Join us in Downers Grove for our monthly Romance Reads Book Club! Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, August 13th at 7:00 pm, and we will be discussing Dearly Departed. This will be a free event, but we highly encourage the purchase of the monthly book from our store.

Please note that the author will not be in attendance at this event! This conversation will be moderated by Anderson’s bookseller Sheila.

More about Dearly Departed:  

“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.

About the Author:

Chip Pons grew up in a small lake town in Northern Michigan, where he discovered the kind of stories that make you believe in magic, love, and second chances. Now based in Washington, DC with his dream of a husband and their pup, Margot, he writes romances rooted in queer joy and the belief that everyone deserves their happily ever after. When he isn’t writing, Chip can be found wandering through bookstores, daydreaming about new characters, or shouting about his favorite reads on Bookstagram. And snacking, like, all the time.