Only the Lonely review

Only the Lonely



***** (for the fun)

Susan Gabriel website for 18 and older

Black Velvet Suductions (publisher)
169 pages

Only the Lonely was a fun, Vampy and at times campy book with a bit of suspense and mystery added. The writing style was easy to read. The dialogue was decent. The main character, Summer is a radio host for a nightly show called "Only the Lonely", and the sponsors for the show were companies that supply...."marital aides", or adult toys. The names of the companies as well as the names of the products were very entertaining in a pun-tastic way - almost a secondary character. Ex: ..."live music from Buster Hymen and The Penetrators" or "Snake-eye and Slick" the brand name of a lubricant. (Immature snicker from me here, snicker, smirk!)

Summer, apparently usually a very practical, strong woman, becomes involved with a vampire. This angers some other vampires and at the same time Summer questions her own logic, but she just can't seem to stop lusting after Lucien (the vampire). I noticed that rather than feature a needy woman, and a strong man that's willing to let relationships go when things start getting too involved, these two characters actually play the opposite of what's expected in a romance novel. Summer is a lusty young woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go for it. And without the silly posturing or show of machismo from the woman character that is so prevalent in another series that's gone on way too long. Susan Gabriel handles this strong, not-your-typical-female character without having her hate all other women, or only have men friends....but I digress. Anyway, Summer becomes involved with a vampire, and though she is in a haze of lust with him, she also admits this to herself. Trouble comes when dead bodies start showing up, all wearing t-shirts with her radio show's logo; these had been giveaways for one of her publicity shows. Naturally Summer starts to wonder if her new vampire love has anything to do with these bodies, since they begin showing up shortly after she meets Lucien.

Now there's no mistaking that this is a romance novel, or rather an erotic romance. I knew it was going to be before I read it, and in fact asked for a copy for review on a whim, just to read something a bit different. Even though I usually shy away from books that focus on sex (because sometimes they are a huge yawn), this book had a lot more going for it. The story itself, with the plot and mystery and characters was very entertaining. There were some laughs, and some off the wall characterizations. In fact there were a couple of bosses that the main character described as "corporate whores" which cracked me up, (sometimes I'm a little immature that way). A few of the characters made some questionable decisions, such as Summer decides to take a shortcut at night - down a dark alleyway. Now most women wouldnt' do this - I don't think I would, even at my most daring, no-one-dare-messes-with-me self. But she does, and of course has to deal with a threat.


In fact, I get the impression that some of the characters were portrayed tongue-in-cheek, as it were. Like the "corporate whores" who decided to put out the rumor that Summer has gone into rehab to deal with an issue, despite her having NO drug related problems, because it will eventually raise her ratings (on the radio show). Corporate Whores. LOL

The sex scenes. There are only a few, the whole book didn't focus on it as much as I expected. It was clear that these two characters lusted after each other, and there are moments when Summer can't seem to think of anything else, but that wasn't the complete focus of the novel. The scenes them selves were pretty steamy. I have to say that I did not have one Yawn-Moment while reading them. My eyes did not glaze over, and that's all I'm going to say on the personal level of this subject. The writing of the scenes was well-done. The scenes did not seem like they happened out of the blue. Everything fit. (pun-tastic-immature giggle here)

There is dangerous situation, where Summer ends up severely wounded. Oddly enough there wasn't lots of detail about the injury itself, though the aftermath was handled very well. But I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone who reads books with a lot of gore and gratuitous violence at times, so the lack of gory details is probably a good thing in a romance novel. The plot twist was pretty good,

I enjoyed the epilogue very much. Only the Lonely is an entertaining novel, a little steamy with good storytelling and supporting details (as in there was more to it than the sex- I don't know about anyone else, but I enjoy some good storytelling with my porn! LOL). This was a fun, light-hearted romp of a read, with a trippy cover. :)

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