Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

76 reviews

snipinfool's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

5.0

Mercy Birdsall had been running Birdsall & Son since her father's heart attack. She was hanging on until her brother could finish his Funerary Rites and Services degree and take over as head undertaker. She enjoyed her work, but could definitely use some help in all areas of their business. Mercy had an overall sunny attitude except when a certain Tanrian Marshall came to drop off a body for burial. For some reason, Marshall Ralston had rubbed her the wrong way since day one. He was condescending and sarcastic. Mercy had no problems giving it back to him in full. Dealing with him would be one thing she would not miss once her brother came on board.

Hart Ralston worked as a ranger, keeping Tanria safe from drudges (like zombies). Hart was a loner in more ways than one. He was a demigod, which made him different from most, and he had been on his own since he was sixteen. Hart had a few partners he enjoyed working with in the past, but currently, he preferred being on his own. Keeping citizens safe from drudge attacks was enough work without having to navigate the niceties of working relationships. After a conversation with his ex-partner and boss, Hart took a closer look at his life. He realized he was a bit lonely. He decided to write a letter to an anonymous friend to disclose his empty life. Hart had written letters to his mother and mentor when they died as a way to stay connected to them. He hoped writing about his solitude would help to ease his sense of isolation. After finishing the letter, Hart did what he usually did after writing his mother and guide. He posted the letter addressed to "A Friend" never expecting it to be actually delivered to someone.

This story was all kinds of cute. I loved both Hart and Mercy. They had an enemy to lovers relationship. Mercy was the sunshine to Hart's grumpy. When Hart posted his letter pouring out his loneliness, he never ever thought it would land in the hands of Mercy. Mercy was also lonely. She worked constantly and rarely had time for socializing. Because they had many negative encounters over the years, it was hard for them to think of the other in any alternative way. I loved how they continued to write the "To a friend" letters expressing their deepest thoughts and wishes, never realizing their letter went to their adversary. The side characters in the novel were also great. I loved Mercy's family and Hart's new partner, Penrose Duckers. That has to be one of the best character names I've seen in a while. The creatures who delivered the mail were humorous also. The world Megan Bannen created in this book was interesting and enjoyable. A sequel is set to come out next year and I will be reading that ASAP.

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katiekeske's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is a very well written, unique romance. The world building flows well and is so interesting. The characters all feel real. I appreciate a lot about the book, but the miscommunication and angst made it take longer than normal for me to read.

I wouldn't describe this as exactly enemies to lovers since enemies seems like too strong of a word. They have a strong dislike for each other before things change. I don't enjoy when the love interests are mean to each other, so it was hard for me to get through.

This is a romance with a HEA, but be warned that you will most likely cry a lot before you get there.

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readwithria's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted 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

4.5

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy was so much more than I expected it to be! This book made me squeal from pure joy, and it also broke my heart. I cannot recommend it enough!

Megan Bannen took You’ve Got Mail, fantasy, and westerns, and combined those elements into something truly magical. I don’t know if I have to words to describe exactly how this book made me feel.

Read The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy if you love
🩵 stories with epistolary elements
🩵 enemies to lovers
🩵 he falls first
🩵 grumpy/sunshine
🩵 romantic fantasy

I can’t wait to read more from Megan Bannen. 4.5 stars!

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katievallin's review against another edition

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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

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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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4.5

This isn't a true review. Just quotes I liked.

“I want to be with someone who asks me how my day was, someone who finds what I have to say interesting. I want to be with someone who thinks that—I don’t know—that I’m kind of special. That’s all.” Nathan puffed his lips as if Mercy had uttered the most unreasonable thing he’d ever heard. “Thanks a lot!” she said. “I’m not trying to be mean, but come on. Life isn’t like those fluffy books you read. People don’t sit around mooning over each other. This is reality, and in reality, you find someone you like and that you’re attracted to, and you get married and you have a family, and that’s all there is to it. It’s that simple.” Mercy sagged in her chair. Maybe Nathan had a point. Maybe she was reaching too high and wanting too much. Maybe it was time to lower the bar and readjust her expectations.

(Woof. I felt this in my soul).

It’d be like reading a book that doesn’t end. No matter how good the story is, you want it to be over at some point.

(Talking about life here. Interesting).

“I think I’m about to do something stupid.” “Okay.” Mercy stood on tiptoes and kissed the corner of his mouth on the exact spot where the frosting had been. She pulled away and watched him as he gawked at her and said nothing, and his silence screamed around her until she couldn’t take it anymore. “Well? Say something.” “I’m still waiting for you to do something stupid.”

(This has got to be one of the cutest scenes I’ve ever read. Ever).

He hadn’t realized how tight his lungs were until Mercy gave him room to breathe.

(My heart. Or should I say “my Hart”).

He figured that if he could no longer love Mercy in person, he could at least love her through the pages of her favorite novel.

(Everyone should love someone through their favorite novel, just saying).

Content Warnings

ramenfuneral's review against another edition

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dark funny 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? Yes

4.0

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thewellreadlabrador's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

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sydapel's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

Tad ovehyped in my opinion? The characters are lovely, but I feel like the whimsical fantasy/steam punk nature of this word was a lot of the draw, and while elements of it are, I didn't feel like it was described or developed effectively. Bonus points always for making me cry (a rule I've established at my own peril)!

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wardenred's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

4.5

“Don’t you think it’s weird, the way you two instantly hated each other? What demigod in his right mind wouldn’t fall for you?”
“Who said Hart Ralston is in his right mind?”

Such a quirky and charming read! This is very much an enemies-to-lovers story full of banter that starts of somewhat vicious, so it's probably not going to be everyone's cup of tea. I was personally immediately intrigued by the animosity between Hart and Mercy and wanted to get to the root of it, as well as see what it would take for them to mellow toward each other. In both regards, the story didn't disappoint.

The plot is pretty close to the movie You've Got Mail, so I guess it's a good thing that it's been ages since I last saw it. Even so, a lot of the turns the plot took made me recall entire scenes from that movie. So in that regard, if you're familiar with You've Got Mail, you're likely to find the book predictable. However, the characters and the setting make it feel really fresh.

The setting in particular absolutely enthralled me. I did have a minor problem with how disclosing information about it was handled. For the first few chapters, the author didn't really explain anything, just immersed the reader into the setting by having characters reference various details that are completely natural for them and trusting the reader to put the puzzle together. I loved that! It's my favorite approach to fantasy world when done right, and it was done so right here. I was enjoying piecing together all the information about zombies and demigods and the world in general.

Unfortunately, a few chapters in, it felt like the author second-guessed herself and hurried to include a conversation that explained and clarified multiple points, leaving little room for mystery. It wasn't exactly a case of "As you know, Bob," and the infodump-y dialogue was justified in-fiction. But it still felt vaguely disappointing. Especially since later on, the same thing kept happening later in the book: the author would introduce some concepts and setting aspects, let the reader start figuring them out, then jump in with a detailed explanation. I wish she stuck to the first approach consistently.

All the characters felt alive and fun to hang out with. I enjoyed the contrast between the two leads' arcs. Hart's is more of an inner journey: making peace with his past, coming to terms with being a demigod, opening up to the world. Mercy's arc is focused on the external events, such as keeping her family business afloat and dealing with her family members who want the best for her but have trouble hearing her when she tells them what she wants. They're both able to catalyze important changes for each other, but they don't step in to solve each other's problems. Rather, each of them inadvertently helps the other become the better version of themselves able to tackle these challenges successfuly. That made for a great dynamic both for the relationship and the plot.

The one aspect of their romance I didn't enjoy was the third act break-up. I get it, I get it, testing the relationship around this point of the book is an important genre convention. However, why go for the break-up route? It felt rather contrived in this scenario, and Mercy seemed to be majorly overreacting, almost out of character. Besides, since the disagreement happened right when Hart's internal conflict reached its peak, it would seem like a great idea to do the same thing with the Mercy-centric external conflict and have that be part of the relationship test, for more "compare and contrast" between the two arcs. So in that sense, the break-up also felt like a missed opportunity.

Despite these flaws in how the romance and the worldbuilding were handled, this was absolutely an enjoyable experience. There's lots of humor here and lots of interesting interpersonal relationships. I liked how queernorm this setting is, with two gay couples among the important secondary characters. The mentor and apprentice relationship between Hart and Duckers was among the highlights of the story for me, as well as Zeddie's journey to figuring out his calling. I was also rather impressed by the prose: it flowed well and was generally immensely readable, but I'm also left feeling like I've learned a bunch of new/lesser used words.

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erinfcampbell's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

There are some inconsistencies with the actual story of the book.

Spoiler

The drudge form when a soul goes into the appendix because the appendix holds the soul. But if you lose your appendix you are not souless? Also dogs don't have an appendix and therefore cannot get infected but they have souls. Surely they can get infected in whatever holds their soul?

The romance was there and cute. Definitely enemies to lovers very quickly in my opinion.

The book was humorous but the jokes were old and well used by others before.

The story has a huge amount of build up for something serious going on. That serious thing resolved so bloody quickly, a chapter or 2 at most. Huge build up for little drama.

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