Sorry I just couldn’t get into it. What even is a casket company? It’s not a funeral home, she’s not building the caskets herself. The writing style hurt my head.

I really wanted to like this book. The premise was intriguing, which initially drew me in. However, my experience with "Casket Case" was less than satisfying.

Firstly, the book is written in third person present tense. This narrative style is quite uncommon and I found it jarring. It disrupted the flow of the story for me and made it difficult to get into the book.

The characters did not help either. Nora is portrayed as a whiny, angst-ridden, anxious mess of a woman, which made it hard to connect with or root for her. Garrett, on the other hand, seemed to lack any real personality, making their relationship feel flat and unengaging.

The romance in the book also fell short. The relationship between Nora and Garrett progresses from instant attraction to heavy petting to declarations of love and sex almost immediately. This rapid progression felt unrealistic and left me feeling disconnected from their supposed chemistry.

On a positive note, I did enjoy the character of the grandfather. He was a refreshing presence in the story, offering wisdom and good advice.

However, the frequent references to church and God were off-putting for me. While this might appeal to some readers, it's just not my preference in a book.

Ultimately, I did not finish this book. At about the 60% mark, I found myself wanting to skip ahead or put the book down in favor of doing anything else. This is always a clear sign for me that a book isn't holding my interest.

In conclusion, despite its promising premise, "Casket Case" didn't work for me due to its narrative style, unappealing characters, and the rapid, unconvincing romance. While it might find its audience with some readers, it wasn’t my cup of tea.

Let me start by saying that I am the exact target audience for this book, having grown up in the South with a family in the funeral business. The premise alone - a woman who runs her parent's business selling caskets meets a man who works as a logistics coordinator for Death - immediately had me hooked.

I loved the way this book handled Nora's grief (and grief in general) after her parents' deaths, as well as her struggles with how much influence death is able to have over her life.

Ultimately, the romance itself was the least compelling aspect of the story. I can understand why Nora loves Garrett's stability and dedication to her, but the sudden build-up to their relationship makes that dedication feel a bit unearned. Because Garrett is out of the picture for a substantial amount of the book without any real connection or references, the ending doesn't feel as satisfying as I would usually hope for in a romance.

As always, thanks so much to NetGalley for the ARC!

I am always into MCs who have weird or out of the ordinary jobs. This book manages to make casket selling and being a grim reaper not that awful a prospect. I was entertained enough by the romance, but it was hindered by the pacing. I'd definitely pick up Evans next work.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell and NetGalley for providing an eARC for an honest review.

I loved the concept of this book. That working for death is just a normal job. It's an interesting take for a romance novel. There aren't many love stories about the industry of death.
I had a hard time getting into the book, as it is written in third person present tense, and it's really jarring at first, as it is not the most common tense to read in.
The only thing I really didn't like all that much was Nora's big revelation. It wasn't really triggered by anything, it was a complete 180 from her earlier opinion, and there just didn't seem to be a reason. The end was also super abrupt.
Otherwise, a fun read!

Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital book for an honest review!
This book was just confusing to me all the way through. The characters love for each other didn’t feel authentic. They barely dated and got together so quickly I don’t think it was plotted out very well. I did like the idea the author was going with, with her selling caskets and him working for death but I think it could have been thought out more. Felt very rushed for me the whole time, and yet slow at the same time. Very hard to explain, I had to dnf this about 80% through because I just couldn’t make myself keep reading.

i was very intrigued seeing the summary for this book, but it fell a little bit short for me. i liked the premise and all the ideas put into this story, but the pacing was slow. i did not feel as much chemistry between nora and garrett as i would of liked to. it was good to read the way that the story approached the topic of grief, it was more realistic than other times i’ve read. overall, i had an enjoyable time reading! i just wish we got a little bit more with the characters!

thank you to the author, netgalley, and random house publishing/dell for the opportunity to receive an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

What an interesting concept to build a story around. Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for inviting me to this early read!

I forgot to send my review for this but this was pretty unique overall. Very quirky! It took a second to get into but it was worth the read!

After her parents pass away, Nora takes over the family business selling caskets. Nora’s going through the motions and seems content to stay that way when Garrett stops into the shop and asks for directions. Little does she know that isn’t the last she’ll see of him because Garrett comes back in just to ask her to go out with him and despite her trepidation, she finds herself saying yes. The two hit it off and end up in a whirlwind romance that has Nora thinking about forever and taking a front seat in her life again.

But just when everything seems perfect, Nora finds out that Garrett works for death. And if that wasn’t enough to trigger her unresolved grief, the fact that he has done nothing to prevent residents of Rabbittown from passing and been hiding it from her makes it even worse.

Despite Nora’s moments of immaturity, self-destruction, and just plain head-in-the-sand stubbornness, I love how the author was able to write a rom-com but kept her depiction of love close to real life. I think it’s important to remember that Nora’s life looks completely different than it did a year ago and she's still trying to figure out who she is and what she wants after grief has changed so much. It makes sense that what Garrett does is hard for her to cope with and that she regresses instead of accepting it immediately.

It’s refreshing to read a romance novel where love doesn’t magically fix all your problems or mean your relationship will work! This author does a great job of showing the reader that you have to learn to communicate, figure out what’s important to you, and if you love this person enough to choose them every day.

This book's pacing did feel slow at points but I enjoyed the unique plot line of this story with Garrett working in Logistics and Johnny Chandler getting into the middle of everything. I also loved the real life feel of this book and the dashes of fantasy thrown in. You really feel like you're in Rabittown with the storylines for supporting characters and small town drama thrown in. I definitely found myself wondering about when we’d get updates on those throughout the story (GO LINDA, IYKYK).

All in all, I can’t wait to see what comes next from Lauren Evans!

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½ / 5
🌶️🌶️ / 5

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me the chance to write an honest review of the ARC for Casket Case!

Review will be posted to Goodreads then shared via twitter and instagram on 5/6/24

This just wasnt the book for me, I had a hard time getting into it, I did love much about it. It is in a small town so I think I was hoping for more

The novel is a blend of humor, suspense, and a bit of the macabre, which altogether creates a charmingly quirky reading experience. The author created a character that is witty, sharp, and a bit unconventional, which makes following her adventures all the more entertaining. Her role as an amateur sleuth in the curious and sometimes comical world of funeral homes provided a fresh and intriguing setting that I hadn't encountered in other books in the genre.

I guess I was hoping it would be less morbid? Which is partly my bad, the summary was pretty clear. I had really good experiences with similar books—The Dead Romantics, Love of My Afterlife, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy—so I was intrigued and wanted more!! This book differed in a few key ways from those though, and it made me realize just why I loved them (and didn’t love this one).

In The Dead Romantics, most of the dead people were ghosts which I highly preferred, as they seemed a bit further removed from death. In Love of My Afterlife, the afterlife was romanticized and I LOVED how it made me feel. There was even a (secondary) romance happening IN the afterlife. The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy was morbid, yes, but it never lost the romance even amidst the ZOMBIES!

Casket Case, however, was alive humans actively dying with no reassuring afterlife talk (it was out of his "jurisdiction”). So everyone—including me—was just sad and confused. The book claims that the dying people get closure from people like the hero, but that’s still leaving a LOT of unclosed wounds!! The poor families!!! Having a solid knowledge of the afterlife would’ve at least made it all feel less morbid, like give me proof that grandpa gets to reunite with his wife, etc!!!

I also had issues with the stiff dialogue, clunky writing, and instalove romance. The writing was all tell and no show. Not to mention, the romance as a whole was wildly paced: sex by 25%, “I love yous” by 35%; breakup by 60%, kissing another man at 70% because it's suddenly a love triangle, getting back together at 95%. At the end, she was separated from the hero for so long and wasn’t even really thinking about him, and he didn’t even have an arc at all. So much so that I was actively rooting for the wrong side of the love triangle??? That guy at least had chemistry with and a personality!!

Overall, it was not the right book for me and definitely not the right time. I’ve recently experienced some personal loss, and this book was just too morbid for the moment. The morbidity wasn’t necessarily the book’s fault (it’s clearly stated in the summary), but I still wasn’t a fan of the execution. The concept, however, was still intriguing and I liked the Death details…more than the romance, which is where the book fully fell apart for me.

⭐️.75/5 .5🌶️/5


CWs: Death of a sibling (past; recounted) (cancer), fatal car crashes (multiple; past and current), heart failure, death of a grandparent (current), death of parents (past; recounted)

I received an eARC via NetGalley. All opinions are honest and my own.

Casket Case (amazing name for a book btw) is a cozy small town romance between a casket seller and an employee of death. As you could imagine, the themes of death were prevalent throughout, and I really loved how the author explored them.

While it started off pretty slow, the romance came in hot and heavy between Nora and Garrett. I feel like their challenges were overcome appropriately, and I was super invested by the end. I loved the twist of a love triangle with a funeral home competitor, and finding out his motives.

The epilogue actually devastated me, I had become very attached to all of the characters in the book.

Really cute and fun read!

I recently finished reading Casket Case, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The book had a unique and intriguing premise that I found captivating. The author did an excellent job of blending spooky and cozy elements with the small-town southern setting and the main characters' careers. As someone who lives in the South near many small towns like the one depicted in the book, it felt special and extra homey.

While I found the instant love connection between the main characters, Nora and Garrett, to be cute and attention-grabbing, I also felt that they progressed too quickly in their relationship. Moreover, their conflict was never fully resolved, which left me a bit disappointed. Nonetheless, I loved the epilogue, which provided an excellent and sweet conclusion to the story.

I thought this was a great story about loss and moving on. Based on the cover I expected something a little lighter.

Nora has just returned home to take over running her family’s casket business. She had her life perfectly planned out and all of the sudden she finds herself on a completely different path. One thing she does know is that she is tired of death. And machine her surprise when she meets Garrett and falls in love only to find out that he works for Death!

This book follows their love story. It is an emotional story of loss and how people deal with all aspects of death. We also get to see exactly how Garrett gets his Joab and what exactly he does for Death.

I absolutely loved Garrett. There were parts of the story where i felt so bad for him. He was so understanding and patient.

I really liked the book, it definitely gave me some new perspectives on the way i look at loss. Not a light read but a good one nonetheless.

The concept of this book was very imaginative, I haven’t read anything like it in a long time.

It was a bit predictable, but in a cozy way. The main characters were both interesting enough, and I found myself rooting for them to stay together.

The pacing slows a lot around the halfway point, but it picks up again at the end. The epilogue was FANTASTIC!

The premise sounded really interesting and not similar to anything I've read before, but much of it fell flat for me. While I liked the characters together, sometimes it felt like they just really didn't really care for each other that much and they just ignored some of the issues without resolving them. Overall it was ok, but not great.

I REALLY enjoyed this book! While it is packaged as a romance, it is also a book about love of family and love of hometown. I loved the main characters Nora and Garrett. I felt like their relationship was real and flawed and did not feel rushed for the plot. This book also deals with grieving and death and how it is part of life. While a book about death might not be everyone's cup of tea, how it is handled is touching. I have already recommended this book to a friend!

DNF - I really loved the premise, but the execution here was lacking. I found the insta-love to be way to instant, and I did not like that Nora thought "Is he an alcoholic? Or a Drug addict?" when Garrett asked her out and then DESPITE THESE THOUGHTS agreed to go out with him. It came off judgy from Nora and then pointless based on her own decisions.

Had the relationship had more time to develop, I think I would have loved this!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC!