I received and eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It’s the end of an era in the most bonkers world of Tanria.
What a lovely ending to this interconnected trilogy.

Things I loved:
- Duckers, the best side character to ever exist.
- The continuation of seeing the dragons and Mary Georgina.
- The banter and Rosie’s lack of filter.
- That the MCs (both in this book and the previous two) are unconventional in terms of typical romance novels. I loved that Rosie towered over the short king that is Adam.
- Found family
- I also personally loved that the romance didn’t rev in until the middle of the book. I liked that it started as a sub plot

Reasons for pause:
- it’s the last in the trilogy and that’s SAD

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the storyline and both main characters. The premise of getting stuck together is always a good one. Plus I love when one character has been enamored with the other for a long time. Also liked how both ended up becoming mortal together.

This was my first read in the Hart and Mercy series, and while The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam can be read as a standalone, I could tell there were recurring characters from the earlier books. I think reading those first would have made this feel even more special, but even without that background, I found it incredibly enjoyable.

The book was hilarious in the best way and came at the perfect time for me. I loved diving into the relationships and the intricate mythology surrounding the gods. The world-building was fresh, fun, and layered, and the casual, conversational tone of the narrative made it an easy and delightful listen.

I especially appreciated the role reversal between Rosie and Adam, which felt both intentional and empowering. And I absolutely cried while finishing this one. There was so much heart packed into the final chapters.

Every character had their moment to shine, including the side characters, something I always appreciate in a well-rounded story. And as someone who doesn’t usually read many books about gods, I found this aspect to be fresh and captivating. I’ll definitely be seeking out more mythology-inspired fantasy in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the opportunity to read this book in advance. I’m excited to now go back and read The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy to get the full experience!

This was such a fun and different fantasy!
Pub Date: 7/8/25

You follow Rosie, a beautiful Amazon demigod, and Adam, a pocket king nerdy inventor, on their quest to fix their portals. Something is growing in the cogs of the portals, and only Rosie can see them, and Adam can fix them since he invented them.
You have fantastic side characters, Duckie and the Trickster!
It’s a pretty cozy fantasy, 1-2 peppers for spice. The story is easy to follow.
My only recommendation is to read Undertaking of Hart and Mercy and Undermining of Twyla and Frank first. The third book touches on these characters, and it would’ve been nice to know how they all got to know each other.

Thank you, NetGalley, Megan Bannen, and Orbit Books.

If you enjoy cozy fantasies like The Spellshop or Legends and Lattes, this book is for you. I’ll admit, I didn’t realize The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam is the 3rd book in a series. I wish I could have read the first two books first, but this can certainly be read as a standalone, so it’s not necessary. It was a super fun, cozy, fantasy novel and I appreciated that Rosie and Adam’s romance was a slower burn, and wasn’t the center of attention in the story. There was a good amount of world building, which was helpful since I didn’t read the first two books set in Tanria. Overall, I enjoyed Rosie and Adam’s story and would definitely recommend to other readers. Thank you to Netgalley, Orbit, and Hatchet Audio for the opportunity to read The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen is a third person-POV romantic comedic fantasy. Rosie is the daughter of the Trickster, has been alive for about one hundred and fifty years and is one of a handful of demigods still walking the earth. She goes through life taking risks most mortals wouldn’t and the amount of times she’s died is roughly the same amount of years she’s been alive. But when she and the creator of the portals, Dr. Adam Lee, are sent through the mist, she finds someone who might understand her struggles.

I haven’t read The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, but I did read The Undermining of Twyla and Frank. Compared to that book, this one felt like the romance was more of a subplot for a decent chunk of the first half. A lot of the front half is more Rosie focusing on her own complicated feelings around immortality and her father, the Trickster, as well as visiting with the characters from the previous books. The comedic tone remains the same and has less focus on bodily functions than the last one, so it does deliver on the ‘comedic’ part of the premise. I just felt that for it to be a ‘romance,’ the romance had to be more front and center.

I did really appreciate that Rosie is a very tall lady and Adam is stated to be shorter than average. While it’s not my usual go-to, I know there are a lot of readers who are looking for shorter male-taller female leads in a romance. Characters do remark on Adam’s height, even calling him pocket-sized, and Rosie does call them out by telling them not to short-shame him. It’s usually treated in a comedic way, but it’s a good reminder for how we talk about shorter men, especially when they date women taller than them.

I did think it was really interesting how we explored Rosie’s immortality. She’s already been alive for a while so she’s over a lot of the angst of it that could have been present if she was a teenager, but she’s also very clearly not completely over the fact that she’s not going to die. There is a melancholic tone when it comes up and I think that is extremely fair because it not only makes her different, but it has to be difficult to realize that you have to live the rest of your life watching people you love die and struggle to find someone who you can share a life with because of it. It puts your life on a totally different trajectory than everyone else’s and that’s not easy to accept.

I would recommend this to fans of comedic fantasy who want a strong romance subplot and readers looking for a fantasy exploring immortality from a more personal view point

I've read the previous books in this series, but the world continues to be a mystery to me and im easily confused within the story. I thought Adam and Rosie were adorable, but their relationship never really made sense to me. It was almost fated and insta-lovey?? Overall I wasnt a fan.

[ARC REVIEW]
THE UNDERCUTTING OF ROSIE AND ADAM by Megan Bannen is yet another heartbreaking masterpiece.

I cried...so much. Which didn't surprise me too much, because Hart and Mercy destroyed me, too.

It's hard to talk about this without spoiling it, partly because the official summary is pretty brief. But we're back in Tanria, with immortal demigod marshal Rosie and Adam, the inventor of the portals through the Mist. When Rosie gets electrocuted while investigating a shadowy thorn in the portal and it dies (as does she) they have to call in Adam to fix it. He is a short king with a stick up his butt and a bespoke suit, and Rosie can't help trying to ruffle him a little bit.

One of my favorite things about the whole series is how utterly uncategorizable they all are. Western romcom, women's fic dragon fantasy, romdrom mythological journey...they are all over the place, in the best way. The worldbuilding is just gorgeous, and it's all so heart wrenching. This one has a lot about sacrifice, and disappointing dads, and how immortality is actually a curse, even if you find your true love (louder for the Bella Swans in the back).

It's gorgeous, I loved it, can't wait to completely screw up my contacts crying when I read it again.

We pick up in book three ten years after the events of book 2; Rosie and Duckers are partners with endearing banter and nicknames for each other, still under the supervision of Alma Maguire. When a portal to Tanria is malfunctioning, portal inventor Adam Lee must be brought in to investigate, and Rosie and Duckers are assigned as his Marshall guides. It seems that the problem with the portal isn't a mere mechanical issue, either, as Rosie alone can see strange shadows moving inside the machinery.

I so enjoyed the first two installments of this series, that I jumped at the chance to request an advanced reader copy from Netgalley, and was thrilled to be approved. The world Megan Bannen has created in these books is whimsical, intriguing and entirely different from other romantasy out there. This third book continued to expand on the world of Bushong and especially Tanria, with one final adventure before bidding farewell to this world and its characters.

There was a lot about this book that I loved. We get to explore more of Tanria and its history, visit the dragons and join characters in flight, follow up on how characters from previous books are doing now ten years later, and enjoy another mythical adventure with two new characters. I have a few quibbles with small things like the somewhat forced inclusion of Rosie's obsession with lingerie, and modern expressions and jokes that took me out of the story a bit here and there. All in all, this was a solid 4.25 rating for me, a bit lower than the first two books due to the above critiques, but still a fantastic read, and a solid ending to this series.

A big thanks to Netgalley and Orbit books for letting me review this early copy!

This is the third book in the Tanria series, each of which displays a deep commitment to whimsy and making the weirder choice at every juncture. It yields pink grass and pink glittery dragon puke and an enduring silliness which may turn some folks away from it. But that's fine, because the people for whom Tanria is written will really, really get it. Our first story focused on Hart and Mercy, then we followed Twyla and Frank and now we're getting to know another immortal demigod, Rosie and grumpy professor-type Adam.

This book is at its best when it's showing you how these folks fit into the world around them: what their relationships with the other characters are like, and giving us updates in the lives of the other characters in Eternity. I loved that it expanded on the pantheon of Gods and the belief system. That we start to see the mythology of their belief system fleshed out is awfully cute as well, and the set up for the romance in this book is so fitting.

However, despite being immortal and close to 150 years old, Rosie speaks and behaves like a teenager. This was particularly irksome to me because we'd just gotten Twyla and Frank, characters whose age was reflected in the way they moved through the world. I also found myself deeply irritated by the frequency of Rosie's internal monologue being focused on her lingerie, not to mention her waving her underwear in her colleagues' faces over and over. She's made her enjoyment of nice underwear her whole personality and it was exhausting.

This whole book suffers from the writer's version of "cell phone face." The idea that Rosie named her cat Blammo Tinky Fartface just feels so wildly referencial to 2025 humor, and the banter and jargon were just overall too modern for my taste. It reads almost like Bannen saw the phrase "short king" and was like, you know what? I can write a book about that. I think this last installment in Tanria could have used a stronger edit (for example, the idea that Adam had been consumed by a shark and still lived but won't explain or discuss it gets played for laughs repeatedly; the peacock lingerie set with the eyes over her nipples features heavily and just isn't necessary).

However, all that being said, this book wraps up a very sweet trilogy and I'd still recommend reading it for people who enjoyed the first two books in this series, particularly for the cameo moments. This pairing and the instant attraction for these two characters just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for an advance copy of this book. If readers are looking for whimsy, this trilogy has some awfully cute moments and is drenched in technicolor imagery that will stick with them for a long time. I'm hoping that Bannen may revisit Eternity at some point for a novella focused on Duckers and Zeddy!

This book was super cute, cozy, and just plain fun—it honestly felt like a warm hug. I really enjoyed it! One of my favorite things about this series is how charming and comforting it is, and how the characters and setting have grown over the trilogy. It was so nice seeing familiar faces pop up again in the final book—it gave me all feels!

Simply put, I loved it! We love a short king moment first and foremost. The whole plot kept you interested/intrigued and guessing what was going to happen. You could guess maybe what was going to happen, but not necessarily the how! I loved visiting with all the gods throughout the journey. Plus we got to see lots of characters from the previous books and I feel like that really helped build the story!

Rosie and Adam both made fun main characters that you wanted to know more about. They each has secrets and we slowly saw those revealed. In a way maybe this counts as a slow burn? Whatever it is, it's great! If you enjoy romance and fantasy literally/magical realism(?) then this is the book to read!

A tall redheaded rootin’ tootin’ cowgirl (all I could picture was Jessie from Toy Story, your mileage may vary) becomes en-vined (you’ll get that joke later) with a Short King Cranky Inventor who’s trying to fix magic-y science-y portals. Glittery dragons abound (don’t tell Adam) and Rosie may not have much, but she has excellent underwear and a dead beat God-dad. While familiarity with the previous two books may not be necessary to enjoy this one, if you haven’t read them you won’t understand why I cried so many times near the end. (note: I do not mean “my eyes welled up and I sniffled” babe I was bawling full on red faced nose blowing the whole shebang). Can love conquer all? Not always, but it can sure try.

Tanrian Marshal Rosie Fox dies in chapter one of The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam, but that’s not her biggest problem. He biggest problem is that she comes back to life. She’s immortal and she doesn’t like it. Rosie’s death happened when she tried to touch something inside a malfunctioning portal device. The portal device also died in the incident, requiring Dr. Adam Lee to visit Tanria to fix the portal. Marshal Fox and Dr. Lee met five years earlier, and she bound his wounded hand with her handkerchief, while pocketing his. This means they have been pining for each other in a very Jane Austen manner. He is a short, sharp-suited man in slutty little glasses* with a big brain and a dessert dry sense of humor. She is a tall, garnet-eyed immortal red head, whose personal motto is “act now, think never because in 50 years, no one will remember” and she knows if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing in really good lingerie. Throw into that mix some dragons, a reunion of former lovers, a magical dik dik, many gods, a squid, and a trip to the land of the dead to clean up dad’s mess.

If none of that made any sense to you, you will need to read The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy and then The Undermining of Twyla and Frank, but you should read those anyway. I love that in each of these books, the romance is a catalyst for a major change in the world. And in each book, a variation on a journey to the underworld is necessary. Bannen does such a great job of layering light and dark. Rosie is such a delightful character. I love the way she lusts after Adam, the delight she takes in her lingerie, and the way she loves her friends. The joy she finds in life illuminates her grief, and her uneasiness with the unending years before her. The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam wraps up the the Tanrian Marshals’ trilogy beautifully. The series has surprised me by becoming a favorite that I anticipate listening to many times.

Kacie Rogers narrates the bulk of the book, and she does it ably. She gives Rosie her full range as well as voicing all the other characters, plus the dragons. Jim Frangione narrates a discrete story within the story and gives it more pathos. I’m looking forward to being able to binge all three books on audio.

I received a reader arc and a listener arc from Orbit Books and Hachette Audio via NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

*TM Blakely Thornton

The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam is a delightful fantasy rom-com. It was so great to be back in Tanria again, this time with the tough and snarky demigod marshall, Rosie and the uptight and professional engineer, Adam. This opposites-attract tale is full of heart and humor. This book is set forward a little over 10 years from Hart and Mercy's story. I loved seeing more of Rosie - she was always an intriguing character from the first two books, and I loved her character even more after reading this one. She is tough and an immortal demigod, but that immortality is wearing on her, and she is sad to see everyone she loves passing on while she remains. Adam is uptight and put together, but he is a perfect complement to Rosie. Like the first two in the series, this book has a romance wrapped up in a larger plot that unravels throughout and kept me fully engaged with the story. I also loved seeing Duckers and Zeddie again and enjoyed their side story, and we also get some wonderful cameos from Hart, Mercy, Twyla, and Frank. I love this series, and this was such a wonderful way to wrap it up. I do hope this isn't the last we will see of Tanria and its unique and beautiful stories.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Orbit Books for an advanced copy of this wonderful book! All opinions are my own!

3.5 ☆

A cute end to a whimsical series! It took me a bit longer to get into this one than I would've liked, but I had a decent time overall. Whatever Bannen put in book 1 that made me adore it felt forced in this one so I can't say I fell in love with it. The writing was overly descriptive (I don't care to read about the quality of a character's underwear) and much of the dialogue was meme-ish.

I loved Adam's dryness. His subtle humor was more enjoyable than when a character is supposed to be lighthearted and funny but it reaches the point of annoyingness (sorry, Rosie). The story especially became more interesting as he began to peel back his layers as much of what he was hiding pertained to the plot.

I understood Rosie's struggles and felt her pain and that's where our connection ends. She's got a big personality, I get that, but she was a bit too much for me. And that was one of the things she stated as having been to past partners, but damn she really was. She got a joke off here and there that was funny but trying to be funny 95% of the time gets old fast. And the cat being named "Blammo Tinky Fartface"... that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Rosie and Adam's romance was a bit insta-lovey and I didn't care for that so it made it hard for me to connect to that part of the story. They had a single instance five years prior that they were both holding on to and while I understand that (believe me, I do), it wasn't enough to build a relationship on. I get they were forced to be in close proximity to one another due to their circumstances but one instance half a decade ago + one week shouldn't equal an 'I love you'. This isn't to say I hated their relationship; they were adorable! It just took me a while to care about them together.

I enjoyed the plot and Duckers more than anything. The stakes were high those last 10ish chapters and the closer we got to the end, the more emotional I got. I would've liked a little more from the epilogue, but I think the cameos sprinkled throughout the story made up for it. This world means so much to me and I'll forever miss it.

This fantastical world includes lovable, multilayered characters, humor, and strange happenings. While I enjoyed some bits more than others, they're still decent reads overall and I'd definitely recommend!

this is the last book of the series by megan bannen - and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised! a unique love story and relationship and somehow Bannen made me appreciate and like the male main character, despite him being not my type. also kept the plot moving while tying things together in a satisfying way while relaying the dread of immortality with subtlety.

4.25 🌟

I'm going to miss Tarnia so much! 😭

I have seriously loved every single book in this series. The world is easy enough to jump right back into and I love every single character. Adam's character was so fun and laughed learning about his past. The side characters are the same characters you've grown to love in the previous books. Do you have to read them to like this book? No. But you should read them.

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

What a fantastic story! I enjoyed Rosie's appearances in the prior books of this series, and this story focuses on her in all her red-eyed, immortal glory. I looooooved Adam who is the mastermind behind the Tanria portals and who is shorter than Rosie! Really loved that detail. Megan Bannen's storytelling sensibilities match mine so well; I especially appreciate how cute the dragons are. The dynamic between Rosie and Adam was lovely, and I really enjoyed where the story went.

Megan Bannen is an auto-buy author at this point!

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the eARC.

This was such a beautiful, whimsical fantasy novel. It can easily be read as a standalone, but I do think it’s more meaningful if you’ve read either or both of the books the precede it. Rosie and Adam are so lovable, and you can’t help but root for them. They have backstory that you learn as you go and is both predictable and unpredictable. Even the things you predict are still impactful and endearing.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.