Ivy Fairbanks needs to put out 5 more of these. The FMC, Lark, was so fierce and so gentle I just wanted to hug her like girl you deserve the world. This couple was so cute, such an adorable friends to lovers. The ACE/Demi representation was everything I didn't know I needed, thank you. I loved Callum and will forever be dreaming of my own Irish mortician.

It is not very often that I'm left stumped on how to proceed with a book review. I usually either really like a book, or I really dislike a book. But Morbidly Yours... I really don't have a strong feeling either way.
The concept of this book really drew me in. And the overall book was fine. I just wasn't intrigued by really any of it. The book didn't keep me hooked. It was easy to put down, and there was no urgency to pick it back up and find out what happens next. (Which is why it took me so long to read.)
The characters were very bland. I expected that of Callum due to him being your stereotypical recluse funeral director. But Lark, even with her brightly colored outfits and sunshiney persona, was rather drab.
I enjoyed their friendship a lot more than their relationship. There just wasn't any heat or feeling. It was rather odd that after they met, they immediately couldn't stop thinking about the other. After all of Lark's mental admonishments, you'd think she'd have more self control. In the end, I wasn't really rooting for them, but I also wasn't rooting against them. It didn't particularly matter to me if they ended up together or not.
The pacing was very off. Some times the book moved along swimmingly. Other times, the story line became so dull that I literally fell asleep while reading. Which is a very rare occurrence.
Side note: Whoever gave this author a thesaurus, please take it back. So many of the word choices were cringy. Lark using the term "jubilation" instead of "joy" or some such word was weird. (I highlighted at least 30 terms that stood out to me as odd when a synonym of theirs would have flowed much better.)
The secrecy around Reese and his passing was a strange choice. The way in which the truth around the accident was revealed was disjointed, and it didn't make a big impact on me. Also, the irony in her being afraid to tell an undertaker that her husband was dead was kind of funny.
Overall, the book was okay. Okay characters. Okay story line. Okay writing.

3/5 stars.

Ivy Fairbank’s slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance novel Morbidly Yours is the first installment in the “Love in Galway” series. The novel includes a pronunciation guide for Gaelic words and names at the front and a glossary at the back, detailing sexual expressions.

Twenty-nine-year-old Lark Thompson relocates from Texas to Galway, Ireland, following the untimely death of her husband, Reese. Overwhelmed with grief and guilt, Lark takes a position as the art director at KineticColor, an animation company. A mix-up with a package leads her to Willow Haven, the mortuary home of thirty-four-year-old Callum Flannelly.

Callum, an introverted demisexual, has become a recluse due to a slight stutter with words beginning with "d" and occasional "b" sounds. He is struggling to save his family's mortuary, which he will lose if he does not marry by the age of thirty-five, according to a stipulation in the will. If he fails, the mortuary will pass to his estranged father, who intends to sell it.

Lark, burdened by guilt over her past and a vow to Reese that she would never remarry, finds herself entangled in Callum's predicament. When she learns of his deadline to find a wife, she decides to set him up on dates as a distraction from her own grief.

Simultaneously, Lark faces challenges at work. As the new boss on her animation team, she endures harassment from a senior employee, Séan, who targets her because of her gender and U.S. citizenship. Lark, a people pleaser, allows her confidence to wane with each interaction with Séan. She must find her voice and address the harassment before it jeopardizes her job.

Fairbank’s novel, while intended as a slow-burn romance, lacks the necessary tension to sustain this type of story. Lark’s decision to mislead Callum by presenting herself as a divorcee rather than a widow undermines the emotional depth of the narrative. Though the exploration of grief is poignant and well-developed, Lark’s character often appears overly passive. She only begins to advocate for herself in the final chapters, and her failure to report Séan’s unethical behavior perpetuates a troubling message about the treatment of women in the workplace.

The novel's romantic subplot is marred by Lark's erratic behavior. Her indecisiveness—refusing to date Callum, then opting for a “friends with benefits” arrangement, and fluctuating between accepting and rejecting proposals—creates a frustratingly cyclical narrative. This back-and-forth behavior, more characteristic of teenagers than adults in their thirties, renders the novel's under-350-page length a tedious read.

A well written debut novel with a great title. The setting is Galway, Ireland, and after reading this book I would love to go. I have been to Dublin and Belfast and really enjoyed it,. I would love to listen to the audio book just to hear the accents.
Lark has come from Texas to work in a new animation studio. She is a young widow with a guilt complex, blaming herself for her husbands car accident. Though it's 2 years on, she believes she does not deserve happiness.
After she moves into her rental, she opens a delivery and finds 6 body bags and realizes they are for the bed and breakfast next door. When she takes them over, she discovers her rent is reasonable because it is actually a mortuary. When she meets Callum the handsome undertaker, the story begins.
Callum is grieving also. His grandfather has died and in his will Callum must Mary by the end of the year or his estranged father will inherit the mortuary.
Callum has a stutter and is basically a social recluse, so his search for a wife is difficult. Once he meets Lark it is even more difficult because he likes her but she has made it clear they can only be friends.
On top of all that, Lark has a work associate who is out to undermine her, which adds another layer.
Also, an aside, I was reading this on Kindle as I was reading the new Rhys Bowen book, The Rose arbor. A character named Lark appeared and my brain got momentarily confused.
Also, a fun part of this book is the use of Irish Gaelic, with a glossary of sex words that Callum teaches Lark. I attempted to learn some Scottish Gaelic before a trip to Scotland and I just wonder why it isn't spelled more like it is pronounced. Fun to learn though.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the EARC. This is my honest review.

Cute friends to lovers story with not so typical characters. Very easy and quick read. Thank you, NetGalley.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. NetGalley

Morbidly yours was a beautiful story about grief, acceptance, and moving on to find new love. This was definitely a book about opposites attracting set in Ireland.Lark is a woman to try to find herself as well as let go of some of things remaining in her past. Callum is a shy man who is trying to save his family‘s business. They meet in an unusual way and slowly build a friendship that turns into love. I would definitely recommend this book. It has a lot of interesting takes on processing grief, forgiveness and living life again.

This was such a good book! I’ve read quite a few books lately where an American goes to Ireland and they’ve all been slightly cringy (the cluelessness was so overdone) but this was done so well!
Lark is from Texas, an animator who gets a job in Galway and moves in next to Callum, a local mortician fighting to keep his business in the family. Lark’s painful past keeps her from allowing herself to completely fall for Callum, who has hang ups of his own - he needs to marry in order to inherit the family business. So she agrees to help him find “the one”, and as you can imagine, it becomes way more complicated than that.
It’s full of heart and grief and love after loss, set amid a beautiful backdrop of Galway. I highly recommend this one!

There were good and bad things about this book for me. It had a lot of potential but wasn’t quite great for me. The good was that I loved Lark and Callum’s relationship and chemistry. They were like a version of grumpy/sunshine but more light and dark. The spicy scenes were good (and I’m guessing why this got so TikTok popular).

That being said, this was an incredibly slow read for me. There just wasn’t enough happening. There were big things and big stories happening, but the day-to-day felt slow and awkward. The Sean storyline felt genuine but it didn’t make me want to keep reading.

I would recommend this with some hesitation… maybe only to big fans of spice who are OK with a slow story.

Thank you to the publisher - I received a complimentary eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In Morbidly Yours, a grieving American woman moves to Ireland for a job opportunity and her neighbor is a mortician who needs to be married by age 35 or he will lose his funeral home. This is what close proximity dreams are made of - hunky Irish neighbor always coming to her rescue. It was a sweet story about the two of them learning to trust again and to love again, but with some spicy scenes mixed in. I loved both of these characters so much. Perfect for transitioning into the fall books.

It's hard to rate this book because of how long it took me to finish it. I soft DNF'd early into it and then decided to try again. The first half just did nothing for me. It was a lot of introducing characters that weren't sticking with me. The book's second half had me wanting to sneak in time to pick it up and finish it. Overall it was a cute read. It had too many tropes and some plots were rushed to finish at the end.

Such a lovely and touching story of a growing love with odds stacked against it.
Lark relocated to Ireland to release her mind of the memories of her deceased husband. In Ireland, she meets her neighbor Callum, a mortician with complex problems. Her delightful bubbly personality is opposite to his reticent nature. They somehow blend well together and have definite chemistry but she is very reluctant to pursue anything with him. Together their bonding creates this wonderful story,
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was enjoyable. Read it pretty quickly; kept my attention. I appreciated the different topics and settings (undertaker heartthrob, female animator from Texas, Irish setting). But I found the characters a little less than believable. They weren’t too remarkable, exactly; just kind of random and felt thrown together without a fully believable, or fleshed out connection.

Thank you for the ARC.

A southern widow moves to Irland to escape her grief and makes friends with the neighboring funeral director. Obviously, they have great chemistry and develop feelings. Classic romance, right? Right. But what this book does brilliantly is deal with grief, self-esteem, and friendship- all within the confines of a traditional romance novel. This is romance at it's best- it's not insta-love or some overdone trope. This is two very different people who grow to become friends before realizing they might want more. This is two people finally believing that they are worthy of love and friendship, and it's beautiful! And bonus points for the "spicy" translation guide at the end. <3

I really have to thank the publisher for contacting me and proposing to read Morbidly Yours, because I was missing an adorable release I didn't know about!
Ivy Fairbanks presents a bittersweet story about grief, and how life has the ability to give you more than one chance for being happy.
I adored the interactions between Callum and Lark, as friends and then more, they were funny, entertaining, steamy (in some occasions) and heartwarming. It was slow and so adorable I couldn't help but love them so much together - and the spicy scenes?! So well written and totally unexpected -. Plus, I'm not a fan of breakups, but I totally understand all the ups and down of their relationship, coherent with their emotional backgrounds, anyway it was sweet how Ivy Fairbanks planned their conciliation.
Furthermore, I really appreciated how both of them grew during the entire story, gaining confidence in themselves and finding the tenacity and determination in defending their beliefs. I think it's Callum that surpised me more, and I was so happy to see him having more friends, maybe new hobbies and finding (and fighting for) the love of his life.
Very cute the epilogue with ties with Lark's past.
I'm so curious about which characters will be the next protagonists of this series!

Thank you to @putnambooks for the gifted copy of this book!
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"𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘦. 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺, 𝘐 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘳."
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I loved this book.

It had so many of my favorite things.

100% transparency... I had a hard time with the FMC at times, BUT... I've also never dealt with grief and loss the way she did. There were times I just wanted to shake her, but I also know if I experienced what she did, I would 1000% probably be the same way... so I did my best to look at things through that perspective.

🪦 Dual POV
☘️ Ireland/Irish Slang
🛵 Opposites Attract
🪦 Undertaker/Family Legacy
☘️ Animator
🛵 Toxic Co-worker
🪦 Grief and Loss
☘️ Neighbors
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#bookstagram #booksta #books #booksbooksbooks #avidreader #ilovereading #thetwistedlibrarian #professionalbookworm #morbidlyyours #ivyfairbanks #book64of2023 #whatsnikkireading #putnampartner #putnambooks #giftedcopy #advancedcopy #oppositesattract #undertaker #animator #neighbors #griefandloss #toxiccoworkers #ireland #familylegacy

I first read Morbidly Yours when it was indie-published, and I was so excited to see it finally get the recognition it deserves! The story is unique, multifaceted, and keeps your attention while the characters are the perfect amount of quirky and believable. It’s such a refreshing take on the “friends-to-lovers” trope, and I appreciated the way sensitive topics were dealt with. I’ve recommended it to many people, and I’ll keep doing so!

Plot: 4.25
Spice: 🌶️.5
Character Development: 4

This was a lovely little love story. Far sadder than I was anticipating, but when you are dealing with a lot of death that happens. I’m glad the FMC started therapy at the end of the book. I just wish that had been sooner. Callum was such an endearing character and I really loved him. Lark’s journey was pretty week done, I just kind feel like her eye opening sorta happened really fast at the end. It was hard to be convinced she was actually in love.

The side characters were some of my favorites in any book. I was so sad with Maeve’s story.

Outside of this being sad it was a lovely story.

Also f*ck Sean!

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam, and the author for sharing this book with me in exchange for my honest feedback!

Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks is a romance set in Ireland with a grumpy/sunshine, friends to lovers story line and a deeper exploration of grief within a relationship.

Lark has just moved to Ireland from Austin, Texas for an amazing new job as an Art Director at an animation studio. She recently lost her husband a couple of years ago, and needs a fresh start. Despite the cloud of grief over her head, Lark is an all around sunshine person, wearing bright colors, making friends everywhere she goes, a lover of small animals, and expressing her emotions through her art.

While unpacking her boxes and trying to forget all that she lost back in the States, she opens a delivery box incorrectly delivered to her and finds .... a box of body bags?? She learns the package was supposed to go to the home across the street and decides to deliver it herself. Just to you know, make sure she hasn't moved in next to a serial killer. Turns out, that home is actually a funeral home run by the most handsome man alive, their undertaker.

Callum is a local Irishman and proud mortician. Raised by his grandfather who owned the funeral home, he has now inherited the business. He fits the undertaker vibe to a T - quiet, isolated, dresses in monochrome greys and black, spends most of his time with dead people, and focused on the family business, When Lark shows up on his doorstep, his world is filled with color for the first time in years.

Despite running from her grief, Lark wants to make a friend and finds an unlikely pal in Callum. Despite being total opposites, they find solace in each other. Callum opens up to Lark about his current dilemma - his grandfather left him the business under one condition - he had to keep the business a family business and get married by the time he turns 35 next year. Lark jumps on the "Find Callum's Wife" bandwagon and starts helping him open himself up to the possibility of love and romance. The only thing is... he just wants her. And as he begins going on dates with all of these amazing local women, Lark begins to realize she wants him too.

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I enjoyed reading Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks! I loved the Irish setting, both of these characters, and the element of grief within the relationship. You don't see a ton of widows in romance novels and I thought this one was done very well and honestly. I do feel like this "find you a girlfriend or wife" plot has been done so many times so I wasn't very invested because I knew exactly where it was going to go. Overall, I still enjoyed it!

Thank you to Net Galley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was a fun read as it had all the elements for a good rom-com but also was set in Ireland and included many sayings in Gaeilge (the Irish language not Gaelic as the book points out, glossary provided). It went as far as to provide terms specifically suited for a romance novel -- you'll have to read it to know what I mean. We meet Lark from Texas who's arrived in Galway for a temporary job to escape her life. Her marriage has ended along with the relationship with her best friend and sister-in-law who she happens to work with. It's all too much and she's all about avoiding. She's moving into her lovely new apartment when she receives a delivery of body bags! It's for her neighbor, Callum, who happens to run a mortuary right next door. There's chemistry at first sight. Lark has sworn off all relationships and Callum needs to get married in the next several months. His granda, Tadhg, has written in his will that Callum needs to be married by his next birthday to inherit the business otherwise it will go to his estranged father who only wants to sell it for the highest sum. Their situations provide the tension in the story. There's a nice resolution and many steamy scenes for those who prefer more rom than com. Overall, a very enjoyable read and fun to experience a new city to me, Galway.

I completely adored reading this book! Between the sweet banter, the vibrancy and emotionality that was Lark, the multifacetedness of Cal, and the beautiful setting, I had no choice but to devour this book whole. I laughed out loud, I cried with Lark, and I loved every moment.
Lark was such a fun FMC, and I felt really connected to her and the way she stood up and rallied for those she cared about but struggled to do that for herself, and how she used her boisterous personality oftentimes as a shield. It isn't like we don't see that in other main characters in other books, but something about the way Lark was written made her feel NOT written. All of her actions were so believable. I couldn't help but to root for her.
And don't even get me started on Cal. He is a cutie patootie and I will protect him at all costs. I loved the ace rep, and the stutter only made him more endearing. The complete honesty of his character and the way he just gravitated to Lark from the beginning had me in a chokehold. And when he began feeling genuine attraction for her? All I wanted to do was read his internal monologue. SWOON.
I've already been recommending this book to anyone who will listen since I was about halfway through, but now that I've finished, I'm even more excited to share the experience that was "Morbidly Yours" with everyone.