The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

#1 The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy ★★★★★
#2 The Undermining of Twyla and Frank

It annoyed Mercy to no end that after years of putting up with that insufferable marshal, some primal inner instinct continued to think he looked good enough to eat.

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.

I was sucked in from the very first moment Mercy and Hart bickered at one another, and it never got old. Even when I just wanted them to get over their respective obliviousness and recognize what was happening between the two of them, I still found myself enjoying the arguing and angst and reluctant attraction so much. I feel like a lot of enemies-to-lovers stories don't always nail the ratio—either there's too much enemy content with a magical flip switching them to lovers, or they were never enemies to begin with!—but Megan Bannen perfectly showed the gradual shift from enemies to reluctant friends to hot, passionate romance.

I loved every minute of this book, friends. I tabbed this poor paperback half to death and already know it's going to be a well-worn copy in no time because this is the sort of story I can easily see myself revisiting very soon.

Buddy read with Jamie and Ashley!

✨ Representation: Mercy is described as curvy and possibly plus-sized; multiple queer side characters (including depictions of two side romances, one w/w and one m/m)

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.

✨ Content warnings for: gore, violence, death, medical content, misogyny, Mercy's father has recently suffered a heart attack

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