Customer Reviews

The Lonely Hearts Club

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Think Friends, Sex in the City, and The L-Word, with Radclyffe's signature touches, for an engaging, uplifting and truly sexy character-driven emotional adventure. The Lonely Hearts Club explores the hearts and minds of six professional women, all different, all sexy, and all complicated, and all searching for true love, even if they think they're better off single. Whether a playgirl, a person who prefers her fantasies, or a practical and loyal woman embarking on motherhood, everyone needs companionship, love, trust, and lust. Radclyffe succeeds in showing how different our sexuality can be - and how valid despite those differences.

Liz Ramsey is a thirty-five-year-old mal-practice attorney on top of her game when life altering changes throws her for a loop. Her best friends, Marilyn Monroe-esque Candace Lory, a commodities trader who gets around and Brenda Beal, a thirty-year-old quietly sensitive care-taker, who enjoys the fantasy of love perhaps more than the reality, remain the constant by which she lives her life. "For nine years [Liz, Candace and Bren had] shared secrets, heartbreaks, the joy of new beginnings and the pain of breaking up. They had forged something that went beyond friendship and created a family in a far more intimate way than anything Liz shared with most of her blood relatives" (page 19). But even a `family of choice' can have secrets and still maintain a healthy, loving, nurturing, and protective relationship.

Add Dr. Reilly Danvers, an orthopedic surgeon, who is "melt-in-your-mouth hot," and feeds off the tension of her profession so that she's too tired to worry about her life outside the hospital, Parker Playgirl Jones, a sexy corporate attorney and Julia, Liz's ex among other surprise guests, and you have an ensemble of compelling characters, intriguing complications amidst soul-searching, tying up loose ends, and making way for fulfilling futures. Gay or straight, most women would agree that these are the key ingredients to a happier life.

Readers who aren't afraid to explore their sensual and sexual side and think about their needs and desires will want to read The Lonely Hearts Club because there's always something to learn. Between the witty and often funny, charming and meaningful dialogue, cliff-hanger scene endings, the hints of deep dark secrets along the way, and characters you'll love, it is no surprise that The Lonely Hearts Club will leave you lonely no more. Every gesture, look, sigh, and thought moves the plot along with just enough hints to maintain suspense. Each character has a unique descriptor. How Radclyffe keeps track of all these women is a wonder. Radclyffe empowers woman and being a lesbian is not a pre-requisite for reading her work. Happily married and single straight women who enjoy romance, exploring sexual desire, living vicariously through characters who etch themselves in your heart and mind, and who long for stimulating circumstances between multi-faceted characters, will not want to miss The Lonely Hearts Club.

Let me begin by saying I did enjoy this book. Radclyffe always spins a good tale. However, I felt it wasn't as thorough as many of her books. I really like the three friends and am fascinated by how Radclyffe reveals Bren's secret to her friends. I like that Candace is beginning to change. and I truly like Liz and Reilly. I'm sure that being a little cryptic about how Bren and Candace work out their romances leaves room for another book about these women. That will give us some more information about Liz and Reilly as well. And I will read it.

Radclyffe does a wonderful job of introducing and personalizing her characters in this fun, passion-filled romance. Readers are guaranteed to identify with these lonely women as they mend broken hearts and explore secret desires. While enjoyable, the sex and intimacy in this novel left something to be desired. I'm anxiously awaiting a Radclyffee romance that can rival or surpass Shadowland's intensity.

Once it ended. Friends thought I had disappeared for a day when I started reading this book and made other plans! Seriously though, great book, intriguing characters, sex-surprisingly not all that much, but enough to really keep you interested. Anyway, Radclyffe proves that whether weilding a pen or a scalpel, she can cut to the heart of a her readers and her characters alike.

Philadelphia to be exact - in this case, the city of Sisterly love!

Oh My! what an erotic book! and yet it had just the sweetest love story!

From hospital corridors to not so private sex near the softball diamond this book has it all!

Thirty year old Bren is attractive, thoughtful and introspective, she has a fulfilling job directing the rare books department at Temple University but has never been in a long term relationship.

Twenty-seven year old Candace, a model pretty blonde, has a high stakes job as a self-employed commodities trader who lives and loves in the moment.

Thirty-five year old Liz Ramsey is a medical attorney who is lovely inside and out.

The three met during their college days and have been fast friends since. Totally supportive of each other but that doesn't mean that they know all each other's secrets.

And gorgeous thirty-one year old orthopedic surgeon Dr. Reilly Danvers is a joy to read.

As a bonus for her readers the author has nice appearances from characters from her excellent novel 'Love's Tender Warriors'.

If you liked this novel you will also enjoy these tiles by the author -
Fated Love
Tomorrow's Promise
When Dreams Tremble
Passion's Bright Fury
Turn Back Time
Love's Melody Lost
Love's Masquerade
shadowland

Radclyffe does her best work when she writes her stand alone novels. Unlike her series, which sell books, but have gotten rather mundane, this book has a fresh concept. It's not often that a lesbian novel features a central figure who is pregnant and alone. While Liz and Reilly are the major focus of the book, the most interesting character might be Bren, who has a couple of secrets she's kept from her best friends. Any of these characters could have carried the book and that makes them stronger than is usually seen in this genre. This is what Radclyffe excels at when she writes her stand alone novels. She should stick with it. The Lonely Hearts Club is a good read.

Cudos to Radclyffe! I loved the Sex-in-the-City style of this book! It was entertaining, fast reading, and it flowed beautifully. I liked the way that all the characters had their own stories but there was that common thread of frienship that ran throughout. The "club" encounters were entertaining as well. The book had drama, comedy, and wonderful sex. Great read!

This is another one of Radclyffe's that I couldn't put down. Excellent story. Excellent characters. Great portray of true genuine friendship. It was good that there were three different storylines going on all at the same time, yet all linked together.

I really liked Bren. The soft spoken friend (well it appeared that way at first). I hope there is a sequel to this one. I would like to read more about her character in the future.

As usual I am never disappointed when it comes to Radyclyffe.

I have no complaints about this book. I loved it. I could easily have given it five stars. Now, that could be the timing of when I read it, after reading a couple of somewhat disappointing books, but I could not put it down once I started it, and I'll admit that I was initially a little skeptical. I usually don't read anthologies or short stories, and I was worried that a book spread over the lives of so many women would be too thin overall for my tastes. But I had no need to fear; this book revolves centrally around the lives and connections between Liz and Riley, richly complemented and supported by Liz's two best friends Bren and Candace (the 3 of them make up the "Lonely Hearts Club"), and their various entanglements. Words can't adequately describe how happy I was to put myself into Radclyffe's capable hands and immerse myself in her most recent offering. Excellent pacing, clear narrative line, distinct and likeably characters, hot chemistry. Radclyffe even injected a bit of gentle S/M into the proceedings.

The writing and editing was excellent as always. It's refreshing to be able to just sit back and enjoy a book without cringing at author missteps. I enjoyed this author's take on issues surrounding pregnancy, break-ups, the ways we hide from ourselves and our friends emotionally, how we hurt and forgive one another, and how fulfilling our lives are with other people in them. Highly recommended.

I can't stop thinking of this book, I even re-read the ending last night, it was so addicting.

Ok, I'll start by the end point I wish to make; we need a sequel here, too many cute things are not completed/resolved (Bren/Candace). I mean Liz and Reilly were so cute it hurt, and would be nice to see progressing, but I really would like to see bad girl candace and even bigger bad girl Bren go all out and move forward;

Somewhat very sexy with an evolving love story with a pregnant woman, many nice thoughts there... From hospital corridors to not so private sex near the softball diamond this book has it all!

Background, the characters:

My favorite: Thirty-five year old Liz Ramsey is a medical attorney who is lovely inside and out. (and pregnant too)

A ladyshark: Twenty-seven year old Candace, a model pretty blonde, has a high stakes job as a self-employed commodities trader who lives and loves in the moment.

Cutesy Bren, with quite a large amount of secrets:
Thirty year old Bren is attractive, thoughtful and introspective, she has a fulfilling job directing the rare books department at Temple University but has never been in a long term relationship.

Three great friends, hot as they are, very close but with some secrets

And gorgeous thirty-one year old orthopedic surgeon Dr. Reilly Danvers is a joy to get to know; what a romatic cutie, she's my fav.

Spoiler ** The "crisis" at the end with Julia on the street, I will only allude to added some very nice tension, and a very very cute romance scene. Bravo RadClyffe for a superb twist!

My 1st Radclyffe book, I will be buying more. If you liked this one, anything by Meghan O'Brien is also good(like a 10 vs a 9 on 10, all very good..) and Kim baldwin/Xenia Alexiou.