Julian isn't looking for anything real-not from his night job on a phone sex line, not from the clients who pay for five minutes of make-believe intimacy. Julian has a rule against caring, because caring is expensive.
Marcus breaks that rule without trying. He calls because he can't sleep, stays because Julian doesn't want anything from him, and slowly becomes the one person Julian doesn't have to perform for.
But Julian doesn't know his name. He doesn't know that the cold, unreachable boss who runs his internship by day is the same man he's been falling for every night, one five-minute call at a time. What happens when two lonely men finally tell the truth to a stranger? And what happens when they stop being strangers?
Come for the phone sex operator falling for the caller who only wants to talk, stay for the handshake that blows both their cover stories. The Lonely Hearts Hotline is a funny, aching M/M romance for anyone who dares to believe you can be loved even before you manage to love yourself.
Autorentext
K. S. Lee writes contemporary romance and magical realism exploring connection, belonging, and the unexpected ways lives intertwine. Born in South Korea and educated in London, they now live on a rural farm and run a small gift shop filled with books, stationery, and other treasures.
Their stories often center on identity, found family, and the invisible threads that link people across time and distance. Drawing inspiration from a life shaped by different cultures and experiences, K. S. Lee is fascinated by the ways people find one another-and themselves.
When not writing, they can usually be found reading manga, getting lost in tragic Russian literature, and sympathizing with miserable people making terrible decisions for 800 pages.