The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness.
Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest.
After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend”. Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born.
If only Hart knew he’s been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most – Mercy. As the dangers from Tanria grow closer, so do the unlikely correspondents. But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares – each other?

I’m not the biggest reader of romance but The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy had the perfect amount of it for me to be hooked. This book is for fans of the Sunshine/Grumpy enemies-to-lovers pairing, slow burn romance, and a relationship that grows through letters. The pen pal aspect of the story was probably what drew me in the most and the fact that it’s set in a world with marshals, undertakers, and lost souls possessing cadavers.

Right from the start our main characters Hart and Mercy are well on their way with insulting each other every time they meet. You get bits and pieces of what they internally think of each other and tucked between their hostilities are seeds of attraction and want. So if you like a healthy dose of yearning in your romance stories, you’re going to be in for a ride.

I also love how this book showed familial love – the struggles of putting family needs before your own, sacrifices made, quarrels and misunderstandings, but ultimately coming together as a family and supporting each other along the way. I love Mercy’s relationships with her father and her siblings and the contrast that created with Hart and how alone he is after his mother died. I appreciated how realistic the characters’ lives were. They sat down for meals, they worked, they argued, they stressed about problems of day to day life. Maybe it’s weird to appreciate those moments, but it brought me closer to the characters and helped me relate to their wants and needs.

Bannen does a fantastic job showing you who these characters are, specially with Hart and Mercy. I love that their anonymous letters to each other helped them open up and be vulnerable, telling each other things they wouldn’t say out loud. I love that this sparked their friendship and I could feel how nervous they were at the thought of eventually meeting the other person.

This book has such a fun cast of characters. There’s Mercy’s family, Hart’s apprentice, and snarky creatures delivering mail. There were also established and budding romances from queer characters, which is always so nice to see.

It did take me a while to get into the story. I think Bannen’s writing style in the beginning, specially with the interactions between Hart and Mercy, just didn’t quite work for me. I eventually got invested though, and her writing for the latter half of the book became more enjoyable to me.

I chuckled, I smiled, my heart ached and then rejoiced throughout this book. It’s witty, funny, and heartwarming – a book we could all use during these times.

Thank you to the team at Orbit for sending me a copy for review! All opinions are my own.