Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

I cannot recommend a better book for a cold, wet, windy weekend. For any time actually. The world building is sublime, the character interactions are razor sharp. I loved the small details, the footnotes. Emily and Wendell are my new favourite couple. There are shades of The Faraway Tree and every other childhood book I adored, placed in a new, grown up setting. A total joy from start to finish. Read it and then thank me.

From the back

Enter the world of the hidden folk - and discover the most whimsical, enchanting and heart-warming tale you'll read this year, featuring the intrepid Emily Wilde. . .

Emily Wilde is good at many things: she is the foremost expert on the study of faeries; she is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encylopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby

But as Emily gets closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones - the most elusive of all faeries - she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all - her own heart.