Audiobook ARC: Hart and Mercy #3

The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen

Read by Kacie Rogers and Jim Frangione

Publication Date: July 8, 2025

Summary from NetGalley:

Immortal demigod Rosie Fox has been patrolling Tanria for decades, but lately, the job has been losing its luster. When Rosie dies (again) by electrocution (again) after poking around inside a portal choked with shadowy thorns, she feels stuck in the rut that is her unending life.

The portal’s uptight creator, Adam Lee, must come in person to repair the damage. But when all the portals break down at once, Rosie and Adam wind up trapped inside the Mist. And the reticent inventor in his bespoke menswear seems to know a lot more about what’s happening than he lets on.

Maybe two people who have found themselves stuck in this thorny, tangled life together can find a way to unstick each other … just when their time on this earth seems to be running out.

ARC provided by Hachette Audio via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

I really enjoyed this adorable third book in the Hart and Mercy series. I just adored the sunshine/grumpy dynamic between Rosie and Adam and it was really fun to see many of the characters from the other books make appearances in this one.

Kacie Rogers does a really nice job of narrating the story. She has a nice voice and really does a good job with the other character’s voices as well. There were a few times that I felt like her voice got a little to young sounding for Rosie, but not enough that it really bothered me. I just sort of noticed it, especially toward the end of the story. Jim Frangione only had one chapter, which told the story of Adam’s life, but he did a solid job with it.

I loved Rosie and thought she was a great character. She is immortal which she finds lonely and depressing at times, especially after one of her deaths. But I loved that she had such a sunshiny disposition most of the time. I adored the fact that she was really into expensive intimate apparel. The descriptions of that apparel were wonderful and I could really picture them in my mind.

Adam was also a great character that I really enjoyed. I loved how unemotional he appears at the start of the story, but you soon realize that he is just very guarded around others. He also has a great, although very dry, sense of humor. I loved learning his backstory and how it was related to the old gods in the story. I just wish, as I always do with romances, that we got to see what was going on in his head during the story. I would have loved to see some of his thoughts about Rosie.

Even though I still want Duckers and Zeddy to have their own story, I was so glad to see them both in this book. They are just so cute together and they both really shined in this book.

The world building was pretty light, although we do learn a bit more about the gods in this story. This is the third book in the series and we pretty much know all there is to know about the world at this point. This could be read without reading the first two books, but I really don’t recommend it. You would find the world very confusing if you started here. The dialogue and the story were fabulous. I was really happy that the dragons got to play a role in this story as well.

If you have enjoyed the first two books in this series then this one is probably already on your TBR. I am pretty sure that you will enjoy it. If you haven’t yet started on this wonderful cozy romantasy series, you really needed to go read the first one, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy. This is a wonderful series that I highly recommend to any who loves a good romance.