Long, Lonely Nights

Long, Lonely Nights is one of Marla Monroe’s contemporary romance novels, working in the multi partner romance subgenre she has been writing in successfully for years. Monroe writes the menage subgenre, where the central relationship involves more than two partners, and her catalogue runs into dozens of novels and novellas built around small town settings, established families of friends, and the kind of warm community fiction her readers return to her for.

The long lonely nights premise hints at the kind of emotional setup that Monroe often uses to begin her novels. A heroine who has been alone too long, who has been working herself into the ground or has been keeping her distance from any kind of emotional involvement for specific reasons that the novel works through, and who finds herself in a situation where the loneliness can no longer be sustained. Monroe handles this kind of setup with the practiced confidence of a writer who has been doing it for many years. The recognition that she actually wants the relationship she has been refusing to acknowledge drives the central romance forward.

Monroe writes the kind of erotic romance that does not waste time. Her plots move, her heat scenes are frequent and explicit, and her characters spend less time in self doubt than the contemporary romance mainstream often does. The menage subgenre has its own rules and conventions, and Monroe has been writing inside those conventions long enough to know when to follow them and when to push them. The dynamics between three or more partners require more careful balancing than two character romance, and Monroe’s experience with the form shows in how she manages the relationships across the page count.

For readers who enjoy menage romance from authors like Sophie Oak, Lexi Blake, or Anitra Lynn McLeod, Monroe is squarely in the same neighborhood. Her catalogue is large and most of her books work as standalones even when they share a wider universe. Long, Lonely Nights is a comfortable entry into her catalogue and a fair sample of what she does. For new readers curious about menage romance, Monroe is one of the steadier producers in the subgenre. Her books deliver what she promises and her audience returns for the consistency.