I thought this book had a lot of potential but the romance was a little stifled. It might have been from the third person POV but it just felt too insta-lovey. I did like the book in relationship to Garrett’s job and the reveal in the epilogue. I just felt like I didn’t connect with the characters like I wanted too. It felt like Nora was your typical “millennial woman” who escapes into TV shows and drinks a lot of wine while crying on the couch. I wish we got a little more growth in her character throughout the book. I also wish the small town aspect was played up more. I just felt like it could’ve been a bigger setting. Overall the story was fine, there was a few things that kept it from being a bigger hit in my opinion.

The concept of this book really intrigued me. It fell flat in some spot but I will definitely be recommending it to people! The story ran slow and the romance burned fast. A charming read that delves into the intricacies of all things life, love and death.

Casket Case by Lauren Evans 3⭐️

Nora Clanton has moved back to Rabbittown,Alabama to take over her parents’ casket store after they unexpectedly passed away. There she meets the love of her life but he just so happens to be a middle man for Death.

This book’s blurb immediately caught my attention and I was super excited to read it. I truly loved how funny Nora could be and she made me laugh out loud multiple times. The chemistry between her and Garrett honestly fell flat for me though. It was difficult for me to understand the pacing of their relationship. I was actually rooting for Johnny more than Garrett because they seemed to have better on page chemistry. I understand why she ends up with Garrett but I’m not overly thrilled by it.

What I absolutely loved about this book was its portrayal of how paralyzing grief can be and how it can turn your entire life upside down. Nora’s depression and anxiety is perfectly described as she goes through her personal journey with grief. I cried real tears during the epilogue and that’s in part why I rated this book three stars.


Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately, this was a miss for me. I found the story slow and the romance unbelievable. There wasn’t enough chemistry between the FMC and MC to make me convinced that they hit it off immediately and started dating. I liked the idea for this story, the idea of someone working for death, but I wish that had been explained more.

After the unexpected loss of her loved ones, Nora finds herself running the family’s local casket business. Finding herself surrounded by death was not exactly the life she imagined. Nora’s hopes for the future seemed bleak until she met Garret. He’s a catch but when she learns of his career as a logistician for death, she’s feeling like she just can’t escape death’s grasp. This sweet small town rom-com shares frequent reflections on death and grief. Despite the heavy themes, the story was light and humorous at times. I really appreciated the uniqueness of the premise and easily gave it 5 stars.

Be sure to check out Casket Case if you are looking for an out-of-the-box rom-com!

Thank you Dell Romance for this arc.

Wasn’t for, it started out interesting but than it fell flat unfortunate had to dnf. I had a hard time connecting with the story. But I definitely think if you love fall check this book out

📔: Casket Case-a standalone

✍️ By: Lauren Evans-debut author

📃 Page Count: 396

🗓️ Publication Date: 9-10-24 | Read: 9-9-24

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Dell for this ARC💜! I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions expressed are my own.

Genre: Contemporary/Paranormal Romance, Adult Fic, Fantasy, Magical Realism

🌏Setting: Rabbittown, AL

Tropes:
❤️ small town
❤️ grim reaper/Death
❤️ love triangle
❤️ 2nd chance
❤️insta-connection


⚠️ TW: death of parents, grief, cheating (h cheated on by ex)

POV: dual 3rd person, nonlinear timeline

💭 Summary 💭 Nora moved back to her small town in Alabama to run her family's casket selling business after her parents' death. Garrett is a mysterious stranger who takes an interest in Nora while keeping his true identity a secret. As they get to know each other, strange accidental deaths occur with Garrett at the scene of the crimes. Nora becomes suspicious and makes Garrett tell the truth about his job causing them to break up. It takes a death conference, a quick hook up, and some backstabbing to bring Nora back to Garrett.


Heroine: Eleanora "Nora" Clanton 30, sells caskets, watches a lot of TV.

Hero: Garrett Bishop-logistics director, travels a lot for work

Side cast: Grandpa-William, Charlie-Nora's ex bf, Johnny Chandler-family owns a funeral home, Billy and Anita-Nora's parents, both deceased.


My Thoughts: I didn't feel a connection with Nora as she seemed a little cold. Garrett was a sweetheart and didn't play games with Nora. He wanted her, they went on dates, and he fell for her. I didn't understand her problem with his profession considering hers. I hated the whole Johnny Chandler thing, wasn't necessary. It was an okay PNR for the fall season.

Range of emotions: 😬🤔🙄
🌶️: Spice 2/5
😭: Emotion 3/5
❤️: Couple 3/5
⭐️: Rating 3/5

This book is a mix of contemporary romance with a little bit of magic. Nora has had a ROUGH year and finally catches a break when she meets what seems to be the perfect guy…only problem? He works for Death… Garrett is the perfect gentleman and honestly is an absolute gem of a guy. He’s understanding and kind and respectful. I loved this book even when it made me sob ugly tears. There were parts that I didn’t see coming but it gave so much insight into the rest of the story after the fact. This book has so much depth and is like a warm hug at times with some whimsey added in.

Lauren did so well with the characters and storyline. I thoroughly enjoyed how she handled the storyline, character growth, and heavier topics. She understands grief so well, it felt like my own feelings were being portrayed on page. The writing was consistent and great throughout. I really enjoyed this book!!

Nora just lost her parents. She feels like she should be able to bear it because her family has always owned a casket store in her small town of Rabbittown, Alabama, but she's stalled in her sadness and unable to move forward. Enter handsome and mysterious Garret who seems too good to be true, but makes her feel alive like she thought she'd never would again. Garret does have a secret though, his boring title of logistics coordinator is to hide the fact that he works for Death, which would make Nora's ties to it even closer. Will they be able to find happiness in the midst of so much death?

I'm not entirely sure if the book is as sad and depressing as it seemed to me or I just read it at a time when losing both your parents pretty much at the same time hits way, way too close, but it felt depressing overall. Even the moments when Nora and Garret were supposedly having a great time and being all lovey-dovey were still anxiety-filled and just plain sad. Nora is in desperate need of therapy and refusing to acknowledge her depression and instead filling it with comfort TV and denial. It was just too many down moments for it to be a truly enjoyable romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for the read!

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I had a hard time with the connection between the characters feeling flat, and I was let down by the hype I had felt for this book. This may work for others, however, as it was cute and simple!

I really, really enjoyed this small town paranormal romance debut that has Southern girl Nora returning home to Rabbittown to take over her recently deceased parents' casket business and while there finds herself falling for Garrett, a complete stranger who just happens to work for Death. Good on audio and perfect for fans of authors like Ashley Poston or Ivy Fairbanks. I'm excited to read more by this new author in the future! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review!

The concept behind this story has so much potential to be funny, which is what I expected. But the central challenge between Nora and Garrett was more emotional than funny. Nora is in a deeply emotional place and falls hard and fast when she meets Garrett. He does the same, whirlwind romance in a small town ensues.
Personally I wanted to know more about the side characters that surround Nora. We learn only the basics about them, and only as much as they give Nora advice while she emotionally spirals, which happens often. The revelation of Nora's grandpa is the most surprising part of the book and while I loved the choice, it still felt like more could have been done with it.
The dialogue reads very rapid fire so every conversation seemed like an argument, even when it wasn't. Overall I struggled to connect to the book and the characters

This is a case of this book just wasn't for me.

I am going to have to DNF this book at 30%. I was not a fan of the writing style, but I was really intrigued by the premise so I was going to just power through. Unfortunately the characters were flat for me and I had a hard time caring about them. There is a lot of insta-love which I'm also not a fan of. I am sure there are people out there that will love this book, but it just wasn't for me.

After trying to read this book multiple time.. I have officially decided to dnf at the the 34% mark. I really just can't get the dialogue or reasonably believe any of type of chemistry between Nora and Garrett. Unfortunately, it completely missed the mark for me.

Thought the concept was very really intriguing, I feel like the execution was severely lacking. It felt very underdeveloped and rushed. I also didn't realize that there was a paranormal aspect to the book and think that needs to be marketed.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell for this ARC!

3/5 ⭐️

This was a strange one. There were aspects I kind of liked about it but the structure/execution of the book was a mess. All of the characters in this were just so flat, devoid of any personality. I neither liked nor disliked them because everyone was just so boring. The romance was too instalove and there wasn't any kind of chemistry built up between Nora and Garrett. Then 3/4's of the way through there was a random love triangle started (where Nora honestly had more chemistry with the guy than Garrett) that never mattered since it wasn't ever really set-up. There was also the sort of magical/paranormal element of Garrett working for Death - but this was never really fleshed out or made interesting.

The concept for this one really intrigued me but the book was just not that great. This was Evans's debut so I'll keep my eye on any future books she comes out with.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lauren Evans, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for my early access to this.

A woman inherits a casket store and home from her parents, who died about a year ago, and she's trying to make it work for her. She meets a man whom she likes, but is not sure how she feels about what he does for a living.

This is a WEIRD romance without being bonkers, y'all. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it. I am saying "what the heck did I just read?"

Nora's parents died unexpectedly last year. Ever since then she's been living in a deep depression. She left her job as an accountant in the big city (Birmingham) and moved back into her childhood home to take over her parents' casket store. Her boyfriend dumped her and she ghosted her friends. One day a hot guy in an expensive suit asks her for directions to a nearby house. The next day he comes back and asks her out. And then Garrett and Nora are in a fast-moving relationship that is everything Nora's ever wanted. The catch? He's a regional manager for Death. As in, he helps guide dying souls to the Other Side. One could be forgiven for thinking that Nora would be cool with his job, given her own. But that would assume one hasn't read many romance novels.

First, the good stuff: this book is written straightforwardly and is really, really easy to read. Once I picked it up, I didn't feel like putting it down to scroll social media or pick up a different book. (I read it straight through in one evening.) I also really liked that neither character played games with the other: they were both up front about their wants and needs and respectful of each other's boundaries when it came to intimacy or topics of conversation.

Speaking of physical intimacy: the relationship gets physical pretty early on. Like I said, this is the opposite of a slow burn and neither Nora nor Garrett is trying to play it cool. That said, the intimacy is very euphemistically described. My partner in reading crime, Laine, always wants to know "where are the hands?" when reading intimate scenes. I'll simply say that we don't exactly know what the hands are doing here. My own preference would have been for a little more description in the spicy scenes, but it's not closed door.

For me the biggest issue with the book is that not much happens. I have always thought of myself as a character-focused reader, but I've learned that I need something for those characters to do together.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the slightly morbid (but never gory); for people who like small town contemporary romance; and for people who like low conflict romance between compatible characters. And especially if you're a seasonal reader who likes those things, this would be a great read for spooky season.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

This book really threw me off and it was not what I expected. From the description I thought it would be a cute paranormal rom-com. And the fact that the MMC works for death was so intriguing for me, but it kind of disappointed me. The concept was so strange yet creative, it really made me crave a deeper look into the author’s mind and the morbid eeriness that I thought the plot would be,

The town and the side characters were fell flat and didn’t bring anything to the story other than to move things along. They had no personality. They didn’t help in making me connect with the MCs or with making them change throughout the book. It all felt repetitive.

The pacing of the book was also weird. The pacing was unusually slow, yet the characters had an insta-love relationship that moved so fast that it was underdeveloped. I felt nothing. No butterflies. No kicking my feet. Just an okay they are together and now I am stuck in a weird pacing loop.

The dialogue also didn’t do it for me. It was so awkward. And I was no com to this rom-com. Or at least the humor was not my type of humor.

Another thing I didn’t like about the book was how the FMC kept calling herself crazy for reacting somewhat normally in a situation. She was going through grief, which was not really explored. I think exploring grief and the mental illnesses that may string from it and affect our lives and relationships is so important to be represented in all media when it is done the right way and not blamed on being crazy or overreacting. I wanted the author to dig deeper on this and the paranormal aspects of working for death and the toll that brings to a person.

I was a bit generous giving it 3 stars, but it is because I liked the idea and I think it did have the potential to be a good book. I’m sure it can be someone’s favorite, especially during spooky season.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Dell for the chance to review this book and give my honest thoughts on it.

I don't usually read romcoms but I am a huge mystery/thriller fan so I thought I'd give this one a shot since it dealt with some aspects I like from my genre. I was pleasantly surprised that I loved it! Finished it in one sitting. Living in a small southern town myself, I thought it was great at depicting that small town charm and pitfalls (like everyone knowing your business and congregating after church for all the gossip!). I felt Nora's dilemma (at not understanding or knowing if she could handle Garrett's job). A great twist that I really got behind. Funny and heartwarming, I loved it all.

Casket Case by Lauren Evans

This one wasn’t for me, so I’ll keep the review short. I struggled with the following:
⚰️Unbelievable romance. The complete lack of tension between the main characters. Like we just jumped right in there and never looked back. It was fast and jarring and not in a good way.
⚰️The stereotypes of a small, southern town. I felt they were overdone, and it cheapened the story.
⚰️Telling and not showing. Clunky dialogue. Descriptions and characters that didn’t add to the narrative.

I think someone who likes the following would enjoy it:
⚰️instalove
⚰️stereotypical small town setting
⚰️lots of characters
⚰️flawed characters with tragic backstories

This was one was darker than I anticipated and just fell way short of a reading experience I had hoped for.