The Antiquarian’s Object of Desire

The Antiquarian’s Object of Desire (2026) India Holton (Love’s Academic #3)

Set in alternate England in 1890

Amelia Tarrant and Caleb Sterling have been best friends since boarding school–and all the schooling that followed as they eventually earned their doctorates and became professors at Oxford.

But lady professors still aren’t entirely accepted, and Amelia and Caleb’s friendship caused enough problems they had to pretend to be enemies, so Amelia wouldn’t lose her position.

She’d barely escaped losing her position at Oxford earlier this year due to Caleb Sterling. Although they had been friends since they met as eight-year-olds in boarding school, the moment Professor Throckmorton from Medieval Studies caught them hugging, that became impossible.

Only a show of outright enmity had been able to stop the virulent rumors and ensure Amelia kept her reputation and her job, and Caleb kept his lifestyle as a wild, carefree bachelor (which mostly involved sleeping in late and adding bacon to every meal).

Not that it would seem an entirely terrible thing.

“That’s Amelia Tarrant,” Mr. Dummersby of the British Museum told him. It sounded rather the same as that’s a Viking ship coming toward us.

“I once paid her a compliment and she’s refused to work with me ever since.”

“No!”

“Yes. I ask you, what kind of woman doesn’t like being told by a colleague that she has beautiful lips?”

I think that those reminders are one of the reasons I don’t love these books as I would have expected. That’s comments aren’t really funny when they’re true and common.

I mean.

“Mishandling a thaumaturgic candlestick and causing a fire is one thing, but a girl should not be working alone in a museum after dark, let alone bantering with a male colleague!”

“Arguing,” Amelia corrected him.

“Engaging in private intercourse,” he corrected her right back, with all the authority of a faculty head and older white male.

I totally get what she’s doing, but… too soon.

Characters: Caleb Sterling, Amelia Tarrant, Mr. Dummersby, Vanity Tunnicliffe, Grimshaw, Basil Throckmorton, Sir Nigel Harroway, Lady Ruperta Harroway, Cornelius Ottersock, Sergeant Jack Sheffield, Mavis and Hilda, Mrs. Cuddle, Professor Gabriel Tarrant, Professor Elodie Tarrant, Professors Pickering and Lockley

Cover art by Margot Reverdy

Publisher: Berkley Romance

Rating: 7/10

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