Review--The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen

 

From the author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy comes a heartwarming fantasy with a best friends-to-lovers rom com twist--When Harry Met Sally, but with dragons!—set in the delightful demigod and donut-filled world of Tanria.

The entire town of Eternity was shocked when widowed, middle-aged Twyla Banneker partnered up with her neighbor and best friend, Frank Ellis, to join the Tanrian Marshals. Eight years later, Twyla and Frank are still patrolling the dangerous land of Tanria, the former prison of the Old Gods.

Twyla might look like a small town mom who brings cheesy potatoes to funerals and whips up a batch of cookies for the school bake sale, but her rewarding career in law enforcement has been a welcome change from the domestic grind of mom life, despite the misgivings of her grown children.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) a recent decrease in on-the-job peril has made Twyla and Frank's job a lot safer ... and a lot less exciting. So when they discover the body of one of their fellow marshals covered in liquid glitter--and Frank finds himself the inadvertent foster dad to a baby dragon--they are more than happy to be back on the beat.

Soon, the friends wind up ensnared in a nefarious plot that goes far deeper than any lucrative Tanrian mineshaft. But as the danger closes in and Twyla and Frank's investigation becomes more complicated, so does their easy friendship. And Twyla starts to realize that her true soul mate might just be the person who has lived next door all along...

The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen is a cute paranormal rom-com that takes place in the same universe as The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy. This was definitely a cutesy read, almost too cute for me, but it was still coupled with laughs and a wee bit of mystery and of course dragons, so it was an easy book to get into!

The fact that this book stars a "mature" couple definitely sets it apart from your typical paranormal rom-com read, or at least the ones I've encountered. It was a little refreshing to see "mature" problems though, as I sadly find myself aging these days. Lol. But yes, this book was a total breath of fresh air.

Twyla and Frank have been neighbors for years and coworkers for a few years as well as marshals. They basically help to keep the peace and usually bring any dead bodies to the assigned undertaker for proper burials. Frank's wife left him years ago, and Twyla is a widow herself, but the two have been "just friends" for ages. Then on their recent body retrieval assignment they find something unusual, an egg...that hatches into a baby dragon who immediately assumes Frank is its mother! Definitely bringing to mind the Dr. Seuss book of Are You My Mother? Except the baby dragon has pretty much declared Frank as its mother!

They have to call in a dragon specialist and this is when Twyla meets Quill and a sort of connection forms between them. Not immediate, but soon Twyla finds herself dating him and is reminded of all the woes of being in a relationship.

I felt like the story largely focused on the characters, which is fine I suppose. I've never been one to lean more towards character driven or plot driven stories! I like them both as long as they are written well. And while I do feel like this was written well, there were times I couldn't help but wish for something more to happen other than relationship drama. Because if the blurb wasn't clear enough, there will be drama with Twyla, Quill, and Frank! I mean the outcome becomes achingly obvious, but again, not really complaining too much as I knew what I was getting into when I started this one. I again, just wished for a little more plot happening in this story other than working on relationships.

The reason behind finding this dead body in the beginning gets largely forgotten as the whole dragons are really real and are among us takes over, which again is cool, because dragons! But at the same time I was like, should we be worried about this? Do we have a murderer walking free? What is going on?! So yeah I have conflicting feelings over this one. Still loved it, still thought it was cute and adorable...but also just wanted a teensy bit more action in the plot. Like let's solve a mystery gang! 

I will say that when we did finally circle back around to the ending in the second to last chapter (not counting an epilogue) I was completely thrown! Like WHOA! Where did this come from? How is this possible?! It was outrageous and yet at the same time, still totally believable! Lol. I just wish we could've gotten to this conclusion a wee bit sooner or had more hints along the way. As it was, there was only one clue to there being something fishy going on.

All in all, this was a cute and fun read with great characters. The inclusion of talking animals and paranormal type beings made for an extra dose of fun and what truly kept me invested in the story! The romance was definitely of the sweeter variety and oh so melt-worthy and a bit chuckle-worthy too! Highly recommended for those looking for a lighter paranormal read with a good dose of rom-com to go with it!

Overall Rating 4/5 stars