finds life as a faerie queen both demanding and perilous in Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, the high-stakes, smartly constructed conclusion of the Emily Wilde fantasy trilogy by Heather Fawcett (Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherland; Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries).
Dryadologist Emily Wilde and her faithful dog, Shadow, join her former academic colleague and current fiancé, Wendell Bambleby, in the research opportunity of a lifetime--reclaiming his faerie kingdom, Where the Trees Have Eyes. Living among its court will give Emily an unprecedented look at the workings of the perilous and mostly unstudied land. She sets about coaching her husband-to-be in winning over or at least intimidating his subjects but worries she will never make a convincing queen. Her concerns may be moot, as Wendell's stepmother, the deposed former queen, has laid a ruinous curse upon the land that will destroy it completely unless Wendell pays the ultimate price. Emily will need all her wiles, knowledge, and allies to safeguard Wendell and the realm, because failure could mean losing her throne, her love, and her life.
Emily remains as endearingly brusque and curious as ever in an emotional finale that reunites favorite characters and explores the tension of a relationship between a mortal and a creature of untold power. Fawcett delves deeply into the skewed logic of folklore that underpins this clever trilogy, hanging Emily's success fully on her scholarly strengths. As Wendell says to her, "Hand you the right storybook, and you are capable of anything." New creatures, daring battles, and a dynamic otherworldly landscape should satisfy fans of Emily's Faerie exploits. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads