Quick Synopsis – Immortal demigod Rosie Fox has been patrolling Tanria for decades, but lately, the job has been losing its luster. When Rosie dies (again) by electrocution (again) after poking around inside a portal choked with shadowy thorns, she feels stuck in the rut that is her unending life.

The portal’s uptight creator, Adam Lee, must come in person to repair the damage. But when all the portals break down at once, Rosie and Adam wind up trapped inside the Mist. And the reticent inventor in his bespoke menswear seems to know a lot more about what’s happening than he lets on.

Maybe two people who have found themselves stuck in this thorny, tangled life together can find a way to unstick each other … just when their time on this earth seems to be running out.

Song this Reminded Me Of – At Last – Etta James

Publication Date – July 8, 2025

Bookshop Link – The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam a book by Megan Bannen – Bookshop.org US (Disclosure – I get a small commission if you use my link to purchase).

My Other Reviews of Books in this Series – The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen

Content Notes – This is an adult romance novel and there are scenes of a sexual nature. There is some blood and gore mentioned throughout. There is also a character who dies and comes back to life repeatedly. There are themes of parental abandonment and loss of loved ones.

Spice Rating – 🌶️🌶️

Overall Rating – ⭐⭐⭐.5 out of 5

Review – First, we love a short king. Second, Rosie is a 6-foot 5 demigod with no filter, and I imagine talking with a mid-Atlantic newsies accent. Adam and Rosie together are just so funny, I love their banter and the build-up in their relationship. One thing Megan Bannen does well is an underrepresented romance book. The previous two books in this series also had couples that aren’t typically represented in popular media. This book is the third and what seems like final book in a series. Technically, you could probably get away with just reading this book, but I’m not sure why you would want to.

Demigods in this world typically have one power, Hart can see souls, Alma can start fires, and Rosie can’t die. Well, she can die, she just comes back to life. Rosie is over 100 years old and still looks like she’s in her late 20s. She doesn’t have much to show for her long life except trauma, a penchant for expensive lingerie, and a knack for dying. When the portals to Tanria start going on the fritz, Rosie can see shadows clogging the machines. Adam, the engineer who built the portals, arrives to repair the machines, but somehow the damage is only getting worse. Of course, they get stuck in Tanria together (with another favorite couple from the previous books Penrose Duckers and Zaddie). Of course, there is more to the story then just mysterious vines and a very stoic engineer.

The story between Adam and Rosie as well as the secondary plot between Penrose and Zaddie, is cute and the banter is adorable. I love that Rosie just constantly says inappropriate things to Adam and their physical reactions to each other were fun to read. I also like that there was a time jump from the second book to the third book; it made the other background plot points make more sense and the story flowed better. I did think the romance was rushed in this book. There’s a past event that is mentioned as being formative between Adam and Rosie. That event is the catalyst for the whole book, but it just felt kind of rushed to me. Like something happened between these two characters five years ago and they both still carry a torch? Maybe I believe that, but I don’t believe that Rosie didn’t tell someone about the connection she felt.

I also wish there would have been more development between Rosie and her father, the Trickster. I could easily see why they were estranged, but it felt like in Rosie’s 100 years of life she would have had more than one conflict with her dad. It seemed like she just let the relationship be stagnant, when really, she wanted to scream at him. It just didn’t fit the character very well in my opinion.

I liked this book, but I thought there could have been more development of the romance between the main characters. The second book remains my favorite in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit books for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.