India Holton’s books make me grin. They’re quirky and fantastical and positively delightful. 

 

In The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love, we find our neurodivergent heroine, Beth Pickering, teaming up with rival ornithologist, Devon Lockley, in a road trip that takes them by boat, carriage, train, and horse across Britain—and part of France—on the hunt for a caladrius, a bird with panacean properties, whose capture will secure the Birder of the Year title for one of them (as well as tenure at a top university). Whew, what a premise! 

 

Along the way, they have to survive attacks from other magical birds and from their competitors, meddling from news reporters, innkeepers, and some other mysterious individuals, and interference from their former partners/employers. The journey is rather eventful, to say the least. 

 

Highlights for me included the language barrier miscommunication with some of the people they encounter along the way, the innuendo and double entendres, and the pulling of the puppet strings behind the scenes. 

 

I grinned and I giggled and had a jolly good time. 

 

If you’re a fan of historical fantasy, I highly recommend reading this one. 

 

I received an advance copy of the book from Berkley Romance. All review opinions are my own.