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A review by see_sadie_read
Nikolai by Roxie Rivera
3.0
I can absolutely say that I liked this fourth book better than the first in the series, which is all I had to compare it to at the time I wrote this review, having not read the whole series. I liked Nikolai and Vivian, both, as characters and they were sweet together. I appreciated that the author didn’t bother with a bunch of miscommunications and false drama. The couple was unusually honest with one another (except for the one Big Lie at the center of the plot) and it was refreshing.
The book does follow the old Contemporary Romance dictate that all men must be Big and Rough and Dangerous and all women should be Small and Virginal and Innocent. Blerg. My eye-roll was particularity acute since Rivera was especially prone to point this size difference out during sex scenes. It was always “her small hand” reaching for his cock or his “big hand” tweaking her nipple.
Also on the cliched scale is the fact that the primary challenge of the book comes when Vivian is kidnapped by sex traffickers. The use of abused and exploited women (especially sexually) has got to be THE MOST overused trope in all of human literature. And I am 100% sick of reading it. So much so that, like here, I’ve just started pointing it out whenever I encounter it and asking authors (female authors most of all) to think of something new and MORE INTERESTING. But I do appreciate that Rivera allowed for the abuse of men too, without any drama about it undermining their masculinity.
But overall, I enjoyed Nikolai and Vivian’s story. They were a good match, even with the age gap. I look forward to seeing how their story progresses.
The book does follow the old Contemporary Romance dictate that all men must be Big and Rough and Dangerous and all women should be Small and Virginal and Innocent. Blerg. My eye-roll was particularity acute since Rivera was especially prone to point this size difference out during sex scenes. It was always “her small hand” reaching for his cock or his “big hand” tweaking her nipple.
Also on the cliched scale is the fact that the primary challenge of the book comes when Vivian is kidnapped by sex traffickers. The use of abused and exploited women (especially sexually) has got to be THE MOST overused trope in all of human literature. And I am 100% sick of reading it. So much so that, like here, I’ve just started pointing it out whenever I encounter it and asking authors (female authors most of all) to think of something new and MORE INTERESTING. But I do appreciate that Rivera allowed for the abuse of men too, without any drama about it undermining their masculinity.
But overall, I enjoyed Nikolai and Vivian’s story. They were a good match, even with the age gap. I look forward to seeing how their story progresses.