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booksalacarte's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The undertaking of Hart and Mercy- 3.5⭐️ 3🌶️
Fantasy Romance
Dual POV
Undertaker
Mythical Beasts
Letters
Rivals to lovers
Demi-gods
Sherif/cowboy vibes
Grumpy/sunshine
Curvy FMC
30’s MC’s
🏳️🌈 Side Characters
Tw: death, dead bodies, grief
The plot was a fantasy version of You’ve Got Mail… only with undead, undertakers, sheriffs and funeral homes? But the romance was good. The nicknames were top notch.
Thank goodness the pets didn’t die!
from the beginning, the story took place in a different world. Instead of introducing the world in little snippets, there was one giant info dump that took up more than half a chapter, around 32% that explained a lot of the history of the world. I really disliked that. But a lot of the world was unique, but because it went so long to give any world building hints, often I was overly confused by what was described with absolutely zero explanation.
The side characters were all delightful! The FMC was level headed, loyal and it was really nice to see her passion and love for the work she was doing. The MMC was pretty bland, but I like how his feelings developed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Vomit, Sexism, Cancer, and Terminal illness
katievallin's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Medical content, Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Sexism, Vomit, Abandonment, Blood, Cancer, Infidelity, and Sexual harassment
wrensreadingroom's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Alcohol, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Cursing, Abandonment, Blood, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Vomit
purplepenning's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
If Ashely Poston's The Dead Romantics and TJ Klune's Under the Whispering Door went to a Western-themed party and played a game called "You've Got Mail, Gods and Zombies Edition" — you'd get this bonkers genre-mashup of a book. Which I reallllly wanted to wholeheartedly love, but ended up having a complicated response to instead.
Marshal Hart Ralston patrols the derelict wilderness of the Old Gods to keep the people of the border towns safe from drudges (corpses reanimated by lost souls). He is a cowboy-tough, secret-softy of a demigod with a strong moral compass and troubled background that puts him in opposition to any smiling, upselling undertaker who profits off grieving families. And gods is he lonely.
Mercy Birdsall smiles brightly as she carries the weight of Birdsall & Sons Undertakers on her very capable shoulders while her father recovers from a heart attack and her sister and brother pursue their own lives. She gives the departed (including the corpses freed from drudges) a respectful send off across the Salt Sea by handcrafting the funerary boats, preparing the bodies, singing the incantations, and remembering to buy more salt and urns and lumber and everything else because her close-knit, loving family is a bit of a disaster. She doesn't appreciate the callous way a certain demigod marshal treats the bodies of the drudges he drops off for processing. And gods does she feel alone and unsupported in the chaos.
Hart impulsively pours his feelings into an unsigned letter to "Dear friend." When a giant, foul-mouthed, hard-drinking jack rabbit deity (who use to be an exalted messenger of the gods but yeah, okay, is happy — happy! — to be a postal carrier working for a pittance of bad tips from begrudging assholes riding slimy-maned seahorses into the wilderness) posts the unaddressed letter to Mercy, she anonymously writes back … and the rom-com game is afoot. But so is the mystery of the increasingly dangerous drudge problem, and it's all going to come to a head. Or an arm. Or another severed, oozing body part. Because zombies.
I love a genre mashup and wanted to completely and unequivocally love this bonkers gaslamp Mesopotamian-mythology-inspired (?) fantasy Western rom-com with a You've Got Mail twist — and zombies. By the end, I did really enjoy it, but there were a few things throughout that put me off. And none of it was because of the genre-blender.
(Explanatory word salad will probably be spoilery.)
I completely understand the "vibe in written correspondence but not in real life" dynamic, so I'm drawn to the You've Got Mail trope, but it can be hard to pull off. In addition to the enemies-to-lovers, you have to navigate the uneven power structure and lie of omission after one person discovers the truth before the other. I thought it went fairly well here in terms of plot and drama but not as well in terms of character. Even though I almost literally squealed as the You've Got Mail scenes unfolded, the faithful echoes of the phrasing in the letters and the cafe reveal scene may have done our characters a bit of a disservice. But I don't necessarily think it's the trope that's to blame. Both of our main characters exhibit some pretty problematic thoughts and behavior when they're in the real-life/enemy phase of this enemy-to-lovers story. Hart repeatedly objectifies Mercy when she's going about her business (literally in her place of business) and resents her for "making him feel perverted" for it even though she has no idea what's going through his mind and hasn't said or done anything in response to it. Yikes. Mercy uses Hart's demigod nature — a circumstance of birth that he has no control over and that she's secretly attracted to — as an insult more than once. I can see the Pride and Prejudice of it all, and the window into their unspoken physical attraction for each other does make the very fast switch from hating to physically worshipping each other a little easier to understand, but it still doesn't sit right with him. To be fair, Hart does later call out another character for being a pig and Mercy does attain a more sympathetic understanding of Hart's demigod situation, so ... character development. But the demonstration of growth doesn't feel adequate for the depth of the problem. There's also a throw away line about Hart having a previous relationship with a married woman. Not a fan of that. Especially since Mercy's ex cheated on her. If there's a sequel, they'd better both be in therapy for the trust issues that are sure to arise after our HEA.
And a few other things that didn't work for me.... multiple characters pressure Hart to drink alcohol when they know he doesn't drink, which is discourteous, childish, and one of my pet peeves. Speaking of the other characters… although fun, many feel like caricatures (and not just the immortal messenger-to-the-gods characters who are fabulously over the top). Speaking of immortals and gods and the like… in a fantasy world that is seemingly unmoored from our time but references gas lighting and crank-powered transistor radios, incongruously modern phrases and ideas rip me out of the story, and that happened a few times here ("follow your bliss," "McDouchebag," reference to a "that's what he said" joke). And I'm just going to say it — Penrose Duckers is the best character in this book and he deserved way better than Zeddie. But at least he's going to have a life of fabulous food.
So, yeah.... Overall, I loved the audacious genre-blender nature of this, was fascinated by the fantasy elements that were incorporated, enjoyed the ode to You've Got Mail (and Pride and Prejudice), and eventually warmed up to the characters and found Hart's journey to be touching and Mercy's to be inspiring and relatable. But there were some specific rough patches (and some general pacing issues) that kept it from being a 5-star hit for me. Which is too bad, because it was fun ride!
Marshal Hart Ralston patrols the derelict wilderness of the Old Gods to keep the people of the border towns safe from drudges (corpses reanimated by lost souls). He is a cowboy-tough, secret-softy of a demigod with a strong moral compass and troubled background that puts him in opposition to any smiling, upselling undertaker who profits off grieving families. And gods is he lonely.
Mercy Birdsall smiles brightly as she carries the weight of Birdsall & Sons Undertakers on her very capable shoulders while her father recovers from a heart attack and her sister and brother pursue their own lives. She gives the departed (including the corpses freed from drudges) a respectful send off across the Salt Sea by handcrafting the funerary boats, preparing the bodies, singing the incantations, and remembering to buy more salt and urns and lumber and everything else because her close-knit, loving family is a bit of a disaster. She doesn't appreciate the callous way a certain demigod marshal treats the bodies of the drudges he drops off for processing. And gods does she feel alone and unsupported in the chaos.
Hart impulsively pours his feelings into an unsigned letter to "Dear friend." When a giant, foul-mouthed, hard-drinking jack rabbit deity (who use to be an exalted messenger of the gods but yeah, okay, is happy — happy! — to be a postal carrier working for a pittance of bad tips from begrudging assholes riding slimy-maned seahorses into the wilderness) posts the unaddressed letter to Mercy, she anonymously writes back … and the rom-com game is afoot. But so is the mystery of the increasingly dangerous drudge problem, and it's all going to come to a head. Or an arm. Or another severed, oozing body part. Because zombies.
I love a genre mashup and wanted to completely and unequivocally love this bonkers gaslamp Mesopotamian-mythology-inspired (?) fantasy Western rom-com with a You've Got Mail twist — and zombies. By the end, I did really enjoy it, but there were a few things throughout that put me off. And none of it was because of the genre-blender.
(Explanatory word salad will probably be spoilery.)
I completely understand the "vibe in written correspondence but not in real life" dynamic, so I'm drawn to the You've Got Mail trope, but it can be hard to pull off. In addition to the enemies-to-lovers, you have to navigate the uneven power structure and lie of omission after one person discovers the truth before the other. I thought it went fairly well here in terms of plot and drama but not as well in terms of character. Even though I almost literally squealed as the You've Got Mail scenes unfolded, the faithful echoes of the phrasing in the letters and the cafe reveal scene may have done our characters a bit of a disservice. But I don't necessarily think it's the trope that's to blame. Both of our main characters exhibit some pretty problematic thoughts and behavior when they're in the real-life/enemy phase of this enemy-to-lovers story. Hart repeatedly objectifies Mercy when she's going about her business (literally in her place of business) and resents her for "making him feel perverted" for it even though she has no idea what's going through his mind and hasn't said or done anything in response to it. Yikes. Mercy uses Hart's demigod nature — a circumstance of birth that he has no control over and that she's secretly attracted to — as an insult more than once. I can see the Pride and Prejudice of it all, and the window into their unspoken physical attraction for each other does make the very fast switch from hating to physically worshipping each other a little easier to understand, but it still doesn't sit right with him. To be fair, Hart does later call out another character for being a pig and Mercy does attain a more sympathetic understanding of Hart's demigod situation, so ... character development. But the demonstration of growth doesn't feel adequate for the depth of the problem. There's also a throw away line about Hart having a previous relationship with a married woman. Not a fan of that. Especially since Mercy's ex cheated on her. If there's a sequel, they'd better both be in therapy for the trust issues that are sure to arise after our HEA.
And a few other things that didn't work for me.... multiple characters pressure Hart to drink alcohol when they know he doesn't drink, which is discourteous, childish, and one of my pet peeves. Speaking of the other characters… although fun, many feel like caricatures (and not just the immortal messenger-to-the-gods characters who are fabulously over the top). Speaking of immortals and gods and the like… in a fantasy world that is seemingly unmoored from our time but references gas lighting and crank-powered transistor radios, incongruously modern phrases and ideas rip me out of the story, and that happened a few times here ("follow your bliss," "McDouchebag," reference to a "that's what he said" joke). And I'm just going to say it — Penrose Duckers is the best character in this book and he deserved way better than Zeddie. But at least he's going to have a life of fabulous food.
So, yeah.... Overall, I loved the audacious genre-blender nature of this, was fascinated by the fantasy elements that were incorporated, enjoyed the ode to You've Got Mail (and Pride and Prejudice), and eventually warmed up to the characters and found Hart's journey to be touching and Mercy's to be inspiring and relatable. But there were some specific rough patches (and some general pacing issues) that kept it from being a 5-star hit for me. Which is too bad, because it was fun ride!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abandonment, Cursing, Violence, Ableism, Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, and Vomit
Minor: Animal death and Death of parent
marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I am freaking out about how much I love this book! Picture You’ve Got Mail set in a fantasy world not so different from ours. Its heroine, Mercy, is a sweet and sturdy undertaker who’s taken over the family business due to her father’s failing health. Her counterpart, Hart, is a grumpy marshal whose job is, essentially, to kill zombies—someone’s got to do it! Although they can’t stand each other at first, Hart and Mercy slowly peel back each other’s layers and discover the love that’s been right in front of them all along. Kansas City author Megan Bannen’s one-of-a-kind story goes from gut-busting to heartbreaking and back again, and I loved every word!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Pregnancy, Violence, Cursing, and Death of parent
Minor: Infidelity, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Cancer, and Sexism
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