This series just meets all my needs in ways I never knew I needed. They're cozy-adjacent, sexy as f@*k and just beautifully romantic too. Packed full with PURE fantasy but done in a "this is just everyday" way that keeps ahold of me!

Absolutely beautiful addition to the series! At first I found Rosie annoying but she grew on me very quickly. This story was great. I adored the expansion of the world and learning about more characters in addition to the ones I already love.

I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised with The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam. After having a very DIFFICULT (and disappointing) time reading The Undermining of Twyla and Frank, I was scared of this last book. However, I needed to know how the series ended. This story follows Demi-god Rosie and Adam, who wind up trapped inside the Mist and are trying to find a way not only to get back but also to stop whatever it is causing trouble in their home. While forced to work together, both start developing feelings for each other, and while dealing with the fact that time, might be running out.

Thanks to Netgallery and Hachett Audio for the ALC. Like I said, I am pleasantly surprised with this book with how the characters developed through the story, I adored seeing the cast back on their crazy antics. While is "a romance" the book touches on topics like grief, found family and community, which I think is where the book shines. I think the pace was perfect and while yes, there were moments that were slow, it still managed to keep me entertained and most importantly KEPT ME CARING FOR THE MAIN CHARACTERS, which was something book 2 DID NOT do. All and all its a wonderful end to the series and a beautiful story.

Narration was GREAT!!!!!!!!!!! Kacie Rogers did an AMAZING job bringing Rosie to life! Again thanks to Netgallery and Hachett Audio for the ALC.

Worthy ending to a fantastic trilogy. It's bittersweet saying goodbye to the characters, knowing there won't be anymore

This was good. I enjoyed the characters and how they were developed. This romantasy was easy to get lost in. Lots happens and you feel it all.

Demigod, and immortal, Rosie Fox has been a member of the Tanria Marshals for decades, but she's just not feeling the same enthusiasm for her job that she used to. After dying, again, after poking at a thorny plant only she can see inside a portal, she's feeling every one of her one hundred and fifty seven years, and she's bored, tired, and lonely.

Dr. Adam Lee, the portal's inventor, comes in person to repair the portals, which are badly malfunctioning, trapping Rosie, Duckers and Adam in Tanria. Rosie feels a deep attraction to the attractive, self contained and secretive man. Gradually, she begins breaking through his quiet exterior, and she learns that not only does he have a complicated past, but that the two share more than just being stuck in Tanria. In fact, a lot more.

I love Megan Bannen's characters, and this weird and wonderful world, and who the heck doesn't just love Duckers to bits? I swear, he makes a wonderful foil and partner to Rosie when they're patrolling, and he has his own relationship woes to deal with, as does Rosie.

Bannon's writing is funny, observant, and sweet without being treacly, creating a cozy, warm atmosphere for this, and the two previous stories, in this series. I love this world, and the characters Bannen has populated it with. It's great to see how Mercy and Hart, who put in small appearances, have progressed with their lives, and to get a small mention of Twyla and Frank, too.

I listened and read this story, and voice actors Kacie Rogers and Jim Frangione do a great job inhabiting Rosie and Adam, and dang, I loved the way they brought Duckers to life, too.

The romance is sweet and earned, for both Rosie and Duckers, and this book, no, actually the whole series, is a warm hug.

Thank you to Netgalley, Orbit Books and to Hachette Audio for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I DNFed this at 40%. While the premise of this series is quite interesting, the writing style was far too “casual” for my liking, and a lot of the dialogue was cringey.

The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen is a worthy third installment of the Hart & Mercy Series. I think it was my favorite of the three. Rosie is a mature, curvy and skilled without being defined by those qualities. This is definitely a slow burn. Nothing spicy happens until the 80% mark. The audiobook narration by Kacie Rogers and Jim Frangione was excellent. I was unfamiliar with either of them prior to this title, but I will seek them both out in the future.

I am obsessed with this world and the magic in it. Glittery dragons, portals made with science, demigods, eee! So good.

Rosie and Adam’s love story is so so precious and tender. The side characters relationships and character arcs are wonderful also. I got a bit misty eyed at some points. There were a lot of places of self-reflection that I resonated with a lot.

Thank you NetGalley for an ALC in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook narrator was wonderful.

Rating: 4.25⭐️/5

The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam was everything I didn’t know I needed in a book set in this wonderful world! This book follows Rosie who we have seen in both the other books. She’s a demigod that can’t die and she’s reckless because of it! In the pasts she’s gone through a lot of partners and people sometimes give her a wide birth. I love how in this book we get to see Rosie for who she is and why she does what she does! She definitely wasn’t who I thought I needed to hear a story from but I’m so glad I did. We also have Adam who invented the portals into Tanria. I loved seeing that’s side of the story too. We finally get to see things we haven’t before. Megan Bannen does a fantastic job of expanding the setting and story’s we know from previous books and making them even more with different characters! The audiobook was fantastic as usual! This series audio has been fantastic! I can’t wait to see what’s next in this world! I hope we get more!

*Sigh
Yet another insta-love. I’m just not fond of the trope, but also the overall chemistry was not vibing for me.
I was worried I had to read the first two books before this, but they’re all interconnected standalones. Whilst it probably adds a tad bit to the world building, I read and have found that you don’t necessarily have to read the other two.

Other than the romance not landing for me, the humor also fell flat for me 😬
Blammo Kinky Fartface being the cat’s name was just… a choice. I did however relate to her Father issues kinda lol, but I wish I was able to relate to more being a Tall Queen myself. I was lowkey excited to see how the Tall Queen x Short King would’ve worked out lol.

Overall, this probably just didn’t connect w/ me, but will probably for other people!!
Kacie Rogers & Jim Frangione did amazing narrating this though 🤍

Thank you to NetGalley & Hachette for this ALC.

This book was so cute, easily my favourite out of the three. Rosie is such an interesting character, I feel immortals are usually portrayed as broody little pessimists, but she had such LIFE in her. I loved seeing more Tamria lore, especially the Gods. Hoping the next instalment gives even more!

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for the ALC! The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam (book 3 in the Hart and Mercy series) follows the demigod Rosie Fox. At the start of this story, Rosie is electrocuted while on patrol and disccovers that something is wrong with the portal. When the portal's creator, Adam, is called to the scene for repairs, Rosie can't help but find him infuriatingly attractive. As they investigate the issue, Adam and Rosie grow closer, but he seems to know more about the issue than he's saying. What could he be hiding? Rosie's determined to unravel the secrets and put the world to rights. This is a fun opposites attract romance with an emotional twist, perfect for fans of the previous Hart and Mercy books. The audiobook is fun and engaging with fantastic performances from Jim Frangione and Kacie Rogers.

I had a wonderful time with this book! It was a delight to this world with Megan Bannen's hilarious prose and her loveable characters. This is my perfect brand of cozy fantasy - some plot shenanigans to keep things interesting mixed with high emotional stakes for the characters. I fell hard for Rosie Fox. She was hilarious and stole my heart right away. This book made me crack up in public and while it's not explicitly sad I did tear up a bit during some bittersweet moments because I was that invested. I adored getting to see Pen and Zeddie in the background of this story and I would love to see them get a book of their own because I love this so much. If you're looking for a cozy fantasy series to pick up this is a fantastic choice!

The narrators really brought out the humor of this story! I had a blast listening to this on audio. They pulled me into the story and I didn't want to put it down. If you enjoy audiobooks this is the superior format for sure.

I didn’t know what to expect going into this book, and honestly, the cover doesn’t do it justice. What I found inside was something far more compelling than I anticipated. From the very first chapter, I was pulled into Rosie’s world. There I found subtle danger and layers of mythology.
The author has created a story that balances emotion with tension and magic. Rosie’s journey felt personal, yet universal in the way it explores grief, love, identity, and faith. The way religion and mythology are woven into the narrative isn’t heavy-handed though. It’s thoroughly explored, purposeful, genuine, and fascinating. The book definitely makes you want to keep going to find out what happens next.
The relationship between Rosie and Adam is full of complexity. It’s not a typical enemies to lovers trope. I’d say enemies to lovers light. It’s more open and honest but still having that bit of angst in the beginning which transitions to the emotional connection which grows between them. It feels more real and natural the way it’s written.
This story is great for fans of Caraval, powerless, and anyone who likes a touch of magic and mythology.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette!

First thing’s first: thank you Netgalley for the ALC of this book!

The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen is the third book in the Hart and Mercy series. I ADORED the Undertaking of Hart and Mercy but The Undermining of Twyla and Frank just wasn’t for me. I was cautiously optimistic when I saw the third installment on Netgalley and I was excited to get into it!

Good news, everybody!! I loved this one!! The characters were quirky and endearing, top to bottom. I really loved that Rosie was a demigod and we got that point of view. I loved her irreverent way of interacting with the world because of it. Dr Adam Lee was well dressed and uptight…but like in a “the right woman could really loosen him up” kind of way. Oh and forced proximity?! One of my faves 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

I was so delighted that this one brought back so many of the parts I adored about the first book and none of the parts that didn’t work for me in the second. I definitely recommend this one- and the audiobook was really well narrated to boot!

4.25⭐️

An absolutely fantastic continuation and conclusion of a trilogy which just gets better with each book.

Rosie is immortal, and it sucks. She’s spent several centuries watching everyone she loves age and die, and she can’t stay that way - which is frankly just rude at this point. She’s currently working patrolling Tanria, but something’s gone wonky with the portals they use to access it, and she’s the only one who can see it.
Enter Dr Adam Lee, the man who created the portals. Rosie met him once, years ago, and has held onto his handkerchief ever since. But he surely won’t remember her… will he?

I absolutely loved Rosie and Adam and their individual stories as well as their interactions. One of the things I really love in an interconnected series is the glimpses we get of characters from previous books, and especially in cases like this where several years have passed since the previous books, and having several previous characters come forward to be a major part of this book was fabulous.
This is one of those series where I feel like I enjoy each subsequent book more as we see more of the world and understand it better. This third book added some really fun twists to the magic and the world that we didn’t know about before, which I loved.

The audiobook was wonderful and I loved how the narrators brought the characters to life.

Overall this was a fantastic conclusion to the trilogy, and I would highly recommend them for fans of romances in a fantasy setting!

this was alot of fun, I Iove this series and the people who are in it. its such a unique plot and I really did enjoy it. I do wish it was about zeddy though. It wouldve been an excellent second chance plot but I did love it. the narration was also great. thank you to Netgalley for this ARC!

I liked Hart and Mercy, and I looooved Twyla and Frank, so I was super excited to read the third in Megan Bannen’s romantasy trilogy. Sadly, this was my least favorite of the bunch, because I simply didn’t buy the romance. Which, in a romantasy novel, makes everything else fall apart too. That said, it wasn’t a bad book by any means.

Rosie Fox is immortal and she’s getting sick of it. While dying (something she’s done quite a few times) is not pleasant, she is beginning to wish it would finally take. Patrolling Tanria may be a good job and she has a lovely friendship with her partner Duckers, but after 150 years, everything loses its shine and Rosie finds herself with no interest in what has become of her life. By a stroke of luck (bad or good?), Tanria’s portals are failing, probably due to some shadowy growth that only Rosie can see. Enter the portals’ inventor, Adam Lee, a stuck up, emotionless man of few words.
Long story short, all portals fail, Tanria is evacuated and Rosie gets stuck inside with Adam, as well as her partner Duckers and his ex partner Zeddie – whom we know from the previous books in the trilogy. Many other characters from those books are named as well, even though they don’t play a role in this one’s plot.

My main gripe with this book, and sadly one that makes the whole house of cards fall down, was that I simply didn’t buy the romance. Rosie is a nice character, outspoken, with no filter and a love for beautiful lingerie (really, though? Did that have to be her thing? Give her a hobby, for godssake!) and she feels attracted to Adam Lee almost immediately. Adam, however, does not say or do very much. He shows no emotions, he’s just there and tries to fix the portals, sometimes asking cryptic questions that you know mean more than it first appears.

The most intersting aspects of the book were all sub-plots. Rosie’s relationship to her god father, the Trickster, was scratched at, at best, even though it could have been its very own novel. While there is a sort of closure at the end, this could have been a much more central theme.
Zeddie and Duckers, being the only two characters present apart from the main romantic couple, also get a sub-plot that I found much more interesting than Rosie and Adam’s interactions. And as always, I loved the postal service in this bananas world, a nimkilim called Gobbo this time. Kacie Rogers’ narration of him was absolutely brilliant. 🙂

The closed setting and very small cast turn this into a rather slow read. It felt like both the thrust of the plot as well as the romance took ages to get going. Since we get so little from Adam’s side, and Rosie’s attraction to him is mostly focused on his looks and choice of menswear, I had a hard time feeling it. I also didn’t particularly understand what Adam saw in Rosie, lovable as she may be, because they don’t spend that much time together. Once certain things are revealed – things that were pretty obvious, by the way – I even felt like there was one particular reason for Adam’s attraction to Rosie and it’s not one that I would base a healthy romantic relationship on. But hey, maybe that’s just me.

Although Megan Bannen delivers the same quippy banter and humorous narration as in the previous books, there is very little plot in this one. And what little there is suffers from uneven pacing to the point of everything happening in the last 15% or so.
Other reviewers praise the romance for featuring a very tall woman and a short-ish man, which is nice I guess, but it still didn’t mean I found their love believable. Whereas both Hart and Mercy, and Twyla and Frank had a long history (enemies to lovers, friends to lovers), these two only met once before the events of this book and that’s just not enough for me to buy their sudden undying love.

As for the audibook narration: I really enjoyed it. Kacie Rogers changes her voice just enough to give each character their own cadence, raspiness, and timbre, but never so much as to become comical. The second audiobook narrator, Jim Frangione, only gets to read one measly chapter, from Adam’s point of view.
I believe this was also detrimental to my enjoyment of the book. A dual POV is perfect for this kind of romance and would have helped immensely with my understanding of how Adam falls for Rosie. I get why Megan Bannen chose not to give him a POV, as that would have spoiled a certain revelation, but I still think it would have been the better thing to do.

All of that said, this was still an enjoyable and fun-ish experience, which picked up steam towards the end and wrapped up the trilogy with a nice bow. We get to see what happened to the characters from the other books, who’s married whom and who works where, and that gave me all the cozy vibes I wanted. Rosie and Adam will never be my favorites, but I can absolutely see myself returning to the world of Tanria to relive Hart and Mercy’s love story, and especially that of Twyla and Frank. So while the ending was not the best, this trilogy as a whole will always have a place in my heart.

MY RATING: 6/10 – Okay

Thank you to Orbit Books, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the gifted ARC & ALC.

The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam is the third installment of the Hart & Mercy trilogy that takes place in the fictional world of Tanria. Megan Bannen has once again made me laugh out loud and feel surprisingly sentimental for such a silly, mostly cozy, fantasy book.

Rosie is a little reckless and also conveniently can’t die (well, she can, but she always comes back) and Adam is such a serious scholar type (in a hot, nerdy way) that when they come together it is just such a great and hilarious example of how opposites attract.

While the second book in the series remains my favorite, this was just delightful, and I loved the way that narrators brought the characters to life in the audiobook. 4.25⭐️