If India Holton writes it, I will read it! The Geographer’s Map to Romance was another absolutely magical and delightfully whimsy read. Elodie and Gabriel are married but estranged and both hopelessly in love with each other but they think the other hates them. So much wonderful pining as they race to solve a magical disaster. Can’t say I always understood what was happening magically, but I didn’t mind, it was a fun time. I’m ready for Holton’s next charming read already.

I really wanted to love this one, but the miscommunication trope is my absolute least favorite when it drags, and it draaaaaaged. The characters were super cute, though. It's too bad that the frustration got to me because the premise is adorable. Fingers crossed for the next installment!

Professor Elodie Tarrant may be an expert in magical disasters, but many would argue that she is quite the disaster herself. She's prone to flights of fancy and doesn't think twice before charging into any situation. Nothing fazes Elodie except for one person: Professor Gabriel Tarrant, her curmudgeonly colleague in the geography department and husband. Elodie and Gabriel couldn't be more different. The pair agreed to marry as a matter of convenience but were estranged soon after they exchanged their vows. But that hasn't stopped either from secretly pining after each other.

When a magical eruption threatens a small Welsh village, jeopardizing the rest of England, Elodie and Gabriel get assigned to the case. They haven't spoken in a year and can barely look one another in the eye, but they're willing to put their differences aside for their country's sake. But it's hard to keep things professional when faced with explosions, magically infected goats, and a small shared bedroom, and Elodie and Gabriel soon realize it's easier to give in to their desires than fight against them.

Holton continues to delight me with every new book. She's my go-to author when craving something light, humorous, and bonkers. Her characters are always witty, charming, and slightly unhinged (in the best possible way.) I loved how effervescent Elodie was. She had this child-like wonder about her that I found so endearing. On the flip side, Gabriel was stoic and grumpy, so watching them interact was so silly. I thought they had great banter, and you could tell that the pair loved each other but were too shy to act on it. I was yelling, "Just kiss already!" to myself the whole time. There's a nerdy little "my wife" scene that had me kicking my little feet! In typical Holton fashion, the magic system and world-building were pretty zany, but that's the whole appeal of her work. It's outlandish, but in a way that works. These books may not be for everyone, but they are definitely for me, and I can't wait to see what's next.

India Holton brings a whimsical writing quality to the Historical Romantic Fantasy genre. Her writing style is entertaining even if a bit dense. The two main characters in this book are so clearly gone for each other yet don't realize it about the other. I love the archetype of a surly MMC who is obsessed with the FMC and considers himself lucky to breathe the same air as her. Elodie is dangerously close to a manic pixie dream girl but her sharp intelligence goes a long way in making her something else. The plot was far less important than the relationship between our two main characters and that's become par for the course in an India Holton novel. I enjoyed this one a lot!

Rating: 2.25 out of 5

Thank you NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy.

Unfortunately, this book was not it. I’ve read all of India Holton’s books and absolutely adore “The Wister iaSociety for Lady Scoundrels” and “The League of Gentlewomen Witches” but it’s now getting to the point that all of her books are the same. What pulled me in was the whimsiness and I found it unique but when all of her books have the same outline and playfulness, it’s no longer different.

With this book, I was actually looking forward to the marriage of convenience but when we find out that their “problem” all came down to miscommunication…or a rather, lack thereof, well I was unamused. For one, I cannot stand the miscommunication trope but two, these are two highly educated professors…and they do not know how to communicate? There was also not much to their dynamic..they were boring. I loved Wisteria Society because we had tension and we had two main characters who had depth. I wasn’t excited about Gabriel or Elodie.

With the magic, I have no idea what was happening. There was no context to the magic present in this world and I couldn’t connect to the setting. With the Wisteria Society, you were a little confused but you could understand what the different elements did. With “The Geographer’s Map to Romance,” there were made up words that make no sense and when a reader doesn’t care what is happening….that’s a problem.

Overall, disappointed with this read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️

Marriage of convenience and second chance rolled into one neat package? Yes please!

Elodie and Gabriel are both adorable! And the way that they’re both secretly pining over each other was even more perfect.

I also love the academic and vaguely historical, yet magical setting of this book! It makes for a really fun and unique world.

Read if you like:
- Marriage of Convenience
- Second Chance Romance
- Yearning
- Academia
- Magic as Science

Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for the eARC.

<b>"It's always been you for me. No one else, ever. You're in every dawn I watch rising over cities and fields. You're in everything I do and dream. You are the heart of the world for me."</b>

India’s books = jolly good fun! She does historical fantasy so well! Radiantly charming. A must read.

<u>THINGS AND STUFF</u>
-1890, England
-marriage of convenience
-to estranged husband
-rival professors (or are they?!)
-the hand flex a la p&p 2005
-there’s only one (1) bed
-magic & folklore
-my wife… Mrs. Tarrant
-baby, the goat
-there’s only one tree
-it’s always been you
-#IsThisAKissingBook open door

Thank you berkley romance the advanced copy 🫶🏼

LOVED this! I was a hugely looking forward to Elodie and Gabriel's story and it did not miss. This book was slow burn to the max, but it was delicious.

This is such a cute enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience romance with magic! I loved the main characters. The story was so whimsical. Great book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

swoony and gorgeous. lighthearted and magical. everything you want in a great romantasy! i'd definitely recommend this work.5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Elodie and Gabriel Tarrant are married professors that have avoided each other for a year. They are forced to team up to fix a magical geographic conundrum. Along the way, they encounter fun whimsical situations and learn about their feelings for each other. I enjoyed seeing the main characters tackle the magical disaster together along with a solid cast of side characters (I'm looking at you Baby). Although this book is the 2nd in a "series," it can be read as a standalone.

Actual rating: 3.75, but rounded up for GR!

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗:
Elodie and Gabriel are as different as you can be, with their only only thing in common being their love of studying magical properties in the earth/environment. When they are called to investigate a town and its magical outbursts, they have to work together to find a solution before it’s too late.

𝙼𝚢 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎:
This is a new-to me author and though I did find this story fun, I think maybe her writing style just isn’t for me.

This story is very quirky and whimsical, which is fun, and yet some of it just felt overly forced. There’s also a lot of terminology that I just didn’t understand, but maybe that’s because this is book 2 and I didn’t read book 1? Overall I just felt like some of the vocabulary used was excessively complex and I found it caused me to pull out of the story a bit.

I will say that I did love Elodie and Gabriel together. They were so different from one another, which made for a fun dynamic, but I do hate miscommunication so the fact that was an overarching theme throughout the book drove me nuts.

“𝘞𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯?”
“𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺.”

I thought the author did the grumpy/sunshine trope really well, with Elodie being the excited ray of sunshine and Gabriel being the grumpy curmudgeon. There is also plenty of “my wife” moments, even if some of it only happened in Gabriel’s thoughts.

“𝘎𝘢𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘭 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵: 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘪𝘱 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘧**𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘦.”

Overall I think this one is a fun read, but I don’t think I am this author’s audience.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁:
✨Historical fantasy
✨Marriage of convenience
✨My wife
✨Protective MMC
✨Magic gone haywire
✨Waltzing out of quicksand

*Thank you to Berkley & NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own!

4.5

India Holton is one of a kind and this series is fast becoming a new fave. I didn’t know at first if I’d love this as much as book one but it snuck up on me in the best way.

I love a marriage of convenience, with a bit of enemies to lovers in the mix, high jinx fun and endless whimsy.

Another winners

Thank you for the free book, Berkley Romance!

Gabriel and Elodie are professors who have married one another as part of a marriage of convenience, but due to several misunderstandings they each believe the other is uninterested in romance. When there is magic in the Welsh countryside, both of them are assigned to the case. This leads to many magical adventures and mishaps and perhaps a rekindling of their romance.

This was my first book from this author, and also my first historical fantasy romance. I’m not sure it’s a genre that I’d typically pick up, but I thought I’d give it a try! I found it quirky and endearing, and certainly unique. Readers who enjoy historical romance and magical elements will probably love this book. The writing style is a bit wordy for my personal taste but fits the style of the book well. I would be interested in reading more from this author because she is clearly very talented and creative!

India Hilton has done it again. Her books are like a warm hug. I adored the whimsy, wit, and pining in Ellie and Gabriel’s adventure!

4.5 Stars

Professor Elodie Tarrant and Professor Gabriel Tarrant both work in the field of Geography at Oxford University, in magic disasters. And it just so happens they are both caught up in their own relationship disaster, a marriage of convenience. They have found a way to avoid one another throughout their failed first year of marriage, but they are secretly pining for one another. An emergency assignment to stop an eruption of magic in a small Welsh town forces Elodie and Gabriel to team up and avoid a magical disaster. But once they’re together, magic isn’t the only thing they have to worry about erupting, because their feelings for one another are ready to explode!

The Geographer’s Map to Romance is the second book in the Love’s Academic series. I read The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love before reading this one, and really enjoyed it, too. There are a couple of short references to one of the characters in Field Guide to Love, but Map to Romance could definitely be read as a stand alone. But I highly recommend reading both, because they are such fun books.

There were so many tropes in The Geographer’s Map to Romance that I really loved. Elodie is an absent-minded, extrovert FMC, and Gabriel describes her as a tornado, which definitely fits with her personality. Gabriel is the complete opposite of Elodie, with a quiet, meticulous, and introverted demeanor. At one point he is described as curmudgeonly!! So there are definitely some great grumpy/sunshine vibes happening in their marriage of convenience relationship.

I felt like there was more of a focus on the relationship part of the story in this book, compared to Field Guide to Love. FGTL had a lot of extra things happening alongside the relationship with the main characters, and I felt like MTR is more about Elodie and Gabriel’s feelings for one another, paired with their assignment to assess and stop a magical explosion. I really liked the fact that Elodie and Gabriel’s romance already had an established beginning and backstory, at the beginning of the book.

The Geographer’s Map to romance delivers an adorably, swoon-worthy romance, with opposites attract, unpredictable magic, one bed at the inn, and surprisingly, a magically imbued goat (at one point)! If you’re looking for romance, humor, and adventure, then I would highly recommend The Geographer’s Map to Romance.

a whimsical and charming tale of a geographer married couple who are too dumb for people with doctorates in the matters of love, travelling together to solve a crisis and just being exploded both metaphorically and literally once every 3 chapters.

so excited for the next one🩷 india holton presents the most interesting ideas and tropes in most humorously romantic way possible!

"if you have to change yourself to get something, then it's not the right thing for you. never apologize for who you are."

what to expect:
✧₊⁺ idiots to lovers, someone please help these idiots
✧₊⁺ failed marriage of convenience?! or so it seems 👀
✧₊⁺ forced proximity on an emergency mission
✧₊⁺ rule-following grumpy mmc x chaotic sunshine fmc

I will preface this review and say, could this book have been a few chapters long if the two main characters had a solid conversation with each other? Absolutely, yes. But was this done in such a quirky fun way that I didn't even care? ALSO, YES!

India Holton has done it again with bringing another great quirky cozy historical romantasy. I had a blast with Gabriel and Elodie. Did I miss Beth and Devon a little bit? (yes, yes I did) but I very much enjoyed this failed marriage of convenience dynamic we had going on with this second book. And who doesn't love it when the mmc says "MY WIFE"?! And Elodie is such a cute chaotic character, paired with literally the grumpiest rule abiding man ever who doesn't mind all the chaos when it comes to her.

I must also mention that I really love the inclusion of neurodivergent representation in this series. I think this book showcased well that being on the spectrum can look different for everyone, and there isn't certain boxes one needs to tick off to be neurodivergent. And also just the perspective of how one on the spectrum might have had to experience life during a time period where this wasn't well researched or talked about yet. It hurt my heart to see Gabriel force himself to be comfortable with things he was not, or tried his best to never seem bothered by anything.

Overall, this was a cute cozy read that I enjoyed. And also a slight side note, the way I screamed that we got a sneak peek for the third book at the end of this arc?! I don't want to spoil, but I am SO EXCITED for this dynamic!!!

thank you netgalley and berkley for this early copy ♥

thank you to netgalley for providing me with this arc!

Overall, this was a very enjoyable sequel but not sequel to the first book in the series. I always find book two in a series to be good but not as good as book one, don't get me wrong I had a wonderful time reading the book but book one just blew me away. I loved the whole marriage plot and how they both genuinely thought they hated each other. I did find it hard at times to follow the geography plot lines that were happening, in book one the plot felt very clear and easy to follow, this time around it felt more muddled. The sequence of the two main characters in the rain and the following scenes did have me smiling while reading because I will always love an enemies in the rain trope! I will be continuing reading the series as it goes on!

This was a warm cup of tea in book form — it’s a cozy, wholesome, and utterly precious historical light academia fantasy romance, replete with the quirkiest magic system, the angstiest dual POV yearning, and the ‘forced proximity’ cherry on top between two rival professors who marriage-of-convenienced themselves.

Truly this was a delight to read. transportive, immersive, and with all of the yearning you could squeeze into a standalone story, as both main characters firmly believe the other hates them. The reality? THEY’RE TERRIBLY, IRREVOCABLY, WHOLLY IN LOVE, but in that secret, seemingly-unrequited way that is quite literally my trope kryptonite.

The concept here is that after a single day of wedded bliss, a miscommunication leads them straight into years of estrangement and growing hostility, until they’re forced to pair up to save a little corner of Wales (and London, by fey line proximity), putting themselves in each others’ company for juuuuuust enough time to fall deeper in love.

This was literally adorable, and great if you’re in the mood for something with top tier banter, eccentric magic, and a heap of angst. While it’s written beautifully, in that sort of atmospheric, of-the-era (1880s England!) kind of way, it’s a bit dense and wordy (which I know is a wild thing to say about a book — of course it’s wordy!), but prepare to have to mentally lock in for all of the pseudo-scientific terminology and overlong back-and-forth exchanges. This isn’t one that’s easy to parse while on autopilot — but it’s so cute, so heartwarming, and the perfect read for when you want to fully escape reality into something low key and magical.