I LOVED the characters in this book! I don't tend towards romance because of the obvious tropes that are found, and while they were predictable in this book it still kept my attention. I even shed a few tears while reading this book. The career choices for the main characters were so interesting, and I loved the little insights we go on those careers and on living in Ireland as well. If you are a lover of romance you will adore this book! It does have some open door moments, but they are written so they can be easily skipped over for a sensitive reader.

A little too cheesy for my liking and I didn't really care for the relationship. It was a very average book for a romance.

Thank you, Putnam and NetGalley for the advance review copy. All opinions are my own!

This was adorable! Navigating grief, healing from loss, and opening your heart after hurt, MORBIDLY YOURS is equal parts playful and poignant, as satisfyingly spicy as it is sweet. I dare you not to fall in love with Lark and Callum, an endearing, quirky grumpy/sunshine pairing who couldn’t be cuter.

3.5 rounded up to 4 because it was a very original story and I did enjoy the descriptions of Ireland and getting to know the culture.

The story focuses around Lark who is a young widow leaving Texas for a fresh start in Ireland. Callum is her neighbor who also happens to be an undertaker in an odd predicament. I don’t want to give too much away but this is a beautiful story for both characters to find themselves. This was a bit predictable but beautiful nonetheless.

I would definitely read more from Ivy Fairbanks!

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A fantastic romance from the first page. Unique, I'll give you that but a great story with wonderful characters, the perfect amount of steam, and a heart warming story I thought about afterwards. Have shared with my friends and encouraged them to read it too! BRAVO!

An absolute joy of a book! Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for the ARC!

I read this book back when it was independently published and adored it, so to be able to receive this ARC with even more scenes only furthered my love for this story and the characters, it's so great to see this book get traditionally published!

The characters and their relationship absolutely stand out for me. Lark is such a great, strong, bubbly female lead and it was so fascinating to learn about her background and her career. And Callum was such a sweet male lead, his career path in particular was really fascinating to learn about throughout the story. Together, the two are just the cutest, I love the introvert/extrovert, stoic/sunshine relationship dynamic, and I think these two bring out the best in each other, I also loved the friends to lovers aspect of their relationship!

The cast of side characters was super fun, I hated the antagonist though, but my strong hatred for him definitely highlights how good and compelling the writing was. The plot line of needing to get married to keep the family business was silly, but it allowed for so much fun and a few ridiculous situations to occur which I loved.

Overall, the second read through was just as good, if not better, than my first go around. This book will always hold a special place in my heart as one of the first books that got me back into reading, and I highly recommend this cute, lighthearted, slightly spicy read to anyone looking for their next romance book! 4.5 stars!

Absolutely brilliant! Morbidly Yours spoke to my soul! Ivy Fairbanks debut novel is a winner! I literally could not put this book down. The emotions that this story provoked were genuine. I laughed, yelled, and sobbed like a baby. Grief is a difficult subject but Ivy shared it beautifully. The character progression is spot on, loved the location, and a well paced storyline! Excellent work Ivy!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This was so good?! Like surprisingly good!

The premise is unique but honestly I just fell in love with these characters and love their love. Wholesome and also gets you in the feels just the right amount.

callum and lark.. callum and lark… CALLUM AND LARK!!
friends to lovers is such a tough vibe to tackle and this book DID IT!! i absolutely loved every single aspect of this book. from the writing to the story line to the background of the characters everything just flowed so well. and can we talk about callum’s studder? because, so cute. i love how lark was able to just kinda understand callum in a way, right off the bat. they had the cutest dynamic of irish to american banter and getting used to one another’s quirks. this book gave off such a cute little opposite attract, tackled love after loss, perfectly captured friends to lovers, and was such a heartwarming vibe. i absolutely adored it. 5 stars. would absolutely read again and recommend!!

Morbidly Yours was a departure from my usual books but in a good way. This one has depth and wades into grief beautifully!

Thank you Net Galley and publishers for letting me read an arc of this book in return for an honest review.

I really wasn't sure what to think of this book at first. A grumpy mortician with a stutter and a bubbly animator from Texas creates an unusual pairing that somehow works. She moves from texas to ireland to start fresh after her husband's death but death seems to follow her when she meets her next door neighbor who happens to run a funeral home. He's shy and finds feeling attraction really difficult but he must find a wife before his 35th birthday if he wants to keep his home and business according to his grandpa's will. She helps him open up and figure out what he wants in a relationship and he helps her with her grief and being there. The tension and slow burn friends to lovers had me wanting them to make a move already. It was nice that she will always honor her dead husband and not forget to move on, and in the end he found the relationship he was looking for. Overall very cute and a different kind of love story. Grief isn't linear.

Okay so to be very honest I was initially not interested in this at all because for some reason I thought it was gonna be like monster romance (I genuinely do not know why) and I could not get behind the concept of a zombie love interest. I am so glad that I was wrong because this was delightful 😂

Their friendship feels instantaneous in a way that doesn’t feel contrived. The fact that, besides each other, any other person in that same position (extroverted, undertaker) would give them hives makes it ten times better. Lark is adventurous and bold and (mostly) open, and Callum is cautious and quiet and a little reluctant, but they are so wonderfully paired. Neither of them seek to change the other, and are so immediately accepting of each others self-perceived flaws that it catches them both off guard.

Callum is so sweet, earnest and willing to step out of his comfort zone for a bit of Lark’s sunshine. Lark is supportive of his hesitance while also giving him space and opportunity to see what he’s capable of if he wants to be. The fact that it’s Lark’s interest that helps him define (without labeling himself) his demisexuality is so sweet as well - she doesn’t judge him or push him, simply learns how to make it more comfortable for him.

Lark is warm and bright and also disarmingly open with her affection. Her immediate and genuine desire to support and love the people she chooses to have in her life is so lovely and wholesome. She is hard on herself to a fault but sees the worth of everyone else unrelentingly. She helps create situations that allow Callum to safely explore the world outside the one he’s created for himself, but also fits herself into it when it makes him more comfortable.

I just adored them and this and I’m so glad NetGalley suggested it to me specifically 😂

Just finished "Morbidly Yours" by Ivy Fairbanks and I’m hooked! I really enjoyed how Lark helped Callum come out of his shell, while Callum supported Lark in her grieving process. The workplace drama was wild (Seán, ugh) and the side characters added so much without stealing the spotlight. The snarky banter between Lark and Callum was everything, with jabs flying back and forth. I really appreciated the pronunciation guides for Irish/Gaeilge—those dirty sayings, whew! I may need to listen to the audiobook now. This is an amazing debut novel and I can't wait to see what Ivy writes next!

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for providing me an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to read this when it was indie published but just never got a chance so when I got this arc I was so excited!! It was absolutely wonderful. It was sweet and charming and sexy and oh so morbid. There is nothing like a girl literally running from all things death and grief related and right into the arms of an undertaker. And with all the cutesy things, Lark dealing with her grief was heavy and honest and written well.

I LOVED CALLUM SO MUCH. There is nothing I love more than an Irishman just trying to save the family business. He was sweet, and HOT! He wanted her SO BAD. Like if anyone is the definition of down bad, it is CALLUM. He was even trying so hard to move on, move past it, but he quite literally said nothing could make me forget her, yeah OKAY WE GET IT.

His sexuality and his stutter were both written well and so much care. Lark didn’t ask questions, if anything she sought out answers for herself so she could help him, which was SO SWEET. She took him as he was and I loved that for him so much!!

If only she could have let him do the same for her… she was grieving HARD, she was on her grief tour, as she said herself! I wish it would have taken her a LITTLE less time to realize that she could still grieving and also love Callum. It made perfect sense, and it was done WELL, don’t get me wrong. It was just so tough watching her struggle for so long! Which isn’t also to say I didn’t love her, because I DID! Because despite the crappy and life had thrown her, she was still such a sunshine girl and I loved that so much. And she DID really love Callum. She was just hurting more.

I cannot wait to be back in this little universe for the rest of the series!! I think it’s only going to get better!!

Thank you so much to Putnam Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When Lark moves to Galway for an animation project she doesn’t expect to find herself next door to a funeral home. She definitely doesn’t expect for the tall, handsome mortician to be her first friend in Ireland. She most certainly doesn’t expect for those friendly feelings she has for him to start getting tingly. Lark is not staying in Ireland and she is not planning to fall in love ever again. So what is she going to do with the world’s sweetest undertaker who finds himself in need of a wife?

This was a delightful read in no small part due to the setting and the utterly wonderful hero. Callum was so lovely that if I thought Galway was home to men of his ilk, I’d be on the next plane. Lark sometimes veered into manic pixie dream girl type of overly quirkiness for me but I still couldn’t help rooting for her to figure her stuff out. Wonderful secondary characters added extra warmth to this read.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review..

After the death of her husband, Lark moves to Ireland for a fresh start. Her new neighbor, mortician Callum, becomes her friend. Unable to deny their mutual attraction, she tries to transition their relationship to friends with benefits, but their deep feelings create complications.

I really liked how Lark’s guilt over her husband’s death and Callum’s need to find a wife in order to save his business create tension. Callum’s demisexuality, i.e. need to form a strong emotional connection with a person in order to desire them, is handled beautifully. Lark’s work as an animator factors nicely into the story as does the toxic office politics. The novel delivers plenty of feels and dark humor, which kept me turning pages to get another hit of dopamine.

The secondary characters, particularly Lark’s eccentric friend Maeve, cool coworkers Anvi and Rory, as well as Callum’s loyal employee Deirdre and florist Saoirse, were delightful. Lark and Callum’s romantic arc was well developed and a joy to read. The book absolutely lives up to the fun premise.

While I felt that one of the characters, perhaps undeservedly, carries a disproportionate amount of the grand gestures at the end, I appreciated having both Lark and Callan’s perspectives in the epilogue.

For me, the book was a 4.5 star read, rounded up to five.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to G.P. Putnam’s Sons Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley.

I couldn’t get into the story just as I thought. Not disappointed but need more depth, I think. I can't remember when was the last time when I read a book in which the whole plot was 100% equal to what was written in the blurb and nothing more. There was no surprise there, no resolution to any of the plot threads and the whole story was blatantly predictable and painfully dull.

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=2.25 | 😘=5 | 🤬=4.5 | 18+

summary: woman from Texas moves to Ireland and her next door neighbor is a hot mortician and they fall in love

thoughts: I am not the biggest fan of friends with benefits, nor am I the biggest fan of stupid third act breakups, nor protagonists with poor decision-making abilities. basically, this was not my favorite!! like send this heroine to counseling for a couple months and this book would be half as long. cognitive behavioral therapy >>>>

One of the best romances I've read this year! I picked it up because I was struck by the cover and the title, and the story and the writing totally lived up to the vibes the cover/title portray! If you're looking for a soft, wholesome read I definitely recommend this one! (note the TWs though)

TWs - death of spouse in the past and grief in the present, description of work done in mortuaries in detail (including some descriptions of deceased bodies and the efforts to prepare them for funerals), death of elderly friend in the present

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

Yum! Caitlin Doughty fans, where are you at? Such an odd and oddly satisfying plot mix. Bravo on this debut novel and what a way to introduce yourself, Ivy Fairbanks.

Imagine pink cowboy boots, Southern accent and a personality that can brighten any sour mood. Lark is an animation art director who moved to Galway, Ireland from Austin, Texas in the hopes of a fresh start. She’s in charge of animating a cartoon about an Irish Pirate Queen - Grace O’Malley (so many props for including an actual historical figure).

Now imagine a funeral home undertaker in Ireland. A quiet mortician with a stutter whose job occupation left him with no experience of talking to women and some seriously good looks that don’t match his introverted personality. Callum grew up in the funeral home, but this family business is not completely his yet.

This book was brimming with thoughtful research into multiple subjects. You’ll be learning a little bit about everything: the differences between Irish and Scottish culture, real life Pirate Queens, hookers, honky-tonks, cartoons, embalming processes and love. But most of all I appreciated that this book is about all the different ways we, as humans, process grief and loss.

I felt like I was reading about real people with lots of interests and peeling off layers of their personalities with each page. I was also surprised to be bursting with laughter from Callum’s morbidly funny dad jokes. So overall, “Morbidly Yours” was written with a beautiful balance of humor, storytelling, character introduction, drama, conflicts and romance.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy ahead of the release date.