Mourner For Hire had it all - romance, love, death, and fun. It was a nostalgic and fun read with well-developed characters. I was intrigued by the vocation of the protagonist, as I had never heard of being a professional mourner as a full-time job. Yet, as I read the book and saw the comfort that Vada brought to her clients before they died, I loved this job. I also loved the humor that she brought to her profession, making sure that her clients, the dead, got the last say.

On the romance front, Moss builds the tension so well - you just want Vada and Dominic to fall in love already and be together; you spend the whole book rooting for them. At first, the ghost part was a little strange for me, but that also worked, and in a way, it felt comforting to know that sometimes our loved ones wait around a bit to make sure that our lives work out. And, certainly, Annabelle was a strong character in her own right.

The plot was fun, the descriptions of the cottage and the town were wonderful, and the added bonus of the protagonist not knowing much about her past as she forgets it through trauma was well done. All in all, I recommend this book as a fun, quick read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars! I absolutely devoured this book in a single sitting. It's a dark romantic comedy, but beneath the laughs and witty banter, there's so much heart. It dives deep into grief, loss, and mental health in such a unique and honest way. The whole concept of being a professional mourner was so interesting, and the plot just pulled me in from the start.
Vada completely stole my heart-she's patient, empathetic, and quietly strong, even while dealing with her own pain. Dominic made me so mad at one point (seriously, what a jerk), but the story reminded me that grief shows up differently for everyone, and I really appreciated that. Their chemistry? So good. I was giggling during the first few chapters because the banter was just chef's kiss.
As someone who's lost a parent and dealt with memory gaps from trauma, parts of this story felt incredibly personal. It was raw but comforting at the same time.
Also, if you love small town romances and a cast of lovable side characters, you'll enjoy this one. It made me laugh, cry, and feel so much.
Big thanks to NetGalley, and Caitlin Moss for the e-ARC! Would love to read more from this author.

Recently I had finished a book where a girl had wound up her situation-husband, informing him she was a professional mourner- laying it on thick.
I thought that would be the perfect job, and still the perfect plot line.
So when this book fell into my lap I knew the book gods had answer m call.

Making me both laugh and cry, this book was an emotional rollercoaster which sees our professional mourner take on the request from a woman who lived in Vada's home town. Vada had forgotten everything about the home town after the car crash that gave her amnesia and killed her mother.
Just before Vada meets her new client she had the perfect date and connection with a bar owner named Dunner.
The client requires Vada to renovate her seaside cottage at the time of her death and complete a post-kick the buck list.
Each step brought closer to finding who she really was, and for her to find out about her past.

I totally empathised with Vada with her slight emotional constipation and loved her love/hate/ really love relationship with Dunner.
This was cosy but emotional, the type of romance that had more substance to it than just smut. But when there was smoke there was fire.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from #netgalley , thank you. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you Caitlin Moss and Netgallery for allowing me to read this masterpieces early. I have loved every minute of this book and couldn't put it down. I fell in love with the characters the minute I started reading.

Vada is such a loveable but a little crazy (all the good people are) character. She is just feisty and isn't afraid to say things as they truly are. I love that she takes people's saddest moments and helps them find closure. The strength she has to build a relationship with people in a meeting to learn their stories and then attend their funerals. She completes the tasks even if it's just to make sure they have someone attending or to cause drama at the funeral.  No one fully understands this job or why she truly does it. But I love it and think it such a unique job and I love the storyline of following Vada as she complete this job.

We then bump into the our love conflict Dunner (Dominic) at his mother funeral and  all hell breaks lose. They have a very rocky relationship and he very much is a bully and will not tolerate her. Even with his grief you can't help but love him even with how annoying he is.However it also made you shouting at the book like "oh come on already" 😂.  He is stubborn but a softie at heart. 

I loved both characters and just loved the room com/ enemies to lovers vibes the whole book gave. Mourner For Hire had me feeling so many emotions throughout the book. I got so sucked into their love moment and laughing at their humour moments. However parts of the book very much did make me cry. But it was a good cry I will say that. I will say it did make me question a few things aswell. 

I like the added bonus of Annabelle being like nah I don't wanna go yet I'm gunna follow Vada around and make her look more insane 😂. But I won't say more on that as don't Wanna spoil too much. 

Two of my fav lines is
"I am a gravestones without a meaning. I am condolences and the sound of amazing grace played on a church organ"

" No, he's just crazy about you. Besides all the best women have a little crazy in them".


I can't not wait for this book to be published and for more people to fall in love with it like myself.

“my name is vada daughtry, and i am a mourner for hire…”
if that opening line doesn’t reel you in, i honestly don’t know what will. massive kudos to caitlin moss for delivering a plot point i didn’t know i needed: a professional funeral crasher dressed in black, stirring up chaos and catharsis 🖤⚰️🕯️.

this book had me hooked with its blend of quirky chaos, grief-fuelled introspection, and egregious feelings. vada crashes funerals with style, turning unhinged empathy into an art form. and then there’s dominic dunne (bartender, brooder, sad boy deluxe) who complicates everything in the most inconvenient way 🌀😵‍💫

things i loved:
🖤 the wildly creative premise
🖤 the perfect blend of humour, grief, and growth
🖤 the renovations (give me a beach shack and $50k and i will absolutely process my trauma via home improvement)

what didn’t quite hit (for me):
👻 the ghosty/magical realism bits weren’t my thing (just a personal taste thing, not a book flaw!)
💔 dominic’s grief was raw and real, but i couldn’t quite get behind the romance. he was emotionally complex, a walking talking red flag who seemed to experience a factory reset(?). a bit ick at times and i’m not sure he earned my bookish heart in the end 🚩😬 


overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ — a unique, slightly spooky, grief-soaked rom-com that reads like a quirky indie film. definitely worth the read, just not a forever shelf favourite for me 📚

This book was exactly what I wanted and didn’t even know it. It was witty and charming all the while a gut punch.. you couldn’t help but fall in love with Vada and Dominic and their dynamic. Annabelle is hilarious and I can’t imagine what the interactions would be between her and Vada’s mother. This was a quick read and a nice pallet cleanser in between romantasy sagas. I absolutely will recommend when it comes out.

4.5⭐️

Weird in the BEST way possible. So fun, entertaining and original. I genuinely found myself giggling and laughing out loud.

I loved the characters. How creative the whole book was. And I LOVED the magical realism aspect.

I need to buy this when it comes out because I need it on my bookshelf!!!

It was unexpectedly amazing, the tension and the chemistry between the main characters just blown my mind. I loved the humour and the dialogues.
The story follows Veda, who is a mourner for hire, but when she attends one of the funerals, everything changes. The plot is amazing and original. I didn't really know what to expect, but I was into the story from the first page and couldn't put this book away.
The author gave the characters depth and make my feel for both of them.

Synopsis - Vada Daughtry (main character) is a mourner for hire. Dominic Duane is a local bartender. After a chance interaction with Dominic, Vada encounters him one year later as a hired mourner for his mother’s funeral. Driven by grief Dominic grapples with the fact that Vada has been hired and left a large portion of his mother’s estate; it all feels like a con to him. Despite Dominic’s newfound despise of Vada, Vada is determined to see the job to the end.

This felt like a book that was made specifically for me and all of my side interests: romance, death, ghosts, and witty humor. It was a very fast read for me as I was enjoying it immensely. The characters were witty, I particularly like the main character. I enjoyed the banter, absurdity, and cutting clarity in which this book is written. I think it was done extraordinarily well. Not many people can write a romance with such a heavy topic as death and make it sharp, funny, and also heartwrenching. I cried no less than like 10 times. I was giggling, this made me think of death in new ways, and all in all I devoured the book. I highly recommend this if you’re into quirky romances. I will be purchasing this once it comes out!

I cannot believe I finished this book early than the timeframe I had planned.
I want her to find "it" too.

The whole motherly love thing really cry me out, I wish theres more people in the town hinting her about her mother.

I was angry at dominic for few chapters but I understand why hes that way, also I wish she explained or tell him more about the why and how her job works then to let him misunderstand her.

Anyway this is a good story if you want to relax and enjoy your reading pace.

One of my favorite reads of 2024 was Goodbye Again by Caitlin Moss, so lemme tell you I was soooo excited to get an advanced copy of this one. I'm really into morbid humor reads, so this one was right up my alley. The premise was so incredibly unique and fun, and I could not put this book down. Caitlin's books are perfect mixes of heavy emotion and lightness, so I think the ghost was the perfect balance for this book. If I had to pick one gripe, Vada and Dominic were a little too immature with each other, but grief is a weird emotion to process, so I'll give it a pass. It's going to haunt my thoughts (in the best way) for a long time to come.

Many thanks to Caitlin Moss, the publisher, and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I started Mourner for Hire with curiosity, drawn in by its unique premise and voice. I don't know that it was a favorite book for me but it offered a glimpse into a story that felt both unusual and heartfelt. The idea of someone making a living through mourning is intriguing and opens the door to a lot of emotional exploration. Readers who enjoy books with quirky, thought-provoking angles may find a lot to appreciate here.

4.5/5 rounded to 5/5
Very touching read with comedy sprinkled throughout. A unique premise and story. Thank you to NetGally for the arc!

Thank you NetGalley for giving me this ARC to review!

Oh my god??? So right up front this book was everything it was advertised as, yet it still managed to shock me. 
I was immediately entertained with Vada's job, I really do love that her whole goal is to carry out a final wish for the deceased, no matter how weird or silly it sounds. I think the wish that got me the most was of Gregory later in the book, how he just wanted her to camp out with him his first night in the grave so he wouldn't be alone. Truly made me tear up.
What I was not expecting was Annabelle to haunt Vada??? Did not think there would be ghosts in this story!! But honestly it worked so well, and I loved that Annabelle's final wish was for Vada to find herself and her memories again.
I will say, Dominic did get on my nerves at first when he was just ridiculously mean to Vada. But as the story progressed, I understood where he was coming from. He was grieving, and grieving can be messy. I feel like all of their interactions were really well planned and a nice balance of “i like this person but also fuck im mad at the situation we are in”.
TLDR I loved this book!!

I’m an avid reader of magical realism romcoms, so I jumped at the occasion when I saw Mourner For Hire’s premise.

Vada has an unconventional job: she attends funerals and makes sure the deceased’s last wishes are seen through – from just being there and crying, to disrupting the whole funeral by tricking unworthy heirs.

Dominic took over his hometown bar to be closer to his mom after her diagnosis, leaving behind his lifelong dreams to be able to enjoy their last moments together.

When Annabelle, Dominic’s mom, hires Vada for a long job, their paths cross again.

This book had everything I like, including a fun enemies-to-lovers banter, a very thoughtful approach to death and grief, and a small town that feels like home. I laughed, I cried, a rollercoaster of emotions I was glad to be riding! Some inconsistencies in the plot made me take off a star, but it was an overall amazing read.

👀 𝙳𝚞𝚊𝚕 𝙿𝙾𝚅
🔥 𝚂𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝚋𝚞𝚛𝚗
⚡️ 𝙴𝚗𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜
🏡 𝚂𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚕 (𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚑) 𝚝𝚘𝚠𝚗
👻 𝙶𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚝𝚜
🪦 𝙳𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚐𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚏
💭 𝙼𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚜

Thank you Caitlin Moss and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Loved the couple at the end but the build up wasn't my favorite! I did love Vada's unique job and her as a character overall. At times, Dominic was a little too grumpy for me.

I loved this book! Read it all in one sitting. I was totally captivated by Vada and Dominic’s first meeting, and the way they were brought back together a year later. The underlying theme of grief was tender and sweet, but not overpowering. I’ll be honest that at first Annabelle’s ghostly appearance threw me off, but after I realized “oh okay, this is THAT kind of book” it had my buy-in. I’m a lover of slow burn, so this book was paced perfectly for me! I enjoyed Connor being around to give us some jealousy from Dominic, while keeping it on the light side. The connection between Vada and Dominic’s mothers was unexpected and super sweet! I loved watching Vada uncover more of her memories, and how Dominic supported her through that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Caitlin Moss for the ARC!

Caitlin Moss has done it again! This book hit all of the feelings. I laughed and I cried. The spice is *chefs kiss*. You’ll want to move to Shellport, buy a beach cabin to renovate, you’ll want to eat apple cider donuts (that are described so well in the book your mouth will water) and if you read this in the summer you’ll be dreaming of pumpkin spice latte season. You’ll wish you were friends with Dunner and Vada (and honestly the rest of the good folks in Shellport). Looking for a modern rom com, with dreamy spice, a touch of dark humor and something that will make you appreciate the highs and lows of life (and death)? MFH is your book.

Things I liked:
- Annabelle
- This whole premise - it was “strange and unusual” and also honestly worked
- the journey Vada took regarding her memories
- any MMC with “slutty little glasses” is gonna get me every time

Things I didn’t:
- felt like the Connor story was unnecessary
- while I understand it, Dominic was a super jerk for what felt like forever and I started to lose patience with it

Overall:
This one snuck up on me.

I was fine and then suddenly: watery eyes.

Vada’s journey was funny and emotional, this cast of character felt true to small town life, and the ending was perfect.

What a great read. Thanks to NetGalley and the author for allowed me an eArc.

This story perfectly executes a Hallmark/Lifetime beach romance, with a beautifully grim twist. Dominic is kind of a jerk, but I understand his grief and finding out that some woman was paid to deal with his mother's affairs after she passed would through me into a fit of rage as well. I did hate though he how tried to pin the whole town against her, and made her out to be some evil mastermind; luckily, 99% of the town didn't believe it. The only thing I did not really like is that whole stint with Conner. I get it was supposed to help him realize he did actually have feelings for her through jealousy, but it really just felt unnecessary. The ending through me for a loop. I never would have guessed that the house actually belonged to Vada's mother. I think it was the perfect ending (prior to the Epilogue of course) to help Vada heal and remember her past. Usually with "enemies to lovers," I feel like the relationship throughout the story is so rushed, but not with this one. This was my first Caitlin Moss book, and it definitely won't be my last.