The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton: Review by Colleen Mondor

The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love, India Holton (Berkley 978-0-593-54728-1, $19.00, tp, 384pp) July 2024.

Romantasy is a subgenre getting considerable attention and India Holton enters the field with a new series, that is a lot of fun. The first book, The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love, introduces two academics, Beth Pickering and Devon Lock­ley, who specialize in the study and, if necessary, capture of thaumaturgic birds. These animals include such species as the fire-breathing sand curlew, thunder-winged loons and pileated death­whistler. It’s late 19th-century England, there is much derring-do with parasols and pistols, and if you are a fan of Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody series, then you will know exactly what to expect with Beth and Devon’s interactions. (If you are not familiar with the Amelia Peabody series then you must go read them. Now.)

While the protagonists are delightful, the big win here is Holton’s worldbuilding. While stay­ing firmly in her chosen era and including all the plummy drama of an overexaggerated upper class British setting, she has an absolute party creating magical birds. Every engagement with these animals, from the halls of a museum to a train station to a very sad tiny cage, is filled with details that flesh out the otherwise straightforward historical environment. She also includes many other ornithologists who engage hilariously with the creatures and add their own set of laughs at every turn. (Also there is a whopper swan released at Oxford. A WHOPPER SWAN.)

The question of ‘‘will they or won’t they’’ as far as kissing, copulating, and falling in love for our main characters, is complicated by a very significant birding competition and the fact that both Beth and Devon work for eminent senior ornithologists who are committed to opposing one another. (Well, as it turns out that relationship is more complicated than it first appears while also pretty darn funny.) The enemies-to-lovers plot advances along with the bird-tracking, research-gathering, and villain-revealing. Nothing lags here, and page-turning is not a problem.

There is also the matter of the competition being fixed, some French fishermen occasionally wreaking mild havoc, and all manner of poten­tially deadly obstacles (meaning a lot of dangerous thaumaturgic birds) being thrust in Beth and Devon’s way. Things do get heated (literally – there are a lot of fire-breathing birds out there), but you don’t get to be professors of ornithology without being smart, and as the two academics rush about the countryside boarding boats, trains, and horse carts as needed, all nefarious secrets are revealed, true love is celebrated and innocent birds are saved. Along the way Holton nicely sets up a sequel, The Geographer’s Map to Romance due out next April. What’s not to enjoy about this new series? Absolutely nothing and if you are looking for a witty cozy with a dash of magic, you will not be disappointed.

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This review and more like it in the October 2024 issue of Locus.

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