Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Aw, this is fun.

Emily Wilde is a Cambridge professor trying to make her name by creating the first encyclopaedia of faeries. Off she goes to a village in the far north to do research, and she is not there long when who should arrive but her handsome academic rival, Wendell Bambleby.

Emily is devoted to her work in an obsessive way, while Wendell seems to get by on charm alone. The setting is a frozen and isolated land, in the middle of winter. And there are faeries and they are just as I have pictured them for all these years—selfish, sure of their own worth, yet oddly compelling.

This is the perfect setup for a delightful story.