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.

3.5 stars! I didn’t quite enjoy this one as much as the first (some of the magical science went a bit over my head and I wasn’t as interested in the disaster storyline), I did still really like the romance between Elodie and Gabriel! They were a bit frustrating at times with their constant miscommunication, but the last few chapters were really sweet.

Oh. My. God. What did I just read? This is amazing, it is the first book I have read by India Holton, and I am smitten with her, I am in love and I must go read everything she has written.

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.

This book turns the enemies-to-lovers trope on it’s head, as our main characters are already married – and it was a disaster. They haven’t spoken since shortly after their marriage, yet neither can stop thinking about one another. But then! There is disaster! Magical disaster! And who do you call but the emergency geographers! A delightful mixup means both Professors Tarrant are called to a small Welsh village, and must save all of England from catastrophe. And also, maybe their marriage. Look, if you liked silent, restrained, deeply passionate Mr. Darcy then you are going to LOVE Gabriel Tarrant. And the sexiest part of this book? HE RESPECTS ELODIE. He admires her intellect, he trusts in her judgement, he considers her an equal. SWOON.

The very first line had me laughing immediately. “A geographer behaves with quiet dignity at all times.” (Look, I was a geography graduate student. I’ve seen how geographers party.) But the academic snark was on point and it was like reading an inside joke. “The fellow was either an incoherent lunatic or a humanities student. (Gabriel did not always find it easy to spot the difference.)” Many apologies to the humanities students reading this, but inter-departmental snark is a thing to be cherished.

I need to stop gushing, but I adored this. If you like Jane Austen but wish she’d been a bit more whimsical, this is for you.

My heartfelt thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for my review.

“The Geographers Map to Romance” is my first book by India Holton, but it will not be my last! Her first book in this series “The Ornithologists Field Guide to Love” was widely popular at my library so I thought I’d give the second book a chance as they can be read as standalones. I was not disappointed.

I like the writing style but sometimes felt the prose was too flowery. The purpose of a passage often got lost and I found myself having to re-read sections. Overall the writing and story was perfect to mix with this historical fantasy romance.

Rated 4 stars. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC ebook.

The Geographer’s Map to Romance was—as expected—a complete and total delight! Like The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love, this book was charming, hilarious, and incredibly sweet. India Holton combines humor, wit, and magic in perfect amounts.

Eloise is headstrong, smart (we love a woman in STEM), and pairs perfectly with Gabriel, her grumpy (but secretly tender hearted) marriage-of-convenience husband. I loved seeing them fall for each other all over again. This book is the cheery light academia novel of my dreams!

Thank you to Berkley Romance and Netgalley for the ARC!

Thanks for the ARC! I will be recommending this series to my library patrons looking for cozy historical romcoms. The magical academia setting and humor will be big selling points.

I made a mental note to keep track of when this one was released so I could purchase it, and luckily for me I didn't have to wait. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this advance copy for my perusal!
This was a sweet romance full of fun characters and witty dialogue. I really liked all the characters, he setting, and the writing, which set the perfect tone. This was a delight from start to finish. I haven't read anything else by this author, but my experience reading the Geographer's map... did not suffer for having missed the first in the series, so I'd say it's a pretty good standalone. I will definitely follow this experience up by reading the first in the series, and, when the time comes, add this book (and any forthcoming sequels!) to our library collection.

India Holton’s books are always a pure delight, and The Geographer’s Map to Romance is no exception.

From the moment Gabriel appeared in book one, I was eagerly anticipating his love story, and this book delivers in every way. Holton’s signature wit and charm shine through, with two characters so perfectly suited to each other that readers will find themselves swooning as the pair of them slowly come to the same realization.

If you're looking for a book that proudly and beautifully showcases male yearning, this one is for you. The pining, the longing, the dreaming, the admiration, the wishing—it’s the stuff of romance legend. Only a writer of Holton’s caliber could make me enjoy the misinterpretation trope this much. Gabriel and Elodie are so deeply in love with each other yet completely oblivious to the other’s feelings, making for an endlessly entertaining comedic dynamic as we switch between their perspectives.

The adventure elements add a fun layer to the story, and I enjoyed exploring more of the magic system in this world. The quirky side characters provide plenty of comic relief without overshadowing the central romance, keeping the focus right where it belongs.

Refreshingly original yet true to her signature style, The Geographer’s Map to Romance is a fantastic addition to Holton’s catalog—a must-read for anyone who loves marriage of convenience, witty narration, magical comedy of errors, or all of the above.