At 13, Alice, Roxanne and Del are close friends living in Cincinnati and experimenting in satanic witchcraft. Roxanne, being the instigator, is performing a ritual using Alice, a virgin. She's promised the other girls that the satanic spell will attract guys just for them. Alice appears dead and scares both Roxanne and Del away. Everything returns to normal in the following days, as if nothing has happened. The girls believe that the handsome young priest, Romero, is the "guy" produced from the spell. Roxanne seduces him and then finds she needs a secret abortion. The three girls lie to conspire against Romero, bringing him to ruin and exiled by the church.
Fifteen years later, Alice is married and rich but cannot have the one thing she longs for...a child. Roxanne is an artist and sculpts clay. Del is married and has a young stepdaughter she dearly loves. Romero has not forgotten his degradation, and his revenge on the women is being handled by Varrick, the devil himself. The devil appears to each woman as a handsome stranger with strange sexual appetites and disrupts their lives in an effort to torture and dispose of them. Bloodthirsty and involving the innocence surrounding the three women, Varrick has agreed to trade his services for Romero's soul.
Laura Benedict is a talented writer and very good with words. She has a way of putting you in the middle of a scene and making it seem quite real. CALLING MR. LONELY HEARTS is a dark, disturbing story with many strange and highly sexual scenes. For me, it was a bit difficult to follow, but it's a compelling read for those who like innuendos, flashbacks and a complex storyline.
Alice, Roxanne, and Del have been best friends since
childhoodβa childhood full of silly games, growing pains,
and a hint of the kind of cruelty that only young girls
know. Now, Aliceβs marriage is over, her husband having a
child with another woman. Roxanne, an artist, is losing
touch with everyone who cares for herβand perhaps with
reality. And Del is soldiering through, but her friends
see a dark cloud gathering in her eyes.
The instrument of their destruction is a single enigmatic
manβVarick. Seemingly summoned from the air, the strikingly
handsome
Varick is a lonely womanβs dream come true. But as Varick
seduces the women in turn, their lives become
unrecognizable to them. But where has he come from? And
what does he want? His secret lies buried in their shared
past. One simple, childish act has brought them, all these
years later, to a place where not only their lives are at
risk, but so are their souls. For once upon a time, the
three friends agreed to tell a lieβone that ruined the
life of a young priest. Defrocked, destitute, and ruined,
he hoped with the whole of his shattered heart that he
would get revenge. And in that hope he shook hands with
the one who promised it. The devil himself. Varick. And
now they all must live with the
consequences. . . .
Dark and provocative, Calling
Mr. Lonely Hearts will keep readers in its terrifying grip
long after the final, chilling page is turned.
No excerpt available.
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