Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Initially I found this story readable and pleasant enough; I liked it less towards the end, as the amount of magic in play became excessive.It's set in the winter of 1909/1910, and mostly on a remote Norwegian island. Strangely, the mortal humans in it seem too modern, while the faeries are too old-style for my liking.Most of the text is supposed to be the journal of Professor Emily Wilde, introverted 30-year-old academic and expert on faeries. However, it's written as a normal first-person novel, in modern English, not at all like an academic journal, and with no feel of the period in which it's supposed to be written. Nor do I get any feel of the period from the behaviour of the characters or from the dialogue.The faeries are divided into common fae and courtly fae, of which only the common fae (smaller, less powerful) are normally seen by mortals. The courtly fae seem to have almost unlimited powers, which I'm not comfortable with. Power without limits unbalances a story and also makes it harder to believe.The faeries seem to be based on traditional tales. I don't know whether the author, Heather Fawcett, has read any modern fantasy novels written by her competitors in the field; if she has, they seem to have had little or no influence on her.On reading about Emily Wilde, I soon realized that she reminded me of Amelia Peabody, the heroine of [b:Crocodile on the Sandbank 40881649 Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody, #1) Elizabeth Peters https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532091568l/40881649.SY75.jpg 2570338] and sequels. Both are British women written about by North American authors; Emily is obsessed with faeries while Amelia is obsessed with Ancient Egypt; Emily starts her adventures at the age of 30, Amelia at 32. Emily was born in about 1879, Amelia in 1852. Both are initially single and have little or no sexual experience. Their personalities are somewhat different: Amelia has more confidence and competence at dealing with people. However, Emily reminds me of Amelia mainly because their ‘voices', writing their first-person accounts of their adventures, seem rather similar to me. As a fictional character, I think I prefer Amelia, although Emily is OK.