The premise of this book intrigued me because I enjoy romance books with a paranormal or magical realism aspect, and quite honestly, Vada's job is so unique! As the summary states, she is a "mourner for hire" and goes to people's funerals to fulfill certain tasks. On the way to a client meeting, which coincidentally takes her to her hometown and a life she can't remember, Vada unwittingly has a meet-cute with the love interest, Dominic, who is also her client's son.

When the client, Anabelle, dies, Vada begins to fulfill her funeral wishlist, and Dominic realizes that Vada--the almost-one-night-stand from nine months earlier--is "working" his mom's affairs. Oh, and Anabelle haunts them to make sure the list gets done right. It's a lot for a setup, but it does make for an unforgettable story.

I won't spoil anything for future readers, but this is an emotional gut punch of a book with some spice and humor sprinkled in there. The reason I gave it three stars mainly has to do with the two main characters' dynamic to one another. I understood that Dominic is grieving and has some misguided anger toward Vada, but he needed to have some emotional accountability and maturity. I thought he was a little too mean to Vada at times, and it was a bit uncomfortable. Vada is sharp and funny, but she occasionally gets all wishy-washy with Dominic's angry attitude. When the two finally get together, the dynamic and way they treat each other changes too abruptly for my taste. I wish there was more emotional depth to their romantic connection.

Overall, I would recommend this book for a unique romance read, but I do suggest readers check the trigger warnings and prepare themselves accordingly.

Thanks to the author and Netgalley for the ARC!

My first thought was that when a book starts with a funeral where the pastor proposes to the widow, who happily accepts, it will be a great story. Throughout the book I've laughed and giggled, there are just so many hilarious scenes! I especially love the ghost of Annabelle, she is the true star of the book.

I rated this book 4.75 stars, mostly because I just didn't get that five-star feeling. However, it was sooo close to be a winner. I will most definitely purchase this book when it's published!

Mourner for Hire by Caitlin Moss is a charming and unique romantic comedy with a supernatural twist. The story follows Vada, a professional mourner, and Dominic, a grieving bartender whose deceased mother has left Vada a mysterious inheritance. What begins as an enemies-to-lovers story evolves into a heartfelt exploration of grief and connection, all while a mischievous ghost meddles from the sidelines. The Pacific Northwest setting is vividly drawn, and the quirky, emotional plot kept me engaged- it's a good mix of romance and the paranormal.

A young woman with a past mysterious even to her, has found herself returning to her home town to fulfill the final wishes of the dead.

Vada is a Mourner for Hire, a sometimes lucrative, but always interesting gig that sees her attending to the dying's unfinished business, so when her next job has her returning to the home town he barely remembers, the last thing she expects to find is a connection to her dead mother or the hot bartender Dominic who she shares a drunken night with her first day in town. This job isn't going to be like any she's dealt with before as what's dead, just can't seem to stay that way.

Look... On paper this should have been a home run. A fun easy read with all the surprise reveals and the grumpy/sunshine of it all but, y'all, I struggled. I got about 20% through this one and my poor kindle had 30+ highlights marking my exasperation and annoyance. I'm honestly torn because the Goodreads reviews of this are stellar, I just... couldn't care about either of these characters- at all. I wish the first funeral Vada had attended had been ~more, more sad, more funny, more entertaining, more anything really but it was a total snooze and a real missed opportunity to introduce our main character with a little pizzaz and then immediately the next character we meet is our MMC -no, excuse me, FIRST we find out that our Funeral hopping FMC has dissociative amnesia because of her childhood trauma and THEN we immediately meet the MMC... It just... yeah sorry, it didn't get better for me and then I read some spoiler of what was coming later in the book and again by better judgement I had to bow out.

I'm sure Mourner for Hire is for someone, that someone just isn't me.

I did not expect to experience every single emotion under the sun whilst reading this book but holy heck what a roller coaster ride!
I absolutely loved this. I’m already adding it to my list to buy my friends on release so I have someone to talk to about it.

Vada is a straight from the heart, what you see is what you get, type of person which was incredibly refreshing. I love that she was so unapologetically herself. The way she slowly uncovered her memories had me all up in my feels and I was crying along with her.

Dunner is such a classic broody guy. I thought it was a fun shake up to have the MMC being the one who was experiencing loss and Vada coming along to shake up his life. It was interesting to see how his perception of people changed when he reminisced about his past.

Annabelle! What a sly gal. I’m definitely in cahoots with her on this one! Mother knows best.

I loved the setting and the humour in this one. It was very nostalgic rom-com but the death theme gave it a quirky twist that suits me perfectly!

Thank you so much to Caitlin Moss and NetGalley for this eARC. This is my honest opinion.

I was excited to read this book! The synopsis sounded so great and the book delivered! So glad that I got the chance to read it, 100% recommend it!

A rom-com with a slightly spooky feel! Add one slightly weird heroine, a handsome but sad bartender, a splash of enemies to lovers, and one very friendly ghost, and you get the perfect fall read!

Professional mourner was not something I was aware existed but I learned so much about how it helps people with their own grief and processing their future death. Vada always gave her all to help people be remembered how they wanted. i really enjoyed all the ways her and Dominic’s lives crossed and intertwined. this plot was fresh, original and the perfect mix of laughter and grief. Of course the meddling ghost Annabel was the absolute star of the show and made the perfect Comic relief. Highly recommend if you’re in the mood for something heartfelt and hilariously entertaining.

I loved this book! I knew it would be comedy on the darker side given that the FMC is hired to attend funerals, but I was genuinely laughing out loud at several parts. I was actually surprised that I got teary at some parts too, it was unexpected in a great way.

Looking forward to reading more from this author!

As we slip from summer into all things fall, Mourner for Hire by Caitlin Moss was the perfect mood read! Vada is now one of my favorite FMCs in a rom-com. She’s witty. She’s kind. She’s smart, and she creates boundaries. I fell in love with the idea of Vada’s career, attending funerals and fulfilling final wishes of her clients. To be able to quietly support someone and provide an additional layer of comfort during their time of need is such a beautiful sentiment.
Throw in a creative, strong, and smart caregiver of a man, and I was hooked. Although I immediately fell in love with Dominic, I craved more of his story. I needed to know more about him from his perspective. I had a difficult time justifying some of his actions, which felt a little out of character. Maybe I put him on a pedestal too soon, but wowza. Team Dominic!
Enter a spitfire of a ghost that reminded me of a meddling Golden Girl. I absolutely LOVED Annabelle and all that she added to the story. A ghost that brought another layer of depth and humor to the story. I’m a fan!
Read this if you like:
Quirky/weird FMC
Funerals and dark humor
Small beach town
Slow burn
Handy in every sense MMC
Golden Girl ghost
Found family
Thank you, NetGalley and Caitlin Moss for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Such a fun read before the start of the spooky season. I loved the back and forth between Vada and Dominic during the enemy phase of their relationship. 100% recommend this book and any Caitlin Moss book as of course she is my favorite author!

I love the odd premise for this book, and adored the two main characters. Unfortunately, the execution was lacking. There were major questions left unanswered and scenes that should've been pages long that were only sentences. It felt like the beginning of the book was great, and then the author rushed to finish, leaving holes in her wake.

This book immediately caught my attention thanks to its unique premise: Vada works as a professional mourner, attending funerals to carry out the last wishes of the deceased—whether that means giving a heartfelt speech or simply showing up when no one else will. I found this aspect fascinating, especially getting a glimpse into the kinds of people who would request such a service and why.

However, things got a little murky when the romantic subplot kicked in. Vada unexpectedly crosses paths with someone from her past—someone whose family is connected to her work. What begins as a promising romantic lead quickly turns sour due to a personality shift that felt too abrupt and hard to root for. As a result, the romance didn’t land for me.

There’s also a magical realism element involving a ghost that adds another layer to the story. While I usually enjoy magical realism, in this case, it felt like too much was happening at once—between the quirky job, the romance, and the supernatural twist, the story lost some cohesion.

In the end, the most compelling part for me was Vada’s job and the emotional weight that comes with it. Her role at funerals—though unconventional—does make a genuine impact, and those moments were the highlight.

Unfortunately, the romance and added plot elements didn’t come together in a way that worked for me. Still, it’s a creative and heartfelt concept, and I appreciated the fresh take on grief and connection.

I would like to thank the publishers and author for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Just from reading the synopsis alone, I felt drawn to this book. As someone who loves romance books, the premise of this felt fresh and new which was exciting. During the first chapter, we meet Vada, a mourner for hire who has been employed to attend a funeral and stir up some drama at the service as the deceased man knew that his wife was having an affair. Whilst on her way to a meeting after this, Vada is stuck in gridlocked traffic and decides to turn into the local bar, where she meets the very attractive barman, Dunner. They spend an evening in each other's company which ends in a sleepover and Vada goes on to her next meeting about an opportunity to be a mourner. Presented with some unusual terms, but a very lucrative offer, Veda accepts and does not think any deeper about the circumstances.

Flash forward about 9 months and we encounter Vada again, who is attending the funeral of Annabelle as requested. Unaware that Dunner is Annabelle's son, she meets him once more, but Dunner is not happy about this reunion as he feels that she is a scammer, especially when he learns that Vada was included in his mother's will. Tasked with renovating Annabelle's seaside cottage, Vada will be staying in town for several months, but Dunner is determined to run her out of town.

I enjoyed the love hate relationship between Vada and Dunner and the slow burn of their relationship as it progressed. There were some funny elements as well that made me laugh out loud. By the end, I was a blubbering mess as Vada regained her memories. I would definitely recommend this book to readers.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher/author for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
This review is my own.

Loved loved loved this story. I was tearing up the last 90%. Trigger warnings of death of loved ones via cancer and mva.

This is the perfect cozy up with a blanket and candle and cup of tea book.

Veda mourns for a living-literally. But when her newest client’s dying wish turns a one-night fling into an enemies-to-lovers feud, things get messy.
Cue one sassy ghost, a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers twist, and a mystery that digs into Veda’s forgotten past.
It’s funny, a little spooky, and the perfect read for when summer starts to feel just a bit haunted.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Mourner For Hire by Caitlin Moss.

This is absolutely perfect for that sweet, breezy summer romance that you're looking for. It's campy, it's silly, it's hot, and has just the right amount of drama to hold that sexual tension tight.

For the right price, Vada will show up to your funeral, she will cry, wail, or stand in the back and just be mysterious, and then she will take her pay and disappear forever.

But when she meets Dominic one day while taking a rest at a dive bar on the way to her next gig, she has no idea how her life is about to change. Dominic is interesting, mysterious, and so so handsome, but a twist of fate will bring these two together in a way that neither could have expected, or wanted.

If you love an enemies to lovers trope, here you go. It's sudsy and lush, perfect for the summer!

I really liked this when it was just her and finding herself and redoing the cottage but the romance was a huge let down. Dominic was so mean to her for like 80% of the book and I know that he was grieving but it was not reason to be as mean as he was. It was like once the romance started it was a complete 180 on his personality. If he would have acted how he did the last 20 percent of the book I would have liked him more. This would have been one of the only times I would have been okay with her just picking herself.

I really liked Veda and I thought her job was really cool and I wanted to know more about it without Dom looking down on it the whole time. I felt like she let him talk to her however he wanted because he was grieving and I hated it. I just wish I liked the rest of the book as much as I did the last 100 pages.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for letting me read a free copy of this book in exchange for a review

Thank you, NetGalley for giving me access to read and review this book early. This was probably my least favorite book of Caitlin Moss’s. I’m not sure if it’s because it took me so long to read it ( I had a baby) or because I didn’t feel the characters connected at all. I just had the toughest time getting into this one. I’m thankful I got to read it but, unfortunately I struggled with it.

What a charming book. I was unsure as to what to expect when I read it was a romantic ghost story. The author went for it! It was very reminiscent of Ghost Dad in the sense that Annabelle actually appeared to Vada, which was really cool!

It would be a five star for me is if we had a little more detail in Dominic’s chapters. I was conflicted and experienced a little bit of whiplash with Dominic/Dunner and his behavior.

I understood that the author was displaying his mood swings as acts of grief, but I would have liked to have been shown a bit more of his inner thoughts in his chapters. One of his chapters just says it’s hard to be mean to her. I am not looking for the author to re-tell the previous chapter from his perspective, but showing the reader his inner turmoil of how he knows Vada isn’t to blame, he’s attracted to her, can he trust her, what exactly seems suspicious, etc. would have been appreciated.

As it stands, it almost feels a little out of the blue when Dominic stops fighting his attraction. Hitting the wall, coming back still angry, and then finding her the next day at the store was kind of eh to me. Had his grief been shown more, I think this would have made a much stronger catalyst.

Otherwise, I really liked it! It paced well. I teared up a few times, and the idea that there’s someone out in the world helping the dying with their final wishes is really a heartfelt sentiment.

I appreciate the author/publisher Caitlin Moss and NetGalley for providing me with this free advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.