A review by readwithmekt
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Hart, a demigod, is a marshal and Mercy is an undertaker and to be perfectly honest they greatly dislike each other. Yet they continue to have to deal with one another because their jobs go hand in hand. After yet another terrible interaction Hart decides that he is tired of feeling lonely and writes a letter to a friend. With little hope of his letter going anywhere, he does not expect a response until one day he gets a response and everything begins to change... 

 

This was a combination of fantasy and romance that I honestly never saw coming. I decided to add this book to my tbr simply because the title caught my attention. I'm so glad that I did. I laughed and my heart broke for the characters at many different points. 

 

I loved both Hart and Mercy. I read this at the same time that I was rereading Divine Rivals and I loved that it was another book based around the exchange of letters. The idea of being able to be more honest and yourself when writing is something that I find extremely heartwarming. Hart reminded me of characters that I love who are slightly grumpy old men and Mercy was his perfect counterbalance who was unwilling to take any of his nonsense. 

 

The world that Megan Bannen created was a new experience for me. I have really only just started reading books that relate to gods and demigods and I liked that while it was an aspect of this world it was not the primary focus. The way that death was handled was also a different take and I will be honest I really enjoyed it! I loved that Mercy was so strong minded about sending off the bodies that she worked on with a final goodbye. 

 

I listened to the audio version and I absolutely loved it! The 2 characters were voiced by different people and it made following whose perspective a given chapter was from that much easier. The pace of the book was medium and the emotional aspects of this book had me hooked. I'm so glad I saw this title and read it.