Morbidly Yours

Narration: First person past tense, dual POV
Representation: Set in Ireland, Irish/Gaeilge language, main character with a stutter, demisexual main character

What happens when the epitome of the sunshine of the grumpy/sunshine fame moves next to a funeral home? What happens when the kinda grumpy (mostly introverted) owner of the funeral home melts down his defenses in the face of such insistent sunshine?

Lark is grappling with the loss of her husband and is not ready for a relationship. She feels a bit unmoored at the beginning of the book and throughout, Callum, new friends, and her job help her settle in and grow roots. The exploration of her grief was done very well.

I liked Callum the most in this book. He's very good at pushing people away and usually seems pretty serious, but with Lark he's himself, he's vulnerable, he's adventurous, he can be silly. I love a book partner that let's love into their heart easily. He's so genuinely sweet, it's hard not to love him as the reader.

The two were very sweet together. I loved their interactions, how they're there for one another, how even when they weren't dating, it was clear to everyone else that they were or would be. This is a bit of a slow burn, even after they both realize they're interested in one another, mostly because of Lark's misgivings about being in a relationship. You see them be infatuated then slowly fall in love, you see that love slowly erode their hard edges and you see them grow until they're ready to let one another in.

I liked a lot of the side characters as well, especially the old lady Maeve. I love how she and Lark bond over their losses and how she helps Lark in profound ways.

The villain of the story feels a bit extreme. This whole plotline felt unnecessary as is, and could have been much better if it was handled with more nuance. Neither Lark nor her coworker friends stand up for her as she's being bullied until something very clear-cut happens and that didn't feel right.

I also loved reading about Irish language and mythology!

Thank you to Putnam Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

Apparently, undertakers and romance are a good match as this is the second one I've read and liked.

Morbidly yours follows the story of Lark, who moved to Ireland for a temporary job as a way to cope with her grief. She doesn't want anything to do with death, but ends up living right beside a mortuary house and befriending Callum, the undertaker.

Callum is wonderful and everything precious we love when woman write man characters.

The romance was quite nice! Lark infuses Callum with life and joy, and he gives her the support and companionship she needed to start healing. We see their friendship blossom to love, and it is beautiful.

The sex scenes were very well written! They were sexy, tasteful, and probably some of the best I've read in contemporary romance. Callum stutters and this issue is treated with care.

The third act conflict was awful! I'm still suffering on behalf of Callum who is too forgiving. I still enjoyed the story as a whole though.

Definitely recommended for contemporary romance readers

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.


Okay don't get me wrong I did like it a lot! It was more of a 3.75 star rating for me. From the title and premise I thought death would be more of a cliche kitschy tool used more for humor and dressing then an actual poignant idea permeating the text. It actually used death in a thoughtful way, signifying how the end of one thing can still impact you long after it's gone, and how you deal with it effects your future. And also there's smut half way through it which doesn't hurt.

I did like it the slow burn was slow burning, the tension was there. I did find Lark the FMC to be a little annoying at parts but that's part of the human experience and natural. I think ultimately I went into it with the wrong expectations and that's my bad, so I put some warnings and tropes below to get people in the right frame of mind for what to expect.

In this book here are some of the possible triggers: off screen death, death of spouse, death of friend, mentions of cancer, grief, coming to terms with loss, bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, absentee parents, speech impediment and brief violence.

In this book you will find: slow burn, dirty talk in another language, acts of service, taking your time, friends to lovers, third act breakup, grumpy sunshine, and the cutest couple in Galway!

Both swoon-worthy and macabre, Morbidly Yours is an entertaining romance full of will-they-won't-they chemistry. I don't know if I fully connected with the characters/story, but I did have a fun time and appreciate the things this novel did well.

POSITIVES

♡ I thought this was an interesting take on grief, more focused on the guilt of moving on and the fear of hurting/getting hurt again.

♡ I liked that the diversity was not limited to the supporting cast and was treated respectfully. It was cool seeing the love interest's demisexuality play out as part of this slow burn romance, and it definitely made me root for their relationship.

♡ I enjoyed the way Gaeilge was incorporated throughout the book. I don't know if the author is Irish/has visited, but it seemed well researched to me (not an Irish person).

NEGATIVES

♡ My biggest complaint with this book is that it often felt like a chapter would end in the middle of a scene — I kept being surprised when I would turn the page to find the start of another chapter in another perspective in a completely different scene, and then never circling back around to see the actual scene. It felt abrupt to me, and I wonder if the book was meant to be longer but was edited down to this length.

♡ The central antagonist was a little over-the-top for me, and I think it could have been grounded by a deeper motivation for his actions.

♡ The story was predictable for me, but I don't think that's always necessarily a bad thing. There were just certain points where I knew what was going to happen and felt a little impatient waiting for the characters to catch up, ie. when her workplace nemesis steals her art/concept to get a leg up on the promotion.

“Be more positive!”, they said, so here we go: “Morbidly Yours” wasn't horrible! Just very bad.30-year-old widow Lark flees her native Texas, her embittered sister-in-law Rachel, who cyber-stalks her, to Ireland to work as an animator for a local studio. She moves into a house next to the undertaker's, our male protagonist, Callum, who is about as interesting as a dead tree in winter.At first, the chemistry and banter between the two was great and I looked forward to lots of fun. What followed, though, was basically this:Lark: Callum is so wonderful but I must not fall in love with him because I practically killed my husband because we had an argument and he drove recklessly around afterwards.Callum: Lark is so wonderful but I must not fall in love with her because I need to marry someone I don't love to keep my business from falling into the hands of a greedy corporation. Lark: Let's be friends with benefits, though! (I cannot emotionally handle that but somehow everything will be ok!)Callum: Yes! (I cannot handle it either but...)Predictably, next came some pretty nice and sensitive intimate scenes (usually I would have written “smut” but that's the only well-written part so the latter term felt too crude).Both Lark and Callum know communication is key and, consequently...»Were we just going to ignore what just happened? The words were right there, resting on my tongue like a piece of hard toffee. I swallowed them down. Better left unsaid.«With that, the vicious circle of “I love (him/her) but must not!” goes on and on and on... Mixed among all this are workplace drama, violence, a token non-binary person, whereas morbidity on the other hand is not really part of all this. Callum is supposed to be demi-sexual and/or demi-romantic (the author herself didn't seem to be sure) but the representation here is just plain bad.Oh, and, of course, there's a third-act breakup so dumb I actually face-palmed.The writing style and use of language is at high school level and the pacing varies between racing and Valium-induced creeping along. One star out of five.Blog Facebook Twitter Mastodon Instagram Pinterest Medium Matrix TumblrCeterum censeo Putin esse delendam