Marc joins the Lonely Hearts chat room where men support men on their way to finding true love. He wants to believe that kind of love is possible for him, but his once-burned heart stops him from going all-in with anyone.
The chat group’s philosophy is, “Figure out how you keep screwing up your happily ever after. Once you know, you’re more likely to find the true thing.”
Skeptical as he is, Marc logs in and meets men in various degrees of getting there. At least he’s not alone. Luther truly loves his single life on the Bakken oil fields. William’s not sure he’ll ever measure up, let alone find someone he can be himself around. And Andrew still pines for a guy he hooked up with on a reenactment battlefield before he got blown up on a real one.
One by one they start dropping like flies. Flies drunk on love. And sooner than he expects, Marc’s luck starts changing thanks to these new friends.
Walk alongside these men as they find the men of their dreams and discover their happily ever afters.
Lonely Hearts: a novella bundle includes: Bent Arrow, Stroke of Luck, Momo, My Everything, and Love on a Battlefield.
blue-collar, reluctant lovers, rural, bisexual, gay, fated lovers, Halloween, white-collar, opposites attract, multicultural, coming out, second chance, first time, disability, recovery romance, meant to be, military, artist, world traveler, coming of age, long distance, pen pals, gay romance, contemporary, MM romance, lone wolf, alpha male.
Welllll, 3.75 Hearts averaged out, but definitely rounded up for the way the author tied it all together.
The author uses a clever technique to tie four novellas together along with a connection to The North Star Series. It works well and bundles all four stories cohesively via chat room conversations between Hugo (from North Star) and one half of each of the couples in the novellas. I liked it, it allowed me to get to know each of the guys organically and get a taste of their personalities going into their new relationships.
Bent Arrow (Luther and Eric) - 4 Hearts
I just love Luther. Then I met Eric, and I just love Eric. While Luther comes across, at first, as a man who has convinced himself he never wants to attach himself to another person, it’s easy to see that a connection with another person is exactly what he needs most. Luther uses the excuse of work environment and that he’s not out to his family to stay in his one night stand lifestyle. Eric is a bit of an introvert, mostly out of necessity and concern for his safety in the oilfields. The two of them have chemistry from the very beginning and while the physical is a no brainer between them, the relationship they begin to develop is the real treat to read. The very best part of this story is the communication and honesty. It wasn’t like the relationship was angst free, the two of them had to go through some level of nonsense considering where they were coming from. But, they knew they wanted one another and I loved that they both owned it.
Stroke of Luck (Marc and Cas) - 3 Hearts
Marc is too pure for this world and I had trouble believing anyone could deserve him. It took me a while to warm up to Cas. I liked him, but there was a lot of “work” that had to go into being with Cas. By the end I did like the two of them together but it was a little too unnecessarily difficult to get there. Cas wasn’t even the real issue, the problem was Maisie. Ugh, that woman. I get that the relationship between Cas and Maisie was the main conflict that fed the story, she really detracted from my Marc and I love Marc. By the end, everything conveniently worked out and Marc and Cas were happy, so, yay! But I could have done with less Maisie and more Marc and Cas together.
Momo, My Everything (William and Nate) - 3.5 Hearts
This story was more than just a romance it was a real character study of William. He was a tough guy to get to know, but the author did a great job of showing who he was and how much we wanted to love and be loved in his own voice. Nate was William’s complete opposite and reading William fall in love was absolutely lovely. I don’t feel like I got to know Nate as deeply as William, which is why this is definitely a William story for me and I very much liked it. William evolved a lot for the novella length of this story. Nate was such a breath of fresh air and life for William and William appreciated everything about Nate. What they gave each other and how thankful they were for one another was the highlight for me, so while the bulk of the story is about William and his evolution, there was plenty of true romance to be had.
Love on a Battlefield (Andrew and Shep) - 4.5 Hearts
Oh, my heart. The bittersweet arc in Love on a Battlefield broke my heart and put it back together in the best possible way. I absolutely loved how this story was told. The flashbacks, the letters, the current life struggles, all of that combined to make Andrew and Shep fully fleshed out characters that I embraced from page 1. My only complaint was that the story was a novella and not a full novel. You know how the romance world gives us stories with couples who are “meant to be” and we love it and eat it up with a spoon? But then, once in a while a story comes along where two people weren’t just “meant to be” but they “had to be”? Like, they are so meant to be together there is no other option for them, they are “next-level meant to be”. That’s Andrew and Shep. Life and time were in the way for awhile as they worked there way back to one another. They may have had just a few teenage fumblings (happy ending fumblings) back in the day, but they basically ruined each other for anyone else. I do believe they had to grow up though and the distance probably made their appreciation for each other even stronger once they did meet up again as adults. It was like their first time all over again and I loved it. I’ll be rereading this one for sure.
**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**
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