The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

Product Information

I always appreciate having multiple narrators when there are different PoVs Michael Gallagher and Rachanee Lumayno felt perfect for their respective roles. Rachanee captured both Mercy's strength and loneliness even through she is surrounded by family and Michael Gallagher was able to perform Harts PoV so the reader empathized with the decisions he made and his longing and fear to belong to something or someone. I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed. What appealed to me the most about The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy was the comparison to You’ve Got Mail. Epistolary romances are my JAM. I may or may not have shamelessly begged the lovely publicist for a copy simply because of that. I just knew that I would inhale every word of this book and I DID. Both Hart and Mercy are lonely individuals and that loneliness seeps into every chapter of this book. When Hart, in need of a connection, writes an anonymous letter that winds up being delivered to his real-life nemesis, Mercy, it sets off a chain reaction that permanently alters his life. Their anonymous friendship was delightfully humorous and heartachingly sweet. Through the letters, they bond over their shared loneliness and loss, forging a deep connection. As a fellow lonely person, I was touched by the way Megan Bannen wrote about their alienation. I can’t even begin to describe the pangs felt reading some of the quotes in the book because they are that resonant. What was he supposed to say? I’m here to see your daughter to tell her that I’m her secret pen pal and I’m hoping against hope that she won’t hate me forever and might even want to have sex with me tonight?

Thank you, NetGalley, Little, Brown Book Group UK, and Orbit Books, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.As much as this is a story driven by character, there is also a lot of plot. I was concerned early on that the characters surrounding Mercy and Hart would be uniformly one-dimensional, only present to perform a role in the conflicts initially surrounding the protagonists. But everyone develops with such nuance and humanity and foibles that I wanted to read about all of them. This book is a gooey (and hot!) romance immersed in a tasty layer of quirky fantasy, like some decadent chocolate treat. A little sweet, a little spicy, a little sharp and entirely moreish!” Davinia Evans, author of Notorious Sorcerer

I was absolutely psyched when I read the description for this book. Make romance weirder and more imaginative! Make fantasy have more romance! I was hoping that this would be true love, but both the romance and fantasy parts fell under the “good, but not great” category for me. I had fun reading it, but it didn't sink its teeth into me like a ravenous zombie. Despite my qualms expressed above, I was still swept up by Mercy and Hart’s relationship when Megan Bannen wasn’t trying to fit them into marketing bullet points. There is such genuine affection and tenderness expressed throughout this book. Actual tears might have leaked from my Sahara-dry tear ducts?? It was easy to root for these characters and their happy ending. The Princess Bridemeets You've Got Mailin this enchantingly quirky, completely refreshing fantasy with a rom-com-worthy premise, perfect for readers of T he House in the Cerulean Seaand The Invisible Library.

Customer reviews

The closest thing I can compare this to is The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels meets You’ve Got Mail. The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy isn’t like The Wisteria Society at all but they’re also absolutely the same. Doesn’t make sense? Perfect. I want you confused, intrigued, and ready to risk it all for these two morbidly hot cinnamon rolls. This was delightful! And not what I was expecting. It's basically You've Got Mail, but with a grumpy demigod and undertaker he hates working with.

Hart and Mercy do not like each other at the start of the story. Hart is a marshal who journeys into a magical world called Tanria and basically hunts zombies? Sort of? They aren’t called zombies (they’re drudges) but they’re corpses reanimated by a soul that takes over the dead body. Those souls get violent as they have to then find a new body, because dead bodies are really poor investments in terms of maintenance and upkeep. Bassareus is a foul-mouthed alcoholic rabbit with chipped teeth and an earring that delivers mail to Hart and challenges him every second he gets. Ultimately, he helps Hart break out of his shell.When Hart’s letter to an unknown friend reaches Mercy, she responds to it without knowing the sender's identity. Though a tentative friendship is born between them, things could go either way once the truth is revealed. The beauty of the romance genre can be found in its timeless narratives—countless stories that successfully manage to tug at our heartstrings (and sometimes run our emotions through the wringer) because of their promise of an ultimate happy resolution, even if the journey to the end never takes the same path twice. Thrust any combination of tropes, plot elements, and character types into the hands of ten different authors, and the journey to true love across the resulting books will be delightfully varied.

Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.These characters are definitely not like the ones I usually read about. For one, Hart is a demi-god and Mercy is an undertaker, which is just mortuary stuff…I think. They were the main characters but everyone was genuinely interesting and made the book more fun! Add this to the really cool magical world this is set in, and you’ve got yourself a pretty solid book.