Update: just as good on a re-read. 

Delightful. Highly recommend for fans of “A Natural History of Dragons”. Like the dragon book, this book has a plucky, somewhat bull-headed female scholar protagonist. I think this book has a bit more of a romance than the other—which makes it all the better, in my opinion. 

Once again, I find myself reading a book with faeries. And once again—I am delighted! I find that my favorite books with fae tend to focus a bit more on the lore and “rules” that they fae must follow. While this didn’t focus more on those rules as others I’ve read, it didn’t have the least amount of focus either. It had the perfect amount to be interesting to me, but also enough other elements (mild mystery, playful scholarly tone, funny scenes) to keep me entertained. 

I’ve seen some criticism about this book saying that the writing was a bit superfluous and pretentious—I really didn’t find that to be the case. If anything, the (slight) textbook-y vibe that it gave perfectly fit the context of the book—I loved how it was written! Can’t wait for the next book (although I’m guessing I’ll have to wait at least a year, boo).