Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love. The Geographer's guide map to Romance - The Loves Academic Series

 By: India Holton   

Location: FIC HOL

Genre:  Romantasy

This book is Pride & Prejudice meets cozy fantasy, with a generous helping of sass. It is charming. It is delightful. It is whimsy incarnate. It is full of smart banter and I laughed, endlessly. Can you tell I liked it? Maybe I should be more effusive.

Rival ornithologists hunt through England for a rare magical bird in this historical-fantasy rom-com reminiscent of Indiana Jones but with manners, tea, and helicopter parasols.

Beth Pickering is on the verge of finally capturing the rare deathwhistler bird when Professor Devon Lockley swoops in, capturing both her bird and her imagination like a villain. Albeit a handsome and charming villain, but that's beside the point. As someone highly educated in the ruthless discipline of ornithology, Beth knows trouble when she sees it, and she is determined to keep her distance from Devon. 

For his part, Devon has never been more smitten than when he first set eyes on Professor Beth Pickering. She's so pretty, so polite, so capable of bringing down a fiery, deadly bird using only her wits. In other words, an angel. Devon understands he must not get close to her, however, since they're professional rivals. 

When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning. Now keeping their distance becomes a question of one bed or two. But they must take the risk, because fowl play is afoot, and they can't trust anyone else—for all may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology.

Geography professors in a failed marriage of convenience inconveniently reconnect for an emergency mission in this swoony historical-fantasy rom-com.

Professor Elodie Tarrant is an expert in magic disasters. Nothing fazes her--except her own personal disaster, that is: Professor Gabriel Tarrant, the grumpy, unfriendly man she married for convenience a year ago, whom she secretly loves.

Gabriel is also an expert in magic disasters. And nothing fazes him either--except the walking, talking tornado that is his wife. They've been estranged since shortly after their wedding day, but that hasn't stopped him from stoically pining for her.

When magic erupts in a small Welsh village, threatening catastrophe for the rest of England, Elodie and Gabriel are accidentally both assigned to the case. With the fate of the country in their hands, they must come together as a team in the face of perilous conditions like explosions, domesticated goats, and only one bed. But this is easier said than done. After all, there's no navigational guide for the geography of the heart.

There’s a lot to love in this book and series. Kat

🖤 The characters. Elodie is quirky, fun, free-spirited and the perfect sunshine for Gabriel’s more stoic, grumpy man-of-few-words nature. Her unspoken fantasizing about him throughout the book is hilarious!

🖤 Historical representation. It’s nice to see successful women in the sciences (ornithology in the last book, geography in this one) in the spotlight. Their intelligence and expertise is lauded, yet you also see the difficulties they experience in being recognized as equals at that time in history.

🖤 The setting. The Welsh countryside setting and the village ambiance, including a goat named “Baby” were a nice escape!

🖤 The narration. I listened along with reading on my Kindle, and Elizabeth Knowelden’s voicing for every single character, including the aforementioned goat, is sheer perfection. Her Welsh pronunciations were beautiful. I hope she stays with the series to the end!

🖤 The romance. At its heart this is still a romance first, and Holton writes pairings that I can’t help but fall in love with. Elodie and Gabriel shouldn’t work, but they do, and their path to each other charmed me.

The one thing that kept this from being a five-star read was simply that the plot about the magical peril didn’t draw me in quite as much and the resolution was drawn out more than I prefer, but they were minor issues. All in all, another very fun, magical read, and I can’t wait for the next book: The Antiquarian’s Object of Desire which will feature Gabriel’s sister Amelia Tarrant, who we meet in this book!