When Love and Death collide…

Synopsis

He’s almost perfect.

But he works for Death.

Nora Clanton sells caskets. It wasn’t her dream job, but it’s the family business. She lives in Rabbittown, a sleepy middle-of-nowhere small community, and her only friends are decades older than her. Her life is comfortable but sometimes she finds herself wanting more.

Then Garrett Bishop turns up and sweeps her off her feet. He’s handsome, charming and seems to have a good (if vague) job. There is one little thing though . . . death seems to follow him and rumours never stay buried in Rabbittown.

But when Nora finds out what Garrett has been hiding and all the ghosts left in his wake, she wonders whether it is time to lay their love to rest too . . .

Brimming with characters you cannot help but fall for, Casket Case is a heartfelt small-town romance bursting with life, heart and light. It is The Dead Romantics meets The Good Place.

My review

Nora never expected to take over her family casket business in Rabbittown, Alabama, especially not so soon, after losing her parents.
And for sure it’s not how she expected her life to be, and she doesn’t know if her future means to stay in Rabbittown running the business, or just something else. Life in Rabbittown isn’t the most exciting one, and Nora spends most of her time with her beloved grandfather.
The moment a stranger enters Nora’s shop asking for directions, Nora sees things suddenly more brightly. Because quickly afterwards, that same stranger, Garrett Bishop asks her on a date.
Garrett for sure puts a light back in Nora’s eyes, as he talks, listens, and is just a thoughtful man. However, being a logistic coordinator also means that he works long hours, has to travel a lot and can get calls in the middle of the night…
What Nora doesn’t know though, is that Garrett works for Death, and he helps people ‘crossing over’. Once Nora understand the depth of Garrett’s job, can she live with the fact that the man she is falling in love with has such a cruel job? How can she love the man that take loved ones away?

I have to admit, I did not find this the easiest story to read. And it has nothing to do with the “macabre” tone of it. Because yes of course, there are more joyous businesses to run than a casket business. But on the other hand, someone needs to run such a business, and the “dirty” work needs to be done by someone…

So why was it a difficult story to read? I just couldn’t connect that easily with all the characters, with the story itself… Things went too quickly in one aspect, in others too slowly, it felt like I didn’t gather to catch the right rhythm…

However, I admired Nora and the choices she had to make in the past and the choices she has to make now. It saddened me to read how she lost her parents, and yet felt it like her duty to take over the family business, even if she had different plans herself. With “duty” I don’t mean that she felt obligated in any way, because she was free to do what she wanted, but out of love for her late parents, she feels like it’s the right thing to do.

I totally loved the bond Nora has with her grandfather, and just with the whole community of Rabbittown. She cares about her elderly friends, and everyone cares about Nora. And as expected, they are all invested in Nora’s love life (or lack of love life 😊).

That all changes for the better when Nora and Garrett meet. Their meeting and planning a first date is one example how fast the pace suddenly is. After meeting just by cheer accident, Garrett wants to date Nora. But while that perhaps made me frown a little bit, it’s clear that Garrett is a genuine guy, even if his job is a bit secretive.

As a reader of course we know what Garrett’s job is. But it was interesting to read how he got to do what he does (and it was a heartbreaking tale…). And I was intrigued by what exactly he had to do, as I initially thought he was more like a Grim Reaper, only to understand that he was more like Nicholas Cage’s character in City Of Angels.

I was happy to see how Nora finds someone that makes her believe in love again, yet it angered me a little bit how not understanding she was towards Garrett’s job. I would think that someone running a business like hers, she would be a little more apprehensive and understanding.

In this book we see how life, love and death can bring out different emotions. While life and love normally are happy emotions, death isn’t a happy thought. So it is understandable that having someone working in that ‘branch’ can be disturbing to learn about it. While in fact, in a way, it’s a beautiful thing, having someone like Garrett in that moment.

It’s not an easy subject to write about, but the author for sure made it possible to turn my perceptive of it a bit.
And of course it’s also about finding love, understanding love and accepting love. And that what someone does for a living doesn’t “make” that person. A job and a character aren’t always deeply connected as it can be pure circumstantial how you get to do a certain job. And every job, even one involved with Death can have its beauty about it. And it’s all about seeing that and not just focus on the hurt of that.