The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy: the swoonworthy fantasy romcom everyone's talking about! (Hart and Mercy Series)

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Overall, I’ll definitely be reading the next book by the author and will be forever happy I most assuredly judged this book by its (lovely) cover. Give this a read if you want to explore a romance maybe a tad out of your comfort zone! I guarantee the hart (see what I did there?) of the book is rooted in an extra sweet romance between two lost souls, looking for love in all decomped places. The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy is a fun, frothy, addictive ride with plenty of substance and heart. I very much enjoyed my time with it, and am already pressing it into the hands of others. It made me interested in seeing out more cozy fantasy with rom-com elements, and obviously I now desperately need to watch You’ve Got Mail. If you’re on the hunt for a light escape from reality that still has some serious stakes, this is story you’re looking for.

Set in a world full of magic and demigods, donuts and small-town drama, this enchantingly quirky, utterly unique fantasy is perfect for readers of The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Invisible Library. A truly outstanding romantic fantasy’ India Holton, author of The Wisteria Society of Lady ScoundrelsA few threads didn’t seem to conclude properly, especially the Bill part. I won’t elaborate, but it could have been handled better. I think I kinda loved it though, even though I feel like I can’t explain why. Maybe I don’t need too 😂. Hart and Mercy can’t stand each other. They seem to bring out the worst in the other (do we see sparks flying?). However, they have more in common than they like to think. Both are lonely and pretty much have no life beyond their jobs. The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy tries to do a lot of things--to be romantic, to be poignant, to be funny--and it's not that it fails at those things, exactly, but that it doesn't quite succeed at them, either. If Lewis Carroll and Nora Ephron teamed up to write a magical Western, this would be the result. An unabashedly offbeat adventurefull of dead gods and mostly-dead zombies, family drama, swoon-worthy love letters, and a Very Good Dog,The Undertaking of Hart & Mercyoozes romantic fun like a corpse oozes dubious fluids.” Freya Marske, author of A Marvelous Light

There are quite a few weird, funny, and eye-roll-inducing moments. The overall effect is satisfactory, which is important to me. Absolutely the cutest zombie book we've ever read. Not a single word of that is written in irony. Not only is this a zombie book, it's an enemies-to-lovers epistolary romance set in a fantasy world that is just different enough from our own to make it wonderfully familiar and at the same time skewed. This is the first book in a long time that made us stay up past our bedtime to read. It's funny, it's cute, it makes you think about the inevitable mortality awaiting each human being's existence, AND there is some mild spice. Apparently it is exactly what we wanted to read right now. Well, I adored everything about this. Mercy and Hart are adorable, most of the side characters are hilarious and lovable and a constant nuisance in the best way, the world is fun and unique, the drudges (AKA zombies) are just present enough to keep things suspenseful without ever over-shadowing the romance, and the entire story is a mash-up of so many genres that I never thought it would work, but guess what? It works. Megan Bannen has found her voice with this incredibly smart, and hilariously weird debut. A must read’Nisha Sharma, author of Dating Dr. Dil I wanted to love this book sooo much, there were some really great things about it but overall, it was kind of disappointing for me.As for the other side characters? I would say most were just noise, either for some attempts at humour, or for added conflict, and I only really actually enjoyed two (Alma and Pen) and, of course, the dog. Truly, the only thing that really kept me engaged was the romance when it was romancey. So let's hope there's another romance -- one that is also weird but a weird I can get on board with! -- to come. A uniquely charming mixture of whimsy and the macabre that completely won me over. If you ever wished for an adult romance that felt like Howl’s Moving Castle, THIS IS THAT BOOK.”—Helen Hoang, author of The Kiss Quotient Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and he’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness.