The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

A fantasy world has demigods and "undead". People must take out funeral insurance policy when they enter, just in case. An arrow through the appendix of the undead is needed to eliminate them. Rather than create a dark fantasy tale, the author writes with a light tone filled with humor. It worked very well.

The story centers on Hart, a demigod marshall who hunts the undead and Mercy the daughter of an undertaker. They seem to hate each other, but there is some attraction. Hart starts spilling out his heart in anonymous letters. These are received by Mercy. They have a You've Got Mail relationship. They fall in love by mail, yet continue to dislike each other.  He discovers that she is the letter girl, and even tells her, but she doesn't believe him. Later he ends up saving her life from zombies and they fall in love. End, right? Nope. Still a lot more of the novel left. They seem to have a good relationship, but they freak out over him knowing about the letters and her not. Seems a bit contrived. He later discovers that he has the ability to stop the zombies by "going home". He saves the world, and then they live happily ever after.

The last part of the book seemed needlessly tacked on. The first part was really good. A light, humorous romantic fantasy is so much better than the dark droll that fills the shelves today.