Lonely Diner

Some Like It Haute Gay Romance Series, Book 3

By: Dann Hazel

Narrated by: Dann Hazel

Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Two gorgeous military men. One Lonely Diner, where people often search for romance. (The food is good there, too.)

One man plays it straight. Another grieves over a lost lover.

Though clearly meant for each other, Lance, an Air Force computer engineer, and Ryan, a former submariner in the Navy and now a military college professor, are conflicted gay men blinded by painful wounds of their past decisions.

A younger Ryan Ball decides he can be happy only by conforming to social expectations. So what does he do? He decides he must have a wife and kids. Though he acknowledges to himself that he can never be straight, he is convinced that, with effort and determination, he can play the necessary roles.

At thirty-one, Lance Dingle falls for his best friend and roommate, Randy, a stunt pilot who agrees to a friends-with-benefits arrangement. Then, tragedy strikes. Lance finds himself alone and lonely, living with memories of Randy and an ever-expanding list of “what-might-have-beens.”

Callie Yenti, a transwoman and drag performer extraordinaire, enters the picture. She owns Lonely Diner and possesses an uncanny insight into the workings of the heart.

Even the complicated hearts of her two stubborn friends, Lance and Ryan.

An HEA gay romance.

Though part of a series, LONELY DINER may easily be listened to as a standalone.

Trigger Warning: This novel includes scenes from a sexual assault and a PTSD episode.

Tropes: Military Romance, Coming Out, Overcoming Adversity, Second Chances.

CHAPTER TITLES

Chapter One: Here, From the Beginning

Chapter Two: USAF: The Winning Option

Chapter Three: Lonely, Party of One

Chapter Four: Ryan's Long, Winding Road

Chapter Five: Sebastian the Ibis

Chapter Six: Family on Fire

Chapter Seven: Alliance for Full Acceptance

Chapter Eight: Late-to-Party Gay Man Gets Involved

Chapter Nine: The Cocktail Club

Chapter Ten: A Gentle Kind of Loving

Chapter Eleven: The Baby Will Be Loved

Chapter Twelve: More Queers than a Man Can Count

Chapter Thirteen: Drag Me to Brunch at Dudley's

Chapter Fourteen: When the Guests Are No-Shows

Chapter Fifteen: The Impossible #Me-Too Decision

Chapter Sixteen: A Gay Man in the Woods

Chapter Seventeen: A Sordid Reputation

Chapter Eighteen: Even Lonelier at Lonely Diner

Chapter Nineteen: No Erection on Site

Chapter Twenty: A Human Resources Intervention

Chapter Twenty-One: Empathy Paves the Way to Attraction

Chapter Twenty-Two: Diamond Sparkles into Town

Chapter Twenty-Three: Trash at Colonial Lake

©2023 Dann Hazel (P)2024 Dann Hazel

Great listen

I enjoyed the characters in this book. The storyline was good. I thought the narrator did a good job with the story. It helped pass the time on my train ride.

On the Fence

I kind of struggled with this one. The premise had me very interested but the story itself wasn't quite as I expected it to be when I listened to the audiobook.

I received an ARC and this is my unbiased opinion

A compelling story tarnished by too much moralizing

I enjoyed the family drama and the romance between Lance and Ryan. I could have done without the injections of queer theory and food moralizing.

Not sure what to say

To be honest, this storyline was all over the place. It does make sense for the backstory for Ryan, at least the struggle between his inner self and his sexuality. I’m still not quite sure of the point of his history with Dennis as it doesn’t add any value to the story.
Lance’s history was very interesting, specifically his time with Randy and their inevitable demise. Though his storyline began to become repetitive, at least he was doing something purposeful with his character.
Overall, the characters were intriguing with a somewhat interesting storyline. Diamonds visit was the most excitement, which was bland at best.

The narrative was atrocious! I felt like I was listening to Ben Stein calling Bueller’s name it was so bad. I would definitely suggest hiring a narrator to spice up the story because this was a bust!

I struggled

I had a hard time writing a review for this book. In fact I rewrote this three times. To be completely honest I almost did not finish this book. What would normally have taken me 2 days to read/listen to took me six. At one point near the end I had to put the book down for several hours then come back to it because I wanted to DNF it at that moment. But Ryan's little girl, Diamond, played a pivotal part in my decision to keep going. Her struggling through an issue, that I will not go into because spoiler, led me to believe that surely the book would pick up at that point. If I could give this book a zero star I would. If an editor were to come by this book and edit out all the unnecessary things in this book (it's like intrusive thoughts ran rapid) and the absolute over description of things, you would not have a novel you would have a novelette. To me, the language, as in the specific words in this book, that this author has written came off pompous and made the characters more unrelatable. I find lonely Diner to be with no consistent or smooth flow of the story, and confusing in a few parts. I would not call this book an MM romance, I would loosely call it a love story with a HEA. I struggled with this whole book. I just struggled with the whole thing.

Lonely Diner is unique for a romance in that both of the characters do not actually meet until well into the book and do not get together until a little after that. They do not even talk or hang out between the time they actually meet and the time they express wanting to be together. And the scene where they express wanting to be together is a total disappointment, after all that time, reading, and build up? It's just a complete let down. The only thing they really have to push them together all through out the story is the diner owner and self proclaimed Matchmaker, Callie. To me the characters have no spark between them. I wouldn't call this book a slow burn I would just call it slow, because you need chemistry or a fire for it to burn. The sex scenes in this book are lacklustered and the language used to describe the scenes remind me of medical terminology, I can understand one scene being like that but not the others. The last love scene between the two main characters is so over the top and over descriptive with the $2 words that I had a hard time getting through it.
Lonely Diner follows each character throughout their life until they meet and they get together. The first six chapters are what each of their childhoods were like. Then we move on to their early adulthood and getting into the military. We also see Ryan get married, have a kid, struggle with some personal issues, coming to terms with his sexuality, and getting a divorced. Most of the hard hitting stuff happens around Ryan although Lance has some drama happened to him too. One of the life events that happens helps Lance and Ryan get together. At this point you think 'oh great we get to see their firsts, we get to see them coming together, we finally get to have the relationship. All this build up is finally going to pay off, right?' Nope. After this event and them getting together and Lance getting to meet the ex-wife and the daughter we suddenly skip ahead 3 years. And in those 3 years I'm confused on whether or not Ryan actually got to physically see his daughter, so I'm just going to go with the assumption that over these three years all of their communication has been over phone. I'm also confused on the age of the daughter at this point because at the time Lance meets her she's six. But when we see her again three years later she's referred to as a 'young woman' and described us going through puberty. She supposed to be nine. The back talk she gives her mother is werid and out of no where. What's even more confusing is that the huge life event she went through three years ago at six suddenly turns into PTSD and getting her counseling. Like. What? I know the author meant to phrase this as there was a small event that triggered the PTSD but come on. There is very little about the relationship between Lance and Ryan until the last chapter. The author talks more about the dog in the last chapters then he does about what's going on between Lance and Ryan. Just the unnecessary happenings that occur in this book is baffling to me. I will not be reading this book again. I know different strokes for different folks and normally I can get a grasp enough on a story to try to just appreciate the story and the writing, even if I don't like the book. But I couldn't do that here. I've not read the other two books in this series and after reading this one I completely plan not to. This book can hold up as a standalone. If there were other characters from other books in the series in this story there was no reference to be made about it.

I received a free copy of this (audio) book for an honest review.

Great characters

If you've seen the painting "Nighthawks" of lonely people in a diner at night, you'll get the feel of this story. It's a contemporary romance, but the characters of Lance and Ryan are both hurting and trying to deal with their pasts and figure out their futures which initially look pretty bleak. Thank goodness they have Callie to step in and help them find the way. Hazel does a wonderful job of narrating this story. It's clear how personal these characters are to their author.