Caleb Wilson is a wedding and commitment ceremony planner. He spends his time making romantic fantasies come true for other people, but he has never been able to find the right person for himself. He’s not interested in faceless encounters or one-night stands – he wants happily ever after. When he meets jeweler and gem-cutter Jim Morgan, the attraction between them is almost tangible. Jim is as conservative as Caleb is flamboyant, and he is also wedged firmly in the closet. He is not interested in relationships or commitment but only seems to want quick and dirty no-strings-attached sex.

Both of these men are lonely and both yearn for each other, but any kind of a relationship between them appears to be impossible. Caleb refuses to be Jim’s “piece” on the side, and Jim suffers from a misplaced sense of family duty that bars him from admitting his homosexuality. Can they possibly work this out? Or are they somehow destined to go through life longing for what might have been?

Adrianna Dane’s Lonely Hearts is a story about love and commitment and how one man’s sense of guilt and misplaced family duty almost causes him to lose his chance at happiness. This story takes a stab at California’s Proposition 8, which in 2008 eliminated the rights of gay couples to marry in that state, and it concludes with a message of hope and love at a rally opposing said Proposition.

The contrast between the two heroes in this story is the source of most of the conflict in Lonely Hearts. Caleb is such a colorful figure that it almost makes your eyes hurt. He unapologetically dresses in bright colors and sumptuous fabrics that shout out his sexual orientation, but he also uses those as a mask to hide his loneliness behind. Jim’s father calls Caleb a “peacock,” and the description is fitting on the surface. The bright exterior hides sadness, however, and the reader cannot help but want that sadness to dispel. Jim is much harder to like even though he has a valid reason for the way he acts. He is Caleb’s opposite in almost every way, from his business suits to his abrasive manner, and the only thing about him that even hints that he might have a bit of a rebel hidden inside him is his penchant for wearing tennis shoes with his suits.

Although the ending of this story skirts very close to what one might deem “sappy,” it still strikes a positive note. If these two can make a relationship between them work, then there must be hope out there for others looking for a happy ending.



Reviewed by: Whitney