The Architect
by Nikki Sloane
On the surface, my new boyfriend is a stiff, buttoned-up architect. He plans every detail of his life while carefully maintaining the walls he’s built around his heart. But when the biggest project of his career pulls him away, Clay’s solution is both temporary and unconventional. It even comes with a name—Travis.
This handsome stranger is sweet and thoughtful. He’s only meant to be a stand-in, to fulfill my needs under Clay’s watchful direction, yet these two men couldn’t be more different. The one thing they share? Well, I guess that would be me.
One gets off on my pain, the other on my pleasure, and it awakens a desire none of us knew existed. But it can’t last.
Eventually I’ll have to choose.
And it’s going to destroy us all.
Spice Level: 4.5/6 | Story Score: 3.5/10 | Rating: 2.75/5 |
Boy oh boy. So I’ve seen this book on BookTok and it landed on my A-Z list. I was not prepared for the feelings I was going to have…but they weren’t all good.
This is a classic ‘intro to bdsm’ type of story with the twist that the main male character works out of town frequently, so they let a different guy stand in. That man has talked to the male lead beforehand and knows how the scenes are supposed to go and obviously, things get messy. Because of that storyline, I put this one on my trope list as “Stand In Lover”. It could’ve also been Neighbors, Menage, or something.
I didn’t hate this book, but I didn’t enjoy the writing enough that I think I’ll ever read any of the author’s other books. For me, the characters were flat, frustrating, and I was unable to connect with them. Clay (the male lead character) was a control freak to the point that he cut off his hand to spite his face. I never fell for him; I didn’t even like him. And I’m a control freak so normally they don’t even phase me. I thought he was controlling to the point of an emotional train wreck and his ‘my way or the highway’ fits were exhausting. Lilith, the female lead, was ok. I didn’t dislike her, but I also didn’t have any affection for her. I didn’t agree with her a lot which made it even more difficult. Travis, our second male that walked into this story, I did like but he wasn’t enough to save the book for me.
-SPOILERS-
The BDSM club was odd. I will give the author credit that she created an environment that I hadn’t been in before. I also don’t want to go back, but I will absolutely give points for being outside the box. I found the male lead telling the female lead to lick a window to simulate eating another woman out just odd. I mean, if that’s your thing, alright. Then the latex scene. I was…probably too distracted by the thought to enjoy it? Then the upstairs scene: yes. I enjoyed that one.
I hated that Lilith and Travis weren’t allowed to talk to each other. I understand what Clay was trying to do, however, it was just uncomfortable for me. I was freaking happy when they threw the rules to the wind, however, that scene left me lacking. Was her difficulty in getting off supposed to be demonstrating that she needed the pain or power exchange or audience in order to finish? I don’t know. I felt hollow at the end.
Clay gets off on pain, throws up walls, doesn’t communicate, and controls everyone; Travis gets off on pleasure, can be taken anywhere, is open like a book, and gives freely…and you wanted me to be okay with the idea of them all ending up together? Why would I want her to keep Clay around?
Obviously, I have a preference here.
Continuing on. All the furniture. My God, I couldn’t keep up with the descriptions and I couldn’t picture a lot of the scenes. Maybe that’s just me. Maybe I just didn’t care to. I don’t know.
Ok, I think I’m done. With this rant and this series.
Book #3 in the Nashville Neighborhood series | 390 Pages | Trope Challenge: Stand In Lover |
“I jolted from the shocking, acute pleasure. I loved it when a guy went down on me, but this? It was insanity, and it’d never felt like this before. Each lush stroke of his tongue caused static in my body. It was so good, it short-circuited my brain, and my body didn’t know how to handle the overload.”
- The Architect by Nikki Sloane
Find it on:
Comments