Megan Bannen's fantasy romance trilogy rides off into the sunset with its funny, sexy, and bittersweet final installment, The Undercutting of Adam and Rosie.
Demigod Rosie Fox has a case of immortality burnout. Her job as a Tanrian Marshal doesn't have the same shine after more than a century and a half of life, loss, and surviving her own deaths. "She was stuck--just stuck--and she had no way to unstick herself." Then she sees a strange shadow in one of the portals between the wilds of Tanria, a magical area built to contain gods, and the surrounding country of Bushong. She pokes the shadow and fries the portal's circuits, electrocuting herself to death in the process and causing the authorities to summon Dr. Adam Lee, the portals' inventor. Rosie is ordered to serve as Adam's escort, and more portal breakdowns trap them in Tanria together. Brash, filter-free Rosie finds "dauntingly crisp," tightly controlled Adam a puzzle in immaculately cut menswear. She slowly learns that his past might be even weirder than her own, and the two of them could get themselves unstuck for good.
Bannen (The Undermining of Twyla and Frank; The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy) sells the idea of immortality as curse instead of blessing admirably well. She also finds a fitting ending for both Rosie and the overall series' narrative arc. Rosie is a bighearted, big-framed, big-mouthed heroine to love and cheer for, and her interplay with repressed, proper Adam is hot and hilarious. Series fans and newcomers alike will enjoy this adventurous, creative romance. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads