could be a crowdRating: 3 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Nicolas, along with his best friend Pierce, runs one of the most prominent and successful AI companies in the country. He works hard both at the job and at making sure Pierce doesn’t get distracted by anyone. When the new interns arrive and Nicolas spots the gorgeous Lynn, he knows the young man would be exactly the kind of guy to turn Pierce’s head. So he takes Lynn on as an intern himself, to keep him away from Pierce. Pierce notices the beautiful young man, and tries to flirt, but Lynn doesn’t respond. And that makes Pierce try harder. When finally Lynn and Pierce hang out together, Nicolas thinks that’s it. The two guys are going to get along great and leave him behind. But the next outing has all three men hanging out together. Nicolas, the in control and responsible one, actually gets drunk even though he rarely does that. The next morning, he wakes to find Lynn in his house, and a heartfelt talk has Lynn admitting his feelings for Nicolas, and Nicolas acting on his feelings for Lynn.

But Pierce is suddenly earnest and wanting to talk. And when he finally gets Nicolas to listen, it’s to confess that he’s wanted Nicolas all along. With all the men interested in one another, Lynn suggests that they try the three of them together. At first Nicolas is wary and confused. But then he realizes that he can be selfish, and have both the men he wants. Now the three men just have to figure out how they can work this relationship so that it doesn’t fall apart.

Okay, this is one of those books that has me absolutely on the fence. See, the premise totally works, and there are moments of good execution in the story. But there were times when the story felt flat and the characters were uninteresting. So the good was really good, but the not so good left me feeling cold and dissatisfied.

Basically, the author did a great job giving us three distinct characters. Nicolas is our narrator, and he very quickly lets us know that he’s the one in control, the responsible one. Without him, the company would be doing poorly. I liked Nicolas from the start, with his grumpy attitude and his slight social awkwardness.  He was a good narrator, and the story was happening to him. Pierce is a playful genius, who apparently can come up with brilliant ideas as long as he has Nicolas to rein him in and help him perfect things. And Lynn is sweet and earnest, hardworking, and intelligent in his own right. These seemed to work well together, and it made sense that they would gravitate to each other. So the fact that the characters were genuinely likable, combined with the fact that the scene at the zoo actually made me laugh out loud, was enough to push my estimation of this book up.

But that’s pretty much all the good I can say about this one. I had a problem with there not being a really good sense of place here; it seemed like a contemporary with maybe an alternate reality of technology being a bit further along than it is now? I wasn’t quite sure, and that bothered me. Not only was the time of the story feeling just slightly off, but the town and surroundings were vague. I had no idea if they were living in a city or a small town, or really anything about the world at all. If there were clues to explain the world, I missed them entirely. You all know how I like solid world building, and it just felt lacking here.

There was a lot of telling going on in this story, and not nearly enough showing. It left me feeling like I was being talked at, and I didn’t like that there were scenes I wanted to see, but they were glossed over and I was told about them after the fact. I had a real problem with the fact that Pierce in particular seemed much more immature than his nearly thirty years and genius CEO persona suggested. Nicolas wasn’t much better. And Lynn, who was 18 or 19, seemed to be on par with them. And I couldn’t figure out if that was because he was acting older, or Nicolas and Pierce were just that immature. And truthfully the lack of chemistry between the MCs was troublesome; I just didn’t feel the connection that these guys were supposed to have.

So basically, this book didn’t really work for me, though there were moments I truly enjoyed myself, so it wasn’t a complete loss. If I were you I might think twice before buying this book, but if it really seems like something you’d enjoy, then I’d encourage you to give it a try.

kris signature