Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Spice: 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️

by Ivy Fairbanks

A romance about an Irish mortician and a Texas cartoon animator? Yep, it 100% works!

Lark has left her painful past in Texas and come to Ireland for the next few months. She has no furniture, friends, or desire to have another serious relationship – and will immerse herself in work. That is until a shipment of body bags is accidentally delivered to her apartment, leading her to discover that she lives next door to a funeral home, not a bed and breakfast. How was she to know? All of the signs are in Gaelic. 

Callum has been working in the family business – undertaking – his whole life. But when his grandfather dies, a clause in the will states that Callum will only inherit if he marries by the time he turns 35 (less than a year away). The problem is Callum doesn’t date, and the prospect of finding a wife is unlikely.

The awkward, quiet undertaker and the larger-than-life Texan form an unlikely friendship, even as an undeniable, unstated attraction grows. Roller skates, scooters, chess matches, a pet mouse, a trip to the ER, and lots of popcorn later, these two are so far gone for each other that it will be a Texas-sized mess.

Everything about this book works. It is sweet, spicy, quirky, heart-wrenching, and funny. I cannot even fathom that this is Ivy’s first book. From Callum teaching Lark Irish dirty talk to her breaking him out of his shell to never being able to look at a black necktie quite the same way again, this story has so much heart. I loved her writing style and annotated/highlighted huge portions of the book.