This book made me so happy. I adored the characters and I had a big grin from when the nimkilim made their first delivery, to the final page, it was perfect. I’m not normally a fan of enemies to lovers but this was done so well and with an empathetic humour.
I loved Mercy’s wonderfully chaotic family, and her obvious passion for her work. I also loved the fact that Hart was so grumpy, and understandably so, but that he was actually the kindest soul. He was so wholesome.
This had an old time western vibe, and I loved it.

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy is a retelling of Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail movie with zombies, in an original world of islands, complex mythology, and a wild-west vibe. The movie is one of my all-time favourite romantic comedies, so I had high hopes for this book.

There were some changes with the premise. In the movie, the romantic pair are business rivals. The bigger business eventually forces the smaller to close, a cause for permanent animosity between the pair in real life, while they become close through correspondence without knowing the identity of their friend. The romance hangs on whether she can forgive him for putting her out of business.

In the book, Hart, a marshal keeping a frontier town free of zombies, and Mercy, an owner of a funeral home, don’t have such a logical cause for their dislike. They hate each other at sight for no reason, which makes them rather unlikeable and weakens the premise. They too start corresponding, and find the other a kindred spirit while continuing to dislike each other in real life.

The pivotal moment, the attempt to meet for the first time, is copied from the movie. It doesn’t work as well as the author maybe hoped, and only managed to yank this reader out of the world of the book and remembering the original, which won the comparison. As the premise is different, the consequences of the meeting are different too. The romance basically hangs on whether she can forgive him for lying.

The book was at its best when it relied on its own worldbuilding and original story. For most of the book, the characters had their own stories going on that didn’t really touch. He had an apprentice to teach and needed to get over some trauma of his past, and she had the funeral home to save from a random jerk. She didn’t write to him to ask business advice, for example, like in the original (basically asking him to work against his own company).

Hart and Mercy improved on acquaintance. For the first part of the book, which follows the movie, the romance grew through letters. For the latter part, the romance was a rather run of the mill series of heat and heartache. Mercy handles her business problem with the help of her family. Hart handles the zombie problem with self-sacrifice. The latter brings the romance to a point in a rather forced fashion. It’s tear-inducing, but I didn’t find it terribly romantic.

The book was a mixed bag for me. I liked the world, which was much more complex than the story required. I liked Hart’s storyline, especially the parts with his apprentice, but it didn’t need to be that long. Mercy’s storyline with her family was nice, but much, much too long as well, and it took too long for her business trouble to solve. Put together and added with the romance, the plot was a mess that could’ve used chopping. I would’ve left the movie retelling out and gone with the author’s original story. It worked for the characters and the world best.

Loved this. In essence, a romance but set in a different world with Demi-gods, drudges and marshals. There was a little bit of a cowboy vibe too.

I really appreciate a romance that has a good plot and characters. This had it in spades. The romance didn’t sit separate but was well meshed with the plot. There was a good bit of humour running throughout too.

It did take me awhile to understand the world as it was very different but it was all explained as you went along.

Though it followed a very familiar romance plot, it was done in a way that just worked and didn’t feel like it was the same old thing done again. The main characters dealt with life and death daily and there was that theme running through but it didn’t feel heavy; rather it just threaded through with the plot.

I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this.

I'm not sure what I was expecting going into this book but I don't think I anticipated loving it as much as I did! I'd say at it's core this is a romance style book set in a slight fantasy world, and because I don't tend to go for romance's I guess it's not my usual read, but from the first few chapters I was drawn in and got through this book in one day.

Hart and Mercy were the perfect enemies to lovers, and I loved how beautifully their romance grew throughout the book. This book had me laughing, frustrated, and bawling my eyes out at one point. You know a book is good when it can take you though a range of emotions! I'm excited for whatever MB publishes next!

I'm not a rom com fan for the most part, but I will make exceptions, and this being set in a fantasy world, rather than contemporary had me intrigued. The funeral home setting also gave me Six Feet Under vibes so that was also a plus point in deciding to read.

The romance was cute and well done, slightly a bit cheesy at times but that was the point so it was done well.

I loved the magical animal mail couriers with attitude and I liked the world where Gods exist and souls can try to come back by inhabiting other bodies. I feel there wasn't a lot of world building, modes of transport had be a bit thrown, but there was enough to get the gist of what was going on, as that also wasn't the main focus, the characters were.

Where the enjoyment level of the book increased for me was when we got past the You've Got Mail scenario and see development with the characters and the world as a whole. Loved the way this went and enjoyed as a whole because of this

I was so excited when I first heard about this book - I'm a sucker for a riff on the Parfumerie story, and I love a good escapist fantasy. In theory, this should have been right up my street, and for the most part it was.

I enjoyed Hart and Mercy and reading their letters to each other was probably my favourite part of the book, I was a little disappointed at how thoroughly that aspect was dropped once they got together in real life, without Mercy really wondering where her letter-writing friend had gone, or Hart considering trying to write her another letter.

All the details of Mercy's undertaking and of what their culture believed around death I found very moving, and I did tear up a few times. I would have liked a little more from the fantasy world building regarding the gods and Tanria, though, I never really felt like I knew quite what was going on there.

Overall, this was a cute fantasy romance (heavy on the romance - it's not really a book I think fantasy lovers who aren't also romance fans would enjoy), and I'm glad I read it.

What isn’t there to love about Hart and Mercy?
Classic enemies to lovers, slow burn romance and a closer look on what it takes to be an undertaker.

This book gives insight into not only the ins and outs of running a business such as birdsall and sons, the strain it can put on a family but also show the love, care and compassion that takes precedence in a place like birdsall & sons.

I loved every word of this book and would happily recommend it to anyone who is looking for a heartfelt romantic comedy with a sci-if twist.

If the romance genre isn’t your thing, this book just might convert you.

This book was provided to me as a NetGalley eARC for an unbiased review!

Let me start of by saying this was once of the most original concepts I have come across for
a fantasy romance for a while!
I’m a big fan of the grumpy/ Sunshine trope and this book delivered
with spicy scenes and laugh out loud moments it’s gripping and dark but with all the breaks you need to keep it enjoyable!

The undertaking of Hart and Mercy is set in a world of magic and zombies!
Hart is tasked with protecting the people of Tanria from Drudges (zombies) who take over corpses and poses them.
Mercy (total ball of light ) is trying to keep her families business afloat which is unfortunately where she’s in constant contact with her biggest annoyance in life Hart . But the undertakers business is struggling when more and more drudges start to show up things start to change can this unlikely pair make it through?

This fantasy/romcom/mystery novel really came as an unexpected one for me I loved it! I only struggled a little in the darkest parts and the ending OMG overall a really enjoyable unique read! 4.5⭐️

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy is an enemies to lovers fantasy romance by Megan Bannen

Mercy is the daughter of an undertaker who aspires to take over the family business. Hart is a marshal who patrols the world of Tanria. They both can’t stand each other. One day Hart writes a letter to ‘a friend’ and it gets delivered to Mercy who writes a letter back, and the two of them grow closer.

I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. It was entertaining but I just didn’t care for the main characters. I found the side characters were much more likeable and entertaining.

The enemy’s to lovers happened quite quickly, there are a couple of spicy scenes in the middle of the book.

Overall an enjoyable read with a few things I didn’t gel with, but if you are looking for a slow paced light fantasy romance this could be the book for you.

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy

Thank you to Little, Brown and NetGalley for providing an eARC for review!

Unfortunately, this book just really wasn't my cup of tea (or coffee haha...ha...ha). I'm not usually a romance girlie, but I had heard nothing but good things about this and it seemed like it had the potential to be something fun and dumb, but I think it was just too much for me.

This read like the romance book for girls who are not like other girls. Sure it's grumpy-sunshine, and there are heaps of traditional romance moments, but then there are also like zombies and Mercy likes doing undertaker stuff but also likes dresses and cake!! Idk this just felt like the book for people who describe themselves as quirky and take pride in not liking romcoms cause they're not edgy enough.

I think a lot of this is my fault for thinking this would be up my alley, but I also did find Mercy's struggles and family issues really interesting. I felt for her when everyone was telling her what to do and ignoring her, and she could only find solace in her penpal who wasn't even 'real'. But this was kind of buried (haha like undertaking) beneath Hart's constant remarks about how great her boobs are, or the weird portal/god/zombie lore that was kind of thrown in with not enough explanation, or like the TALKING RABBIT MESSENGER WHO SWEARS ALL THE TIME AND DRINKS ALCOHOL CAUSE HAHA FUNNY RABBITS ARE SO CUDDLY BUT NOT THIS ONE!!

Idk the tone of this just rubbed me the wrong way - we were having discussions about like death and funeral rites and how the death industry has become commercialised (hello Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory) but then we were also having like him worshipping at the altar of her pu$$y so....yeah. For some reason I feel fans of Get a Life, Chloe Brown would like this, but it felt a bit too romance for it to be a fantasy romance, and a bit too fantasy to be a straight romance so I'm unsure who I would recommend this to more generally. Cheese/cringe factor definitely through the roof with this one though.

I started this one with so much optimism – a fantasy inspired by You Got Mail? Yes please. In the end, this let me down. The beginning was alright, but it very quickly became clear that they might hate each other (and even that is a stretch, as the history there doesn’t make sense) but that doesn’t exclude them from lusting over each other whenever their in the same room. The world building was confusing – I’m still not fully sure where this story took place – and even if you read this as a full on romance, the transitions were far too quick. Part of the joy of a story like You’ve Got Mail is the slow growth and change of their relationship, which took no time at all, and as such I didn’t care. According to some other reviews this also lifts scenes straight from the movie – I haven’t seen it recently enough to say that for sure, but that seems lazy, given all the other changes that were made. The final nail in the coffin – and yes, that was an intentional pun – was the very contemporary dialogue (including during the steamier scenes), which did not suit the setting at all and kept pulling me out of the story. This was not for me, unfortunately.

Alright, this was cute. Like, way cuter than I expected from those first few pages (tells you not to judge a book by its first chapter, I guess).

Going into this, I expected some kind of romance, and while I did get that, I also got a surprisingly heartfelt and well-researched look into the funeral industry. Mercy runs a funeral home (where the Undertaking part of the title comes in) and she really does care about the dead. This book has amazing worldbuilding in regards to the beliefs and myths these characters have about death and what happens after one dies, with some pointed remarks and parallels to our own big funeral industry. It genuinely makes me want to recommend this book to my beloved Caitlin Doughty, and I suspect the author might be a fan of Caitlin's work, too.

The romance itself felt kinda rushed, imo; they did start off thinking they hate each other, but in the very first chapter, our main guy Hart basically obsesses over Mercy's boobs, and I gotta say, I did roll my eyes quite hard. The nicknames they have for each other are ... cringy at best, and the whole You've-got-Mail-ish subplot didn't do a lot for the characters. Also, it was so obvious who they were, I am seriously dissapointed that they didn't guess it.

The part that impressed me most was the world building. There's more of that in one page of this book than in all of SJM's books together (that's both a compliment on this book and hate on SJM. good god.) Seriously, I think you could fill in entire series length with stories in this universe, with the way the religious system works, the magic system, the politics, the similarities to our world - and the differences - and THEN you could do another series just on the whole separate-magical-dreamland thing. Good lord. I'm seriously impressed. There's so much - and I loved it.

While the interactions between characters can sometimes be cringy (especially the interactions between the siblings in Mercy's family), it generally is a very moving book. Very death-positive, and it does make you think a bit about what you want to happen to your body, eventually, and I think that's very important. I think you can actually learn quite a bit from this book.

From the moment I started this book on the exercise bike in the gym I needed it like oxygen. The enemies to lovers romance: perfection. The religious system that was entirely unknown but easily understood: wonderful. The found family and real family happiness within the pages: enchanting and real. How did this book manage to combine enemies to lovers, fantasy, a buddy cop comedy, demigods, zombie battles, adorable pen pal romance and angst without feeling overwhelming?? Honestly, incredible - this will be one of my top books of the year

I really enjoyed this book once it got going, but I did put it down at 12% because it wasn’t grabbing me and have to come back to it later.

Once we got past the initial section where the characters spent a lot of time thinking about how much they didn’t like each other, it was very enjoyable.

For me, I think the transition from ‘I’m not sure I’m going to enjoy this’ to ‘I’m very much going to enjoy this’ was Chapter 12, which is entirely composed of letters, and was perhaps my favourite chapter in the whole book. So it does take a little while to get going, but it’s worth sticking with to get to the rest of the story.

The characters (both main and side) were loveable - if infinitely frustrating. I think my favourite character was Pen/Duckers, who gets relatively little page time compared to some of the others but is absolutely wonderful and, much like me, just wants everyone in this book to be happy.

The setting and the magic system - for lack of a better term, because it’s not really a magic system, it’s more of a reanimation system - were interesting, although I would’ve liked to hear a little more about them in the first section of the book; later on this was less important because the story becomes so character focused.

Overall, this is a quick, fun read once you get into it, and I’m glad I picked it up.

Totally batshit, mildly dystopian tale of an undertaker and undead hunter brought together by magical letters delivered by sarcastic talking animal mail characters.

Is it over the top? Yes. Is it literary? No. Is it a well written fun paranormal romance with some interesting themes of old religion? Yes!

This story follows Hart a quiet, brooding Marshall whose job is to kill zombie possessed corpses and take them to an undertakers, which is where we meet Mercy a sunny, happy, sarcastic women who is currently looking after her fathers business. They hate each other and bring out the absolute worst in each other. That is until Hart sends out an anonymous letter to the ether about his loneliness which is received by Mercy.

It being described as a fantasy story crossed with you’ve got mail has got it perfect…with a little bit of spice. It is very sweet, though I did eye roll at some of the moments in the book.

I really enjoyed this book and read it within a day. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy es un libro de mecha lenta, que tarda en arrancar pero al que merece la pena dar una oportunidad. Es un romance con una estructura muy típica de enemies to lovers, pero situado en un contexto bastante original, con una construcción del mundo bastante macabra pero atractiva.


Hart es un marshal solitario que patrulla el mundo mágico de Tanria, el hogar de los antiguos dioses en el que el peligro acecha en cada esquina, en forma de monstruos que toman posesión de cadáveres y atacan a todo aquel que se cruce en su camino. Hart se encarga de llevar los cuerpos a las distintas funerarias especializadas en el plano mortal para que se lleven a cabo los necesarios ritos funerarios.

La encargada de una de estas funerarias es Mercy, que carga con la responsabilidad del negocio familiar desde que su padre cayó enfermo esperando el regreso de su hermano menor, que se está formando para heredar la empresa. A pesar de que le gusta su trabajo, se ha volcado tanto en él y en el bienestar de su familia que ha dejado de lado su vida personal.

Aunque ambos protagonistas se conocen, nunca se han caído bien no sé sabe exactamente por qué razón. Así que cuando Hart, hastiado de su solitaria existencia, decide escribir una carta sin rumbo a una amiga desconocida, ni en cien años se hubiera imaginado que su misiva acabaría recalando en el buzón de Mercy, ni que se acabaría enamorando de ese amigo desconocido a través de sus misivas.

Hasta aquí, una historia bastante típica y el desarrollo no se sale tampoco de los caminos conocidos. Pero si hay algo que hace destacar The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy es el mundo en el que se desarrolla, con esa mitología de dioses nuevos y antiguos, todos esos ritos funerarios para que los cadáveres no puedan revivir (que recuerda algo a los trabajos de Katherine Addison), la existencia de semidioses con extrañas capacidades y en general un entorno fantástico que salva a la novela de caer en el montón de Corín Tellado al por mayor.


En resumen se trata de un libro bastante ortodoxo en sus formas, que gana bastante con las adiciones de un entorno fantástico atractivo en el que la historia se inserta perfectamente formando un todo perfectamente disfrutable.

Thank you to Little Brown Book Group/Orbit & Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

Honestly, I don’t even know how to start this review… this book was nothing like I expected in the best possible way!

Hart & Mercy are both so loveable, their enemies to lovers pairing works perfectly right the way down to their nicknames for each other! The supporting characters were also great, particular favourites are definitely Duckers & Bassareus.

The world building was excellent (although it did take me well over half the book to work out what an autoduck actually was, hint: it’s not a giant rubber duck with wheels…), the world has a dystopian feel but with some traditional fantasy elements, it’s a really fun mix that works so well!

Finally, the story, although not action packed, drew me in & I just couldn’t put this book down. There’s some heavy topics covered, but overall it was a fun, cosy read that I never wanted to end.

I also need this to be made into an animated film asap please!

If there’s a quote that will summarise the tone of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy it is: “That is enemy cleavage.”

Ngl, the nicknames (Hartache and Merciless for enquiring minds) between the two leads gave me such an ick I was turned off from finishing the ARC for weeks. If they were introduced later into the story, I think I would have been more forgiving of them, but a cutesy nickname for a nemesis right in the first chapter made me cringe.

I’m gave the book a chance, however, and powered through. Once I started regarding it as an elaborate Dramione AU, everything was filtered through fanfic-tinted glasses and I started to enjoy myself. (I do not know for sure if the author ships Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger, but I am highly suspect as she has the vibe and the dynamic down to a T.)

I actually really liked the world-building and the mystery of it — characters knew exactly what sort of world they live in and for them it’s completely normal. They didn’t go into expository inner monologue about the magic system and the history of the world. I certainly don’t pause in my daily life and think “ah, yes, ever since the fall of the Empire, life on the British Isles has changed so much—” As a reader, I had to uncover what’s going on layer by layer when characters dropped a tidbit of information.

The main characters’ journeys neatly wrapped up at the end, and I liked how Hart and Mercy solved the obstacles of their individual storylines independently of each other.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for providing an advance review copy in exchange for this honest review.

Cute, quirky and utterly charming- what a treat!

Hart is a brooding, grumpy oh so serious demigod Marshall.
Mercy is a sweet and sunny undertaker taking care of the family business.

Hart and Mercy don’t get on at all- or do they? When Hart writes a letter expressing his loneliness his arch nemesis of the sunny disposition replies and an unlikely friendship connection begins- but neither know it’s them think You’ve got mail if the characters were 10,000 times better (don’t come for me!)

This is a great fantasy book and when introducing a new fantasy world you can expect a fair amount of world building at the start of this book and I think the author does a great job at introducing this new world but it does slow the pace at the beginning.

The family dynamics in the book were really special and the characters were really well written.

This book is a fantasy romance and we’ve got a whole heap of the tropes we know and love- Enemies to Lovers or is it Friends to Lovers? Grumpy/Sunshine and miscommunication which is the only bit I didn’t enjoy, miscommunication trope for me is not the one but it undoubtedly does build tension.

I really enjoyed this book:
Strong characters and not just the main ones, the side characters were super well written.
Lighthearted, a really great cuddle of a fantasy book.

4.5/5