Litcadia
Rate this

Dearly Departed

Chip Pons

4.13

AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER

"Pons writes romance that burns with heart, humor, and spectacular heat. I’m obsessed with this!" —Elena Armas, New York Times bestselling author of The Spanish Love Deception

"THE romance book of 2026." —Sara Cate, New York Times bestselling author of the Salacious Players' Club

For fans of MM romances like Heated Rivalry and The Entanglement of Rival Wizards, a sexy Hades-inspired gay rom-com, in which the former god of the Underworld turned grumpy funeral director must find a loophole in the Immortal Retirement Act that banished him to Earth, until the florist next door begins to unravel all his carefully laid plans.

Hope is a dangerous thing for gods. Even former ones.

Hayden Harlow, once the mighty Hades, has spent centuries quietly resenting his fall from immortality. Stripped of his godhood by the allegedly irreversible Immortal Retirement Act, he now runs Harlow and Sons Funeral Home—a front for his eternal sentencing among mortals, and a bleak reminder of the purpose he's lost. Still, he's determined to claw his way back...if only the Fates at City Hall would stop toying with him.

Enter Levi Wilder: a florist with an artist's heart, an infectious smile, and a gift for finding beauty in life's messiest moments. When Hayden storms into Levi's shop to complain about a bouquet of sunflowers—an offensive choice for a funeral, in his opinion—their worlds collide. Hayden is all restraint and shadows; Levi is all sunshine and charm. But beneath the clash lies an undeniable spark neither can ignore.

As their connection blossoms, Hayden finds himself caught between the life he once knew and the bright future Levi dares him to imagine. But trusting Levi means risking the walls he's kept in place all these years—and it's not just his heart on the line. Because in the threads of fate, one choice can change everything.

RomanceRomantic ComedyParanormal RomanceLGBTQ+FantasyAdult
Pages
400
First published
June 16, 2026
Edition
Ebook

Shelved by 4 Litcadians

Reviews

  • Finished June 29, 2026

  • Finished June 29, 2026

    I really wanted to love this one so much and I don’t know why I didn’t. I don’t know if it was a wrong time type of thing but o just didn’t feel myself connecting with the characters. I normally eat up a hades romance and a hades mm set in a small town sounds exactly like the type of book that would be perfect for me but something about it just didn’t work for me. I wasn’t invested and I found myself having to force myself to pick the book up. I wasn’t invested loving the first 20% so maybe it was the partying that threw me off and effected the rest for me, idk it was definitely a me thing. Might try again because I did buy the audiobook and the paperback when I anticipated loving it. 😅