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.

The River Has Roots

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

The book was short. That was about all it had going for it. There was something about fantasy and animals and humans. This is not something for me.

The Cruel Prince: The Folk of the Air, Book 1

The Cruel Prince: The Folk of the Air, Book 1 by Holly Black

For a romantic-ish fantasy, this book was surprisingly readable. A girl has an interesting family background with plenty of death and destruction. She is a human that later goes to live among he fairies. Things are bad there with a pretender to the throne managing to sneak around a curse by killing the leaders in the process of transition. In the middle of this the girl escapes and has brief romantic flings. It isn't a great book, but it beats most of the other fantasy drivel out there. 

Summer War

The Summer War by Naomi Novik

There is some realistic fantasy with some magic and siblings and lack of love. It was easy to fall asleep

Fourth Wing: Empyrean, Book 1

Fourth Wing: Empyrean, Book 1 by Rebecca Yarros

Sex. Violence. Dragons. Blah.

Isles of the Emberdark: A Cosmere Novel Secret Projects, Book 5

Isles of the Emberdark: A Cosmere Novel Secret Projects, Book 5 by Brandon Sanderson

A young dragon leads a crew of misfits. She works to help encourage her crew to work together and be happy. She slowly learns how to be a good leader. There are significant areas of trust that need to be overcome. They have struggles as they encounter various other beings in space. The book is a bit long (but shorter than many other Cosmere books.) It stands along well and has some interesting stories that relies more on science fiction than fantasy.

Fearless

Fearless by Lauren Roberts

This conclusion to the Powerless series is filled with tons of twists and turns - way too many of them. The girl is going to be married to the "wrong" boy. It would have been nice to see her end up with the "true love" instead, but you knew it would not happen. A single twist could have done it. Instead there were dozens. She kills thet rue love, only to later find out it was somebody in disguise. She finds out that she is actually an abandoned royal daughter.  A friend is not actually a friend. There was a plot to spread the plague around and the King was both noble and crazy. In the end, the king dies, she discovers that she is the royal rather than the guy she loves and they get to live happily ever after and have kids. Remove three quarters of the sub-plots and this could be a good book.

Reckless

Reckless by Lauren Roberts

The book starts out with the two lovers hating each other because each has killed the other's father. It ends with them reconciling, but with his brother proposing marriage to her. In there the middle, there is non-stop Hollywood-style adventure. He chases her and after various escapes finally catches her. Then she is rescued and he is caught. Then they are both caught. They run through escapes and "play lovers" a few time before realizing they do love each other. They find out more about their past and the societal plans. Finally they reach his brother who is now the ruler. There are plenty of twists and turns that are just plausible enough to work, with the relationship gradually growing in a believable fashion. The world building remains a little confusing, but is not super important.

Powerless

Powerless by Lauren Roberts

in a post-apocalyptic world, some people have "special powers". These people with the powers have taken power and relegated the "ordinaries" to a lower class. There are even people that go out and try to kill off any ordinary people. The society has a hunger-games style competition where people with special powers compete and kill each other, with some voted on by the general public. Into this situation, a boy meets a girl. The girl is an ordinary who fakes a predictive power (she is just very observant and can guess things about people when seeing them.) The boy is the son of the king. He works as the "enforcer", killing off ordinaries, though he has a soft spot for kids. They fall for each other, yet they also compete with each other. At the end, we learn that each has killed the other's father. There is not much original in this book, but the story telling is a bit better than similar books.

Cruel Is the Light

Cruel Is the Light by Sophie Clark

This book is like K-Pop Demon Hunters without the Kpop. There is a girl and guy that fill in love. The boy ends up being a demon, while the girl hunts them. They are part of some futuristic empire headquarted in the Vatican. It is fairly typical mediocre romantasy. 

Accomplice to the Villain

Accomplice to the Villain: Assistant and the Villain, Book 3 by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

The Villain makes a passing comment about the girl being his accomplice. That gives us a title. The books has a good deal of action, humor and romance. However, there are so many twists, turns and subplots that it is easy to get lost. The families of the villain are all interrelated and both hate and love each other. The end serves to just confuse the plot points. The frog prince seems to be more frog, but then seems to magically appear as a person at the end. The villain shouldn't have been the villain, but the girl should. Their relationship has stepped up a level, so does it really matter what they should have been? There are various conflicts, possible traitors and more along with a lot of one-liners. I still have not bought in to the necessity of what is going on. 

Assistant to the Villain: Assistant to the Villain, Book 1

Assistant to the Villain: Assistant to the Villain, Book 1 by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

A girl from a hard-up family takes a job as the assistant to "the villian". She tries to pass it off as a regular job to her family. In fact, it does closely resemble a regular job - except for the dead bodies. The Villain has a small corporate operation. The girl helps it run smoothly. The Villain realizes this when the girl quits after a misunderstanding and nobody knows what to do. He works to get her back. The two of them have various adventures that often involve family members and fall for each other.  However, they get caught by the king and capture him and seemingly kill the girl. The girl's dad had betrayed them with magical ink that allows him to see her documents she writes. Things end with a cliffhanger for the next book. The book is primarily humorous fantasy with a small dose of romance, thought I would not quite call it romantasy. It has a young adult or even big kid feel, though the bits of salty language put a damper on that. It seems like it has potential that it almost lives up to.

Wicked Fox

Wicked Fox by Kat Cho

If you mix Twilight and Korean drama you'll get Wicked Fox. A family of human-like "fox" creatures must feast on humans to survive. They move to a small town where the daughter goes to public school. She has struggles with some kids. However, she falls for a boy who she helps save from goblins. For a fantasy story, this is pretty good, but it is still a fantasy.

What Did You Do?

What Did You Do? by Jeneane O'Riley

The book starts with sex, but actually has a little bit of story to hold it together. There is something about being part human and part magical being. The family has different people and she thought she had powers. Only she didn't. But she did. There is half a heart to recover and conflicted relationships all around. It is very much romatacy, but ha a little bit of believability. 

Dragon and Thief (The Dragonback Series Book 1)

Dragon and Thief (The Dragonback Series Book 1) by Timothy Zahn

A dragon and kid raised as a thief are partners. They survived a spaceship crash. They pretend to be magicians and put on a show - earning a lot of money doing "legitimately" what the kid has done illicitly before. There is more plot and story, but I didn't really catch it.

The Last One

The Last One: Last One, Book 1 by Rachel Howzell Hall

This was better than our typical romantasy. It actually had some semblance of a story with characters that were interested in a bit more than just saving the world and sleeping with the enemy. (But only a small bit more.) The protagonist, Kai, cannot remember much of anything about her past. She said once she was "Just Kai" and that left others a name to use. There is a guy named Jaden who she likes. There are your typical save the world stuff as well as plenty of double entendre. People also seem to be keen on stealing her clothes and special amulet. She gradually finds out more about herself and what her mission was. By the end it does devolve into more of the typical romantasy.

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women by George MacDonald

Phantastes is a fantasy novel written more than a century and a half ago. Alas, it is still a fantasy novel. It influence Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. In the story, a man gets drawn in to a fantasy world and goes on a quest. Like most fantasy works, that was about all I got out of it.

A Market of Dreams and Destiny

A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey

Merchants, magic and london. It ties together some way, but I really can't tell you how.

The Shadowbound King: Realms of the Covenant, Book 2

The Shadowbound King: Realms of the Covenant, Book 2 by Amy Pennza

There are elves and humans. A girl lives close to the Elf kingdom. The capture her because they want something for her father. Instead they end up falling in love. It didn't seem to matter that there were two guys that were already in love with each other, they freely add the girl also. And in an epilogue there is child. The bit of plot is just enough to provide endless gay and straight erotic scenes. Sex becomes just an activity done for pleasure. Being parents or reproducing seems just incidental. This attitude could explain why people are just not having kids. Why bother doing the hard work after the pleasure? Will humans eventually bread out the desire to reproduce? 

How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

This book spawned multiple successful movies. It is set as a translation of old Norse. People train dragons. Some kids brefriend, but also run into trouble. Things work out well in the end.