diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 17c1a19..9b7c445 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@ Unreleased
 
 -   Drop support for Python 3.8 and 3.9.
 -   Remove previously deprecated code.
+-   ``Serializer.loads`` no longer accepts arbitrary keyword arguments.
+    Passing ``max_age`` (or other unexpected kwargs) to a non-timed
+    serializer now raises ``TypeError`` instead of being silently ignored.
+    :issue:`429`
 
 
 Version 2.2.0
diff --git a/src/itsdangerous/serializer.py b/src/itsdangerous/serializer.py
index 5ed949c..0646add 100644
--- a/src/itsdangerous/serializer.py
+++ b/src/itsdangerous/serializer.py
@@ -325,11 +325,14 @@ def dump(self, obj: t.Any, f: t.IO[t.Any], salt: str | bytes | None = None) -> N
         """
         f.write(self.dumps(obj, salt))
 
-    def loads(
-        self, s: str | bytes, salt: str | bytes | None = None, **kwargs: t.Any
-    ) -> t.Any:
+    def loads(self, s: str | bytes, salt: str | bytes | None = None) -> t.Any:
         """Reverse of :meth:`dumps`. Raises :exc:`.BadSignature` if the
         signature validation fails.
+
+        .. versionchanged:: 2.3
+            Removed unused ``**kwargs``. Passing unexpected keyword
+            arguments such as ``max_age`` (only valid on timed serializers)
+            now raises :exc:`TypeError` instead of being silently ignored.
         """
         s = want_bytes(s)
         last_exception = None
diff --git a/tests/test_itsdangerous/test_serializer.py b/tests/test_itsdangerous/test_serializer.py
index 737b504..f303bc8 100644
--- a/tests/test_itsdangerous/test_serializer.py
+++ b/tests/test_itsdangerous/test_serializer.py
@@ -51,6 +51,23 @@ def value(self):
     def test_serializer(self, serializer: Serializer, value: Any):
         assert serializer.loads(serializer.dumps(value)) == value
 
+    def test_loads_rejects_unexpected_kwargs(
+        self, serializer: Serializer, value: Any
+    ) -> None:
+        """Non-timed serializers must not silently ignore max_age.
+
+        Accidentally swapping URLSafeTimedSerializer for URLSafeSerializer
+        while still passing max_age would otherwise accept expired tokens.
+        """
+        import inspect
+
+        if "max_age" in inspect.signature(type(serializer).loads).parameters:
+            pytest.skip("timed serializer accepts max_age")
+
+        signed = serializer.dumps(value)
+        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="unexpected keyword argument"):
+            serializer.loads(signed, max_age=-1)  # type: ignore[call-arg]
+
     @pytest.mark.parametrize(
         "transform",
         (