Rating: 3.25 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Lance refinishes furniture for a living. He’s never been lucky in love, but if the right man comes along, he’s all for it. Lance enjoys going out to clubs with his friends, and he has hookups every now and then, but not too many. Lance also has low self esteem. Even though he loves what he does, he is constantly wondering why anyone would want to be with him because he doesn’t make a lot of money. Basically, Lance considers himself to be a common man who is less than worthy of a boyfriend.
Forrest is an architect whose specialty is city planning. He’s positively gorgeous, wealthy, talented, and he’s becoming well known thanks to his design for a new city center in his town. There’s a competition for the best design, and everyone thinks his will be the winner. Because Forrest is so busy, he hasn’t got time for a relationship, but one night…
Lance and Forrest meet in a club, fall in instant lust, and head to Lance’s place for what is supposed to be a one night stand. They both enjoy it very much, and even after Forrest leaves, they continue to think about each other. The men meet up again by accident at an estate sale. Forrest wants to buy a kitchen hutch, but it needs to be refinished. The lady running the sale recommends her son, and guess who that turns out to be? The story takes off from there.
I’ve thought long and hard about how I was going to write this review. I want to be diplomatic because there were some good parts about Architect of Love. Don’t get me wrong. However, there were parts I had a difficult time with, and unfortunately, I didn’t find myself connecting to the story.
I loved Forrest. Yes, he was extremely busy, so he wasn’t the most warm and fuzzy guy, but when he met Lance and eventually got to know him, he wanted to be with him. He fell hard and fast. I thought he was sweet, and the fact that Lance is a laborer who works with his hands didn’t bother Forrest at all. He saw the person behind the job, and he really wanted to make the relationship work.
Lance? Well, he was exactly the opposite. I wanted to throttle him throughout the book. His constant harping about how he was less than Forrest deserved became so annoying, I found myself skimming his scenes. I just wanted to get back to Forrest. The whole “I’m not good enough” thing just put me off. Also (and remember, this is my own personal opinion, and some of you might not agree), Lance went out to a club after he breaks up with Forrest (Yes…he broke up with a man who loved him and didn’t give a damn about what he does for a living) and meets up with an old friend. They used to be friends with benefits, but hadn’t been for awhile. He shares his angst about the Forrest situation and winds up having sex with his friend. It had only been maybe days since he dumped Forrest, and he’s out there getting laid? He couldn’t keep it in his pants and simply reflect upon his feelings? He just HAD to have sex with someone to forget. To me, that’s as close to cheating as you can get. I was furious! Forrest was pining for Lance, the man he loved, and Lance was doing the deed with someone else.
Along with the disconnect I was feeling, there were times where I had a problem with the continuity of Architect of Love. I often found myself getting lost as to which MC was where. It was somewhat choppy, and occasionally, I felt like some scenes ended way too soon, and sometimes abruptly.
As I mentioned, Forrest designed a plan for a city center for the town. It was a competition with his design and two other architects. This was a nice subplot. His office was getting a lot of attention and requests for his designs were piling up. He was meeting with the mayor and politicians from other cities as well. There was a bit of a twist with this, and I don’t want to give it away, but I did think it was good for the story. It didn’t overtake the other issues Forrest and Lance were having.
All in all, while I can’t highly recommend Architect of Love, I think the story had potential. It just seemed like it could have flowed a little easier and maybe even been a bit longer…just without all of Lance’s whining (Yes, I said whining. That’s what it was like for me.).
This is book two in the Fated Soulmates series. Book one can be downloaded on John Charles’s website at www.johncharlesbooks.com/comforted-love-john-charles. It’s free, and even though I wasn’t crazy about Architect of Love, I’m going to download it. I should also mention that I have read book three of the series, Love on Life Support, and liked it. I’m willing to bet this one was just a little blip in a promising series.
