Welcome to Litsy!

Glitter spewing pink dragons. That is all you need to know.

ENEMIES TO LOVERS IS THE BEST ROMANCE TROPE. I will not accept arguments to the contrary. Megan Bannen does a wonderful job crafting the primary couple, their initial loathing of each other, and the intense chemistry leading to the inevitable conclusion. The secondary characters are absolutely delightful. The world building is haphazard and I felt lost for the first 50 pages and just finally decided to roll with the weird things.

It has been awhile since I have posted here on Litsy. This book is a nice combination of quirky, romance, and death.

Ok I‘m not sure what I just finished but I really liked it a little off the beaten path but great that it‘s different… old/new gods and wraith/zombie things really liked it but will have to reread to clarify some things I might have missed 🙌🏽📖🥰

A fantasy You‘ve Got Mail with way more death, gods, and zombies desperate to possess the living.
I loved the world building, especially the religious practices and after-death care the FMC, Mercy, is responsible for as an undertaker.
Hart is a marshal who patrols Tanria, the realm where the zombies are and it‘s his job to make sure they stay put, and collect any humans unlucky enough to die there.

If you can overlook the glaring typos of A. The MMC‘s name being misspelled and B. A small in stature person being described as “petit” then it‘s a sweet and charming little feel good story.

A grim cozy Fantasy Western reimagining of You‘ve Got Mail. Grumpy x Sunshine Romantasy. Honorable mention for my Top Ten Reads of 2023!

That last book of the year cram always gets me! #catsoflitsy

What a unique and strange book! I loved the world building, the angst and emotion, and the exploration of death and grief. I stayed up late last night to finish it, just under the #BookspinBingo wire. It was my #Doublespin and got me my my 6th bingo for October. I really enjoyed it! @TheAromaofBooks

Today‘s fare…

#lunchtimereads #officereads

Great timing for a readathon - I have 2 audiobooks and 2 physical books I want to make a lot of progress on.
#outstandingoctober @Andrew65

Barnes is having a sale….. 🙄🙄🙄🤣🤣🤣🎉🎉🎉

I didn‘t expect to love this, but Gods (if you know, you know), I LOVED IT. Super amazing characters, a really well done enemies to lovers story, zombies…. And I very much want a talking owl as my mailman 🦉😂

The world is neat, but it just does seem to start happening (am I supposed to know what an autoduck is? A Nimkilim?)

there is so much unneeded conflict/Miscommunication, major conflict over things I would have never thought anyone could be mad about

The chemistry was good once it got going. &every other aspect of the book was better than the love story.Mystery with the competitor, the New Gods, freaking zombies! But I can‘t get past some issues.

This book has everything: love letters, zombies, enemies to lovers, etc. I had a great time reading this book. I didn‘t know how much I loved a good correspondence until I was hooked on waiting for the next letter to arrive. Yes, there are a lot of dead bodies, but somehow this book was a very lighthearted read.

This was a cute and unique fantasy romance with zombies. However, it‘s not really post apocalyptic, zombies are just part of the lore of this world. The world building and characters were great, loved them. The romance was fine, but depended a little too much on miscommunication for my taste. 4⭐️

1️⃣7️⃣ Husband Auditions ➡️ 1️⃣8️⃣ The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

#ThingsInCommon: heart on covers

#awesomeapril

Reading the tagged book and feeling a little overwhelmed by my library/office/yoga space this week (the piles!!) #shelfie

Cute little romance, but wasn‘t my favorite.

This book is candy. I blew through it and had a blast. Cracked me up AND made me cry. A little disappointed to find it was just a retelling of Shop Around the Corner / You‘ve Got Mail after hearing how original it was, but otherwise totally lived up to the hype. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When I first picked this up, I thought, “This is long for a Romance!” But it‘s short for a Fantasy. Since it fits into both genres, it makes sense that it‘s an average of the two lengths. Still, it could‘ve been shorter. Some of the initial angst could‘ve been cut and we would‘ve lost nothing. Also, the conflict felt SO AVOIDABLE. Despite my complaints, I actually really liked it! I‘m shocked because I bought it (which usually ensures my apathy).

This made me LOL for like 5 minutes. 😂

Just started this one ▪️◼️⚰️◾️▪️

My first book read for #AuldLangSpine & @Laughterhp ‘s list. I loved this book which reminded me of You‘ve Got Mail only set in a western/fantasy world. Both Hart & Mercy were great characters as were their friends & family. Sweet, funny, & a bit spicier than I was expecting-not a bad thing., I was both tearing up & smiling.

I purchased it as a Kindle Deal but it might have languished in my TBR without the #ALSpine nudge, so thanks to Mikala! 🤗

My third #AuldLangSpine 😁📚.
A fantasy romance that gets quite spicy, and there are dogs!
Mercy is an undertaker in her family‘s business, and Hart is a marshal who‘s job it is to deliver bodies from the field.
They don‘t like each other from day one, until they accidentally end up secret pen pals, and even then it‘s doubtful.
There are a bunch of neat characters and some zombie-ish creatures, and I thought this was fun.
Great on audio!

#manicmonday #letterU @cbee @Librariana

📚 The Undertaking of Heart & Mercy; Underground Railroad
✍️ Gabrielle Union; Louis Alberti Urrea
🍿 Underworld; (the) Untouchables
🎤 U2 UB40
🎶 Umbrella (Rihanna) Unholy (Sam Smith)

Better late than......you know.

#WondrousWednesday

1️⃣ Fantasy You‘ve Got Mail (tagged book at least so far!)

2️⃣ Sadly, no. I have no talent for languages

3️⃣ Either Can‘t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne, Paper Cuts by Ellery Adams or Murder at Haven‘s Rock by Kelley Armstrong (I can‘t pick just one! 📚)

Play if you want to & haven‘t yet! 🤗

Woohoo! My happy new year book! 🎉

My New Year‘s Day bookish plans are to finish Improbably Yours, started last night & to get further into the tagged book which I started this morning. It‘s the first of the #AuldLangSpine books from @Laughterhp that I plan to read & 2 chapters in I‘m enjoying it. 🤗

What are your bookish plans for today?

For a book featuring many reanimated corpses and frequent appendix stabbings, this was surprisingly quirky and sweet. I loved the characters and stayed up way too late to finish the story... worth it!

Very excited to go through my #AuldLangSpine list from @Laughterhp & find the first 2 rows pictured are on my #TBR & I already own them or will by Jan! (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is in my Dec #BOTM box)

The bottom row weren‘t on my #TBR but I will seek them out as they sound like books I‘ll really enjoy. The remaining 8 books (not shown) are still possibilities as I‘m a moody reader.

Thank you @monalyisha for another great pairing!🤗

November was probably one of my better reading months comparatively as far as quantity goes. Quality started off strong then kind of tanked after Earthsea though. I was a little overly ambitious with my expectations though so I didn't meet any of my goals lol. All 7 were physical books but two were library loans. I also managed to cross three titles off my bookspin backlog. Overall I'm pleased and disappointed at the same time.
#NovemberWrapUp

#BookReport
Pretty solid reading week. Of the two the tagged was my favorite.

#WeeklyForecast
My goal is to hit my 140 pages a day which may or may not mean finishing something.

I really enjoyed this. The world felt unique and interesting without being overly complicated and I liked watching Hart and Mercy find each other despite having known each other for four years.

I think the tagged book was my favorite read of October. I read a lot in October, but not a lot of books that I loved.

Let‘s see what November & December bring!

Sweet story and characters!

#BookReport
Managed to finish A Wizard of Earthsea this week and make a good dent in the tagged.

#WeeklyForecast
My goal this week is to finish Hart and Mercy and then move on to Tombs of Atuan. I'd like to finish Tombs this week as well but I'm trying to be more realistic with my goals.

That was an emotional rollercoaster I was not anticipating! I really loved this one. Set in a western border town edged by zombies, a love story unfolds. An enemies to lovers read, but filled with fantasy elements. I loved the juxtaposition of not having cell phones but having toaster pastries. The world Bannen has built is similar to our own but also completely foreign.
The characters were lively and I was apparently attached b/c I am 😭😍

“Another death-themed #standalone #fantasy #romance, yay!”, I thought when I started, but it turned out death is just the background here, a fancy worldbuilding gimmick. Instead, this is about putting yourself out there, for other people to see—and potentially judge—and about communicating with those close to you. Plus, it‘s a fun #enemiestolovers romance. Overall, recommended.

Thank you @Laughterhp, for putting this on my radar.

4.0/5

One of my final picks for the #spookyseason 👻!

Finished this one on Tuesday last week. I loved this book and I hadn‘t even heard of it until I got it as a birthday book! This was set in a different world where there are old and new gods and demigods. Mercy‘s family runs a funeral home. Hart is a Marshall who has to fight zombie like creatures (but they aren‘t zombies). And they unknowingly start writing letters to each other and slowly fall in love.

#teammonstermash #scarathlon2022

Christine! Thanks so much for these books for my birthday!! I haven‘t heard of the tagged book or Bindle Punk Bruja but they both sound right up my alley!!

I want to read them all now!

My September #bookspinbingo

#bookspin #doublebookspin @TheAromaofBooks

Weekend plans! I love these covers!

5/5

Mercy is undertaker and Hart, a warden tasked with killing the undead, is a frequent and reluctant customer, who loathed Mercy from the moment he met her. He finds solace from his difficult life writing letters to an anonymous friend, never realizing that Mercy is the person responding and is just as unaware of who her secret pen pal is.

It's a beautiful book that isn't afraid to acknowledge death. I loved the world building.
#netgalley

1. The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen & You Are Not a Sh*tty Parent by Carla Naumburg

2. A coke because coffee was not doing it today.

3. Dressing my baby up for his first Halloween!

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

Heaven.

“It was always a gamble, dropping off a body at Birdsall and Son Undertakers, but this morning the bride of fortune favored Hart Ralston.“

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Kind of ‘You‘ve Got Mail‘ but with zombies and demi-gods.

An utter delight

Bk4 of September is done! Well. This only came yesterday & I finished it last night. It was brilliant🙌 It‘s a very hard book to describe, it spans a few genres but fantasy romance works I guess. I‘m not a romance reader(at. All.)but totally fell in love with the story, world & characters. And the snark was amazing! Such a unique world, I don‘t think I‘ve read anything like it before(and that‘s saying something).Recommend 5⭐️ #BookspinBingo