★Fawcett, Heather. Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands. Books on Tape. (Emily Wilde, Bk. 2). Jan. 2024. 12:05 hrs. ISBN 9780593790632. $95. FANTASY

In the follow-up to Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Emily’s new research project/adventure is more dangerous and action-packed than her last. While the work on that previous reference book almost compelled Emily to marry a cruel fairy king, research for her new atlas involves poison, assassins, and ravenous fox fairies. It may also require marriage to a different fairy king. Eli Potter and Michael Dodds return as audio narrators. Potter performs the bulk of the book, narrating the contents of Emily’s journals, while Dodds narrates the portions of the novel where Emily is absent or incapacitated. Having one primary narrator adds extra depth to the audiobook, as Potter allows the careful portrait she’s crafted of Emily to fray at the edges. Potter conveys that (no matter how measured and professional Emily believes herself to be) her relationship with academic rival Wendell Bambleby and her harrowing adventures are changing her, improving her ability to socialize and imparting a kind of cruel practicality that suggests Emily could be an excellent queen of the fairylands. VERDICT This excellent series installment will leave listeners desperate to find out what Emily’s up to next.—Matthew Galloway