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

Product Information

Hachette Book Group is a leading book publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre, the third-largest publisher in the world. I was drawn to The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by a two-pronged attack of adorable cover art and interesting comparisons. The book goes in-depth in terms of some aspects like the belief system (it is very Game of Thrones with the Old Gods and the New and names like Grandfather Bones, The Warden, etc).

but Megan Bannen perfectly showed the gradual shift from enemies to reluctant friends to hot, passionate romance. The letter writing was sweet, and even though this book literally copies and pastes an entire scene from the movie "You've Got Mail" I was fine with it. It’s a fantastical setting with contemporary vibes—a place where underwire bras, bubble baths, and sneakers exist alongside portals to other realms, zombies, demigods, and talking animals who deliver the mail. I received an advance copy of this novel from the publisher, Orbit Books, in exchange for an honest review.Come for the banter, chemistry, and flawless enemies-to-lovers vibes, and stay for the gorgeous worldbuilding and beautifully depicted emotional landscapes. But over the course of the book, with the help of some mysterious letters and some “ah-ha” moments, the two realize that it isn’t hate that they are feeling towards each other. Add that to the not-so-sly intrusive political and social commentary, and I have a recipe for a story that becomes an unpleasant experience for me. An unabashedly offbeat adventure full of dead gods and mostly-dead zombies, family drama, swoon-worthy love letters, and a Very Good Dog, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy oozes romantic fun like a corpse oozes dubious fluids. The secondary characters add even more warmth and coziness to this tale through their varying relationships with the protagonists.

Emotions, in general, are handled with such tenderness here—especially, the unglamorous ones, like fear and, most significantly, loneliness. A certain humanoid rabbit messenger that was a total asshole in the best way possible and cussed at any given moment, for example. For example, Bannen drops in words like “equimare” and “autoduck”; you can infer through context that they are this universe’s equivalent to horses and cars. Hart is a marshal with the dangerous job of patrolling the wilds of Tanria and preventing dredges from attacking the citizens. 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.

The worldbuilding is a little thin (as I already mentioned), but there is enough there to tell a fascinating and exciting romance about our two protagonists, Hart and Mercy. I like fantasy without intrusion from the real life, and this was a constant jolt that brought me out of the book world regularly. But while they’ve always been at each other’s throats face-to-face, circumstances arise wherein Hart decides to pen a letter anonymously to a “Friend” and mail it off without an address attached… and it winds up in Mercy’s possession. I always appreciate having multiple narrators when there are different PoVs Michael Gallagher and Rachanee Lumayno felt perfect for their respective roles.

After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to "A Friend".The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy broke my heart, put it back together, then tucked me into bed with a forehead kiss. The closest thing I can compare this to is The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels meets You’ve Got Mail. In a moment of sentimentality, he pens a letter addressed simply to “A Friend,” and entrusts it to a nimkilim, an anthropomorphic animal messenger with an uncanny connection to the gods, (and in Hart’s case, a bit of a drinking problem). Through the act of loving each other they essentially free themselves and that is a beautiful, beautiful thing to watch unfold. With all these palpable feelings all around, this book is an easy read even if you don’t understand WTF is actually happening.

But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares – each other? I didn't really get why the characters hated each other--the novel does eventually tell us why, but its explanation felt flimsy and not very believable given that these characters have disliked each other for 4 whole years--and then when they did stop hating each other, it felt way too abrupt and not organic enough of a development. Megan Bannen is a former public librarian whose YA debut The Bird and the Blade was an Indies Introduce pick for 2018, a Kids Indie Next Fall 2018 List pick, a Kirkus Best YA of 2018, and recently was named by Stephenie Meyer as the most recent book that made her cry. So let's hope there's another romance -- one that is also weird but a weird I can get on board with! Death plays an outsized role in the story, given the somewhat tragic zombies and Mercy's job as an undertaker—but it's handled with empathy and respect, and I came away from the book feeling pleasantly existential.Hart has a ton of baggage from an old mentor who died and a lifestyle that is not conducive to therapy.