For Better or Hearse is *chef’s kiss* perfection. I love my morbid mean girl and very tall, handsome asshole so much!

Talk about a dynamic duo! They were at each other’s throat and it was total delight!

I just want to shower this book with all the affection, love, devotion, accolades, compliments, positive adjectives, all of it!

It was perfect, just so damn perfect.

While I come for the romance, what truly gets me to stay in a book is how much I come to care for its protagonists. And that was an incredibly easy feat here in For Better or Hearse, thanks to its impeccable leads, Ash and Nathaniel.

Ash’s character is especially so beautifully crafted. Her character could have easily fallen into the “not like the other girls” trap, instead the character is absolutely a girls’ girl. An oddball, but a girl's girl.
Ash is weird, blunt, wears combat boots, has the most out of pocket jobs, but she’s never presented in a way that feels she’s better than other women. She’s simply her own person, and Nathaniel even brings out a line of how he’s never met a person like her; it reads in a tone that she is simply not like any one person, rather than “not like the other girls.” I know I’m focusing quite a bit on this, but I can’t overstate how much I appreciated the delicacy used here. Ash is beautifully cared for by Ava Hunter, and I loved every moment getting to know her— and getting to root for her. She may be a morbid “mean” girl, but she’s also so wonderfully kind, soft, and vulnerable as well. She fawns and frets over her beloved cousin Tessie, she tries to get a broken family to find a way to mend, and she does her best to place each foot in the front of the other.

And, above all, Ash is absolutely enough.

It’s probably not a surprise to state Ash is my favorite, but my main man Nathaniel is right next to her in having easily gained my favor throughout the narrative. He begins this story with a bone to pick against Ash, and for very good reason as we come to learn. He wants to hate her— and does for a while— but Nathaniel is a good man. A kind, loyal, loving man, and it’s no surprise how that hate inevitably deteriorates as he gets to know Ash. What rebuilds from its ashes is just so swoon-worthy, so heart-pounding, so freaking-damn-gorgeous. Nathaniel is a dreamy sigh come to life and I love him for him— but I also love him for how he saw Ash and knew she was always enough.

The pacing of their romance is impeccable! It takes a while for those walls to be knocked down and defrosted on each side— but that makes for a delicious slow burn, because once the temperate rises and those bricks comes crashing down, we begin a beautifully passionate love affair that goes beyond the physical and dives deep into the heart and soul. The perfect ingredients to create the best recipe of romance. One that touches heart, body, and soul.

Ash and Nathaniel do just that to one another. It only takes time, trust, and a bit of morbid fun facts…but they absolutely become an all-consuming love story. Witnessing that story filled my heart to the brim with all the good feelings. My heart is theirs to keep.

If you love witty dialogue, a sharply edged-soft heroine, a gorgeous, kind-hearted leading man, and a sizzling chemistry that evolves from hate to love, then be sure to pick up your copy of For Better or Hearse!

Thank you Valentine PR for this complimentary copy, I leave this honest review voluntarily.