Dearly & Vain Valentino

Dearly and The Departed, Book 2

By: L.A. Kaye

Narrated by: Zachary Zaba

When the family business is death, how does one convince the deceased to embrace the afterlife without hurting their delicate feelings?

Keir Dearly, proprietor of Dearly & Son Funeral Home, is suffering from heartbreak. The advice he gets from his mother—“You get over one man by getting under another”—isn’t what he wants to hear. When a certain handsome detective shows up and wants to woo the mortician, temptation knocks. Will Keir answer while Dash is off trying to accept mind blowing news?

Valentino Rankin, a fledgling male model, becomes a client of Keir’s at Dearly & Son by paying more attention to his reflection in a store window than the flow of traffic. Vale, as his mother called him all his life, needs convincing that he’s really unalive and has a hard time accepting he has to fight a living biker and a cop for Keir Dearly’s affections.

©2023 L.A. Kaye (P)2023 L.A. Kaye

Story Great! Narration Not

Dearly series very entertaining however narration was awful! Very disappointing. Had I not been traveling and wanted to finish the story I wouldn’t have wasted the credit and just waited to finish reading the book

Good story. Decent narration.

This entry in the Dearly and the Departed series sees some interesting developments in Kier's relationship with Dash and with the afterlife. The character development was nicely constructed in this book. I also enjoyed the development of an overreaching story arc. The plot for this particular book wasn't as much of a mystery as the first book, but it did have a puzzle to contemplate.

The narrator showed some improvement from his performance from the last book, but some names are still a bit off. I have never heard Gethsemane pronounced that way before.

I am still interested in the author's portrayal of the afterlife. I will certainly be continuing the series. Not certain if I will be listening in audio or reading the ebook.