NetGalley Review: Casket Case by Lauren Evans
Hey all, Sam here.
As we have reached “Spooky Season,” I’m wanting to read more books that fill that vibe, so hopefully in my next couple monthly wrap-ups (and very hopefully in some of the upcoming book reviews) I’ll be able to fill it with books of magic and atmosphere plus books of witches, ghosts, vampires, etc.
But today I have a book that I actually read back in January of this year. I don’t exactly remember why I read a Spooky Season book in the middle of winter, but I’m guessing part of it was because I started my year hoping to start catching up on my NetGalley reads and reviews….and yet here we are at the end of August and I’m just now getting around to writing up the review.
Oh well, I’m clearly a work in progress, and I’m just trying my best and hoping to keep improving. Anyway, let’s go ahead and jump into the review.
My Thoughts
In this warm-hearted debut rom-com, a young woman returns home to run her family’s casket business and falls in love with a seemingly perfect stranger. But there’s just one problem . . . he works for Death.
Nora thought she was finished with Rabbittown, Alabama, for good. But an unexpected tragedy turned her life upside down, and she’s found herself back in her tiny hometown running the family casket business.
There aren’t exactly a lot of prospects for a single woman in her thirties in a place like Rabbittown. Until Nora Clanton’s ordinary, casket-selling day is interrupted by a handsome stranger wandering into her shop and asking for directions–as well as a date.
Garrett Bishop seems like the ideal guy. He’s thoughtful, he’s kind, and he has a lucrative job as a logistics coordinator, for which he seems to have a passion. She’s not totally sure what “logistics” entails, but she knows it means long hours, lots of travel, and urgent calls in the middle of the night.
When a few of Rabbittown’s residents suddenly pass away–a heart attack here, a car crash there–and Garrett is spotted at the scenes of, well, all of the deaths, his frustratingly vague job description starts to become increasingly . . . suspicious. What is it that Garrett actually does for a living?
He’s a logistics coordinator for Death.
When Nora discovers the truth, she is unable to reconcile the wonderful man she knows with the unthinkably cruel job he loves. Will she ever be able to understand how he can do what he does, or will she have to lay her best chance at love to rest?
Casket Case is the heartfelt story of a small-town girl who feels surrounded by death–literally and figuratively. This clever, endearing, and romantic debut explores how love and loss are forever intertwined . . . but death might not be as scary as it seems.
Rating: 2.5 stars
The premise for this was intriguing to me, which is why I requested this book (and why I bought a finished copy because I hadn’t read it by release day), but the execution just didn’t land for me.
Individually I didn’t have any issues with either Nora or Garrett. I mean, Nora was still pretty isolated and closed off after losing her family and moving back home to take care of the family business. And Garrett was pretty closed off and secretive because of the nature of his job and being a workaholic. So, you know, one of those standard character set-ups for romance directed stories.
Well, okay, I did actually wanting to know even more about the nature of Garrett’s job (I’m a big fantasy reader, one who enjoys all the deep lore and worldbuilding), and this book fits more of the contemporary romance vibes and nuances, so it was minimal on pretty much all of that. But the two main characters together?!? They did not work for me at all. Nora had better chemistry with her casket business rival, and I found myself hoping that those two ended up together instead.
Yes, there was an attraction between Nora and Garrett, but it felt like their interest in each other was only ever surface level. The first 80% of the book honestly felt very superficial and surface level, and yet somehow after knowing each other for like two weeks and only going on three or four dates, our main duo was thinking that this relationship is pretty serious and they might love each other.
The absolute highlight of this story was Nora’s grandpa, and with the plot beats around him, especially nearer the end of the book, this actually increased my rating for the story. I also did like that whenever there was a death in the community that everyone seemed to gather up for the funeral. It was nice to experience that strong small community bond.
But this book took me WAY TOO MUCH time to read. It was not at all a breezy romance, and not because both main characters are connected to death. Reading it felt more like a slog.
Which is an absolute shame. I wanted to love this book. But the characters and the writing needed more depth. This book was a miss for me, which sort of makes me glad that I didn’t read it during Spooky Season.
Okay, well that’s all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
