Esmeralda Stone

December 2025

Loving Remains: A Death Industry Romance by Esmeralda Stone ushers readers right into the domain of the business of death as a woman named Cory Hughes stealthily watches the dating game playing out at the viewing of one of her clients. She is a death consultant, or death doula, and the deceased was one of hers. Watching the matchmaking going on during the viewing is a simple delight of hers: elderly women commenting on men approaching the casket, middle-aged men trying to discreetly check out the women. Even at Teagan’s funeral home, it appears that life goes on in the death business.

Cory doesn’t actually work at Teagan’s. It’s owned and run by a family, mostly by Isaac and his sister Julie, with occasional help from a less-than-responsible brother, Nick. As for Isaac, he’s not having a very good day: The engravers left a beautiful headstone for Paul Schidt at the cemetery, which made the Paul Schmidt family understandably unhappy. His Aunt Mildred kept dottering around the funeral home, leaving random doll parts scattered throughout the reception rooms. He doesn’t even want to think about what he discovered one of the interns had done with some 50-year-old celery Jell-O as a joke (ewww). He found an unembalmed stinker of a corpse with no paperwork reeking in the storeroom. And now he’s been summoned by the family of one of the deceased, who are viewing their wife/mother for the first time. The husband is furious and wants answers right away. As Isaac approaches the casket, he realizes a terrible mistake has been made. A catastrophic mistake. One so bad, he succumbs to a panic attack. 

As if having a panic attack in the middle of a viewing where the family is irate isn’t bad enough, it’s the unfortunate way his anxiety attacks manifest that’s causing the most consternation. Because Isaac Collins—the dark-suit-clad, composed, serious, quiet, calm, and peaceful head of the funeral home—is laughing hysterically.

Loving Remains is a madcap romantic comedy with outrageously fun characters and a touch of mystery. In the course of unweaving this tale, there will be death, trauma, abuse, and discussion of other hard life events. But these subjects are wrapped around such a delightful story that there’s no time to get melancholy or fearful. Okay—those open-door bedroom scenes kind of take your mind off the gloomier aspects as well…

The characters within are often a touch quirky, from the giggling, anxiety-ridden Isaac, who actually takes his work very seriously, to his brother Nick, who gives off the slimy gangster wannabe vibe and seems to take nothing seriously. Cory is a hardworking, intelligent woman who has more modern concepts for dealing with the death of a loved one than embalming them and spending a fortune on a fancy casket that will spend eternity underground. Then there’s the always bizarre Aunt Mildred, who makes every day a new experience that no one wants. There’s also a private investigator snooping around for some strange reason.

Stone has created a rom-com gem with Loving Remains. It checks all the right boxes for a mysterious thriller with some serious romantic spice thrown in. Main characters Isaac and Cory don’t work on paper as a romantic pair, unless that paper is under the masterful pen of Esmeralda Stone. He’s all about traditional death rituals. She encourages people to consider new concepts. Isaac wears dark suits and maintains a funeral director’s formulaic air of quiet professionalism at a distance. Cory wants people to give in to the touchy-feely side of loss. But these two death professionals have a chemistry that they won’t be able to deny, and an ability to lift each other up at just the right moment.

I loved the humor and heart written into this story. I laughed, I cringed, I sighed, and I curled my toes at the exploits within. One of my favorite things was the way the author used Isaac’s anxiety as poignant moments to reflect on living with these debilitating events and seeking help. It’s rare to see a main character with severe anxiety who’s not treated as though they are diseased or at least a social outcast. But Cory’s interest in him includes helping him understand, cope, and perhaps one day overcome these attacks. I loved this aspect of their characters. 

Esmeralda Stone’s Loving Remains is perfect for fans of romantic comedy, especially if you like it just a bit on the spicy side (I did mention those open-door scenes earlier). Fans of adventure stories with more than a nod toward mystery will also love this tale. However, the mystery here is not really the big challenge, as Ms. Stone provides us enough information to figure out the basics of the mystery before the characters seem to catch on. The challenge is what the cast of characters will do once they realize what’s really going on at Teagan’s—the craziest funeral home in town.