Ashley Poston & Chip Pons with Rainy Day Books

This event takes place in Unity Temple's Sanctuary and includes a conversation between Ashley and Chip.

Doors Open - Event doors open at 6:00 p.m. While you may queue outside the venue, no access to the event space will be granted ahead of this time. If you have any accessibility concerns that preclude you from standing in line, please reach out to [email protected] to arrange a separate entry.

Signed Books & Personalization - Event books will be PRE-SIGNED, and you will receive your pre-signed book upon check-in. There will be an optional personalization line following the author conversation. Attendees may get only one book personalized (new or a backlist title). There is no separate ticket needed for this line. Access to the personalization line will be split into numbered groups, and your group number is first-come, first-served based on when you check-into the event. We hope to get through all attendees who choose to wait, but we will need to complete personalization by 11 p.m. Signing details are subject to change depending on author and publisher needs.

ADA Accessibility - This event is hosted in the historic Unity Temple. While the Sanctuary space is ADA accessible, some seats are not. We reserve ADA seating to meet attendees' needs. Please reach out to [email protected] for one of our staff members to personally assist you with your ADA needs, reserve a seat, and/or arrange for early entry.

The new head gardener at the enchanting Lilymoor House stumbles upon a secret garden . . . with a mysterious man trapped inside, in the next magical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Sounds Like Love and The Seven Year Slip.

When Sophie Drear plans her escape to coastal Maine for the summer—for a temporary job revitalizing the storied grounds at Lilymoor House—she doesn’t expect to fall in love.

But she does: With the beguiling land, the fragrant flowers, and the towering hedge maze. With the quirky staff and the enigmatic woman who owns the place.

And then, the door appears. Never in the same place twice, it leads her to a secret, and unfinished, garden with a frustrated thundercloud of a man trapped inside.

This mysterious garden is not the only sign that the future of Lilymoor is unstable: the foliage resists Sophie’s careful nurturing, vines threaten to strangle the hedges, and the manor’s owner has wild ideas about who will take over when she retires—including her inconveniently attractive nephew who is also there just for the summer.

Despite herself, Sophie has come to care for the residents of Lilymoor just as much as she cares for its grounds. With the help of one man on the outside of the secret garden, and one man on the inside, she might be the only person who can figure out exactly what Lilymoor needs to bloom once more.

“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

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.

Ashley Poston is the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics, The Seven Year Slip, A Novel Love Story, and Sounds Like Love. She writes full-time from her little grey house and spoils her three cats. When not writing, she bides her time between South Carolina and New York, and all the bookstores between.

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.

Please Note: There are no refunds for this event. If you are unable to attend, your book will be available for pickup at Rainy Day Books starting the following day. If you are not local, we'll be happy to mail it to you upon request. Thank you for your support!

We will hold your event book in-store for a maximum of 6 months following the event. If you have not retrieved your book in that time period, it will be donated.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 West 47th Street, Kansas City, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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