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Not your typical university...

Melody Davenport, a girl raised in a strict household, is given a scholarship to attend a prestigious university. But it's not all physics and calculus.

When she cheats on a test, she quickly learns that punishment means something else entirely here at school.

She is faced with a difficult choice: submit to the university professors, or return home in shame.

Discover Melody's journey becoming the teacher's toy in the first University Playthings novel.

196 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2021

672 people are currently reading
1944 people want to read

About the author

Vivian Murdoch

81 books1,164 followers
Vivian is a sassy romance writer that likes to brat just as much as she writes. As a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants author, she's usually working furiously into the night when her creative juices hit her the hardest. Her books like to take you to the dark side and force you to dip your toes in, but don't drown you. She loves writing alphaholes, anti-heroes, and heroes you just love to hate. She likes to try out everything she's putting her heroines through, so the phrase “for science” is used in her house a lot! When she's not writing, you can probably find her playing Animal Crossing or tormenting her cats and Husdom.

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5 stars
221 (18%)
4 stars
262 (21%)
3 stars
420 (35%)
2 stars
196 (16%)
1 star
100 (8%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews
Profile Image for Melluvsbooks.
1,570 reviews
dnf
May 13, 2021
DNF- creeped out - H is a predator. He’s a professor who lures in young girls to be submissives. We get a looooooong drawn out detailed sex scene with him and another young girl who isn’t the h. This is happening while he’s planning how he’s gonna lure the h in to be used by him and maybe the rest of the skeevy faculty. 🤢 #peaceout
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Kelly_Reads_Books.
2,123 reviews192 followers
August 13, 2021
Teacher's Toy by Vivian Murdoch was sensational and totally different from anything I have ever read.
Melody is a student who is struggling in university, as most students do during their transition from high school to university. But this is all the more stressful as she is there on a scholarship and must maintain her grades, but she is not.
Her history teacher, Professor Richards, is very hard on his students and makes it almost impossible for Melody to do better in his class. Circumstances come to light, and all of a sudden Melody finds herself in a situation that is difficult to grasp.
The turn of events, and the sudden drop into a world she knows nothing about, Melody scrambles to find her footing in a part of university life that is not in the brochure.
I really loved this story! It was quirky, titillating, and so deliciously intriguing.
Profile Image for Jazz.
30 reviews
October 12, 2022
DNF at 15%.

I'm all into smut. Really, I am. But this was just... weird, and not in a good sense (it gave me creepy vibes, to be honest). Also, if you don't like scenes of the MMC with OW, you definitely won't like this book
Profile Image for QuinnReads.
3,719 reviews204 followers
June 11, 2024
Price of Cheating

Vivian Murdoch Loftry University Playthings bk 01 Teacher's Toy

What makes this dark are the frequent punishments and some questionable consent. I'm not always up for this type of story, but I was looking forward to my first Vivian Murdoch book knowing this was part of the package.

Professor Jeremy Richards wants to scratch an itch using Melody "Mouse" Davenport. He plays dirty. While I could never be that dastardly, I found it intriguing. If only plans went accordingly....

Don't romanticize me, Mouse. I'm not some historic hero sent to save you. I'm more likely to bend you over and take that tight little ass of yours than to save you."
-- Jeremy Richards

The plot is thin, the punishments frequent, and the releases are bittersweet. Overall, I enjoyed the escape, but I'm on the fence with my rating. It's a 3.5, but my struggle is with rounding up or down. I'm going up for now but may change it after I've thought in it some more.

I read along with the audio book. The book on my Kindle doesn't start the same as the audio. The first couple of chapters were partially switched up. The rest of the book followed along.

The narrators are Logan Anare and Marie Hawkins. I liked both.

Story: 3.5 stars
Narration: 4 stars
Listening Speed: 2.0x

H = 30s or 40s; h = 18
Profile Image for Etta Stark.
Author 13 books71 followers
November 22, 2020
There is so much wrongness in this book – ethical, moral and, quite possibly, legal wrongness, in fact. I would therefore advise you to cast aside any compunctions you have about such things and just leap into Vivian Murdoch’s steamy-hot sex filth feet first. Teacher’s Toy is very, very naughty and extremely sexy.

The reader is taken to an apparently normal university, which, it turns out, has quite the secret BDSM underbelly. A select group of students are kept as sort-of indentured sex servants, expected to service the kinky needs of the faculty at all times.

One assumes that most of the girls are there willingly but given the way things turn out for our heroine, Melody, this may not be a reasonable assumption.

Melody, a hard-working and conscientious student, reliant on her scholarship to retain her place on her course, is set up to fail by her teacher, Professor Richards who then effectively blackmails her.

Professor Richards is a sexy man, no doubt about it – he’s a big, brooding mass of seductive, sadistic Domminess and you can totally understand why Melody gets damp in the knicker area every time she’s around him. Crikey, the man’s an absolute bastard though.

Coercing Melody into signing up for his absolutely-no-holds-barred student sex fraternity isn’t even the half of it. He’s a cold-blooded monster who regards the women who submit to him as his inconsequential playthings. The book is clearly called ‘Teacher’s Toy’ for a reason.

He does have a bit of a redemptive arc, I suppose. There is a chemistry between him and Melody, which means that for once he doesn’t just want to use a woman and throw her away afterwards. For the first time in his life, probably, Professor Richards is having to experience these strange things that we humans call feelings.

Admittedly, the primary way that Professor Richards appears to express his attachment to Melody is go up to any other men who are showing an interest in her and punching them in the face. It’s fair to say, he’s still got a fair bit of work to do on himself.

Melody may not have signed up to being Professor Richards’ submissive sex object entirely willingly but once the games are afoot she finds she has quite the penchant for steaming-hot sexy-as-hell sadomasochistic shenanigans.

This book absolutely pushed all my buttons. You will be unsurprised to know that I read a lot of it one-handed.

Teacher’s Toy is a wicked, unconscionable book full of dark, wicked characters and if I had any sort of moral compass, I’d probably be ashamed of myself for reading it. As it is, of course, I enthusiastically devoured the depravity and can’t wait for the next book in what promises to be an ongoing series.
Profile Image for daemyra, the realm's delight.
1,297 reviews37 followers
Read
September 30, 2024
DNF at 89%. One of those books with a salacious set-up that basically delivers on the premise yet I was bored to tears. The writing style did not pull me in. I’m not looking for in-depth characters in my smut, but I do want to somewhat be interested about them. I didn’t feel it.

I’ve actually tried to read the author’s historical omegaverse but also couldn’t get past the first chapter due to the same issue.
Profile Image for Bookaholic Angel.
104 reviews22 followers
June 18, 2021
If you are into book po** this one is for you
I mean the heroine is so weak and naive that her only thoughts are about , being with him, touching him, doing things to him...she can't even say something that isn't revolved around him
And him the teacher and a very bad one too is a s** maniac who can't keep it in his pants for a second
An unrealistic story, well all books are but this one exceeds all norms
And what about the nearly non existent dialogues?
Give my mind a break, I saw this book recommended on tik tok and i thought it had potential but the supposed hero is a sadist and he just enjoys hurting women and humiliating them and the heroine enjoys him doing that ugh come on this is 2021 write about power women who fight for their freedom and equality and refuse men who take pleasure of their suffering without even uttering a word
I don't know how i finished the book because the entire time i was like what , huh, ouhaaa and let me tell you she is supposed to be his toy which didn't happen until almost the last chapters
Thank u for ruining my weekend
1,167 reviews2 followers
January 17, 2023
He is just an abusive, stalking rapist, using his power.
How is it right to use your position to rape these girls.
Can’t even find the words. They are pressured/blackmailed in signing this contract. They pass the girls and boys around when it suits them.
They make them become hookers and the teachers are just disgusting pimps.
Disgusting 🤮. He calls these girls his fucktoys…….
Even 1 star is to much
Profile Image for Carly.
28 reviews
December 20, 2021
Didn't like Richards. Did like Melody, wish more of the story had been told from her POV. The Society and its rules were a little too over the top for me to suspend my disbelief. It felt like it took a while to get into the meat of the story and then it was a race to the finish.
Profile Image for Sonja.
990 reviews24 followers
September 28, 2022
I read this as part as this firsts anthology, and I won't be reading any more.

With a lot of books you have to suspend reality to varying degrees. As an avid reader of science fiction, I do this a lot. But the whole premise of this book was just too much. This college has it where the female students (apparently the males too? I think that's what was implied at the very end) can basically whore themselves out as submissives in exchange for money and connections. Tell me how this is any different than prostitution. What's more, they are expected to be at the professors' beck and call and to do anything they are told to do without question or be punished. After reading all this, I had a really hard time continuing because I had a serious problem with this set up. But it gets worse. Professor Richards has been lusting over the meek Melody in one of his classes so he backs her into a corner where she feels she has to cheat on a test in order to catch her and force her to be one of the submissives or be kicked out of the school with them making sure to ruin any chance at her going to any other school. So yeah. That made it even harder for me to keep reading and I can't tell you how many times I wanted to quit. But it wasn't a long book and I was hoping it would get better.

Did it? That's debatable. I truly hated Richards. He was an egomaniac that got off on making life obscenely difficult for his students. As for Melody, I'm not sure how I feel about her. We don't really learn enough about what drove her to this college. She's a quiet girl that likes to stay invisible, but we're told she was the bad daughter. Why? But she was also so fucking stupid. She seemed to spend much of the time in Richards' class daydreaming about the ways that he could take her. And she didn't understand why she was doing so bad in class? And when the midterms came up, she decided the best way to pass was to record herself with the answers and listen to it during the test? Like that wouldn't be noticed!

When she's caught, she's given the choice to become one of the submissives or be kicked out and her life ruined. I'm not saying Melody didn't bring this on herself with her choices, but the fact that one man could ruin a young girl's life simply because he wanted to fuck her doesn't work for me. But Richards gets what he wants. Considering everything that led up to him sort of claiming her, we get very very little of the two of them actually together. I believe months pass and Richards' obsession with Melody still hasn't lessened, so he leaves during winter break to put space between them. Which allows another submissive to oh so easily manipulate him into throwing Melody aside when he believes she has been lying to him. Truly, it was ridiculous how easy it was for this chick to have Richards dancing to her tune. Eventually the truth comes out, people are punished, and Richards officially claims Melody as his. But the most annoying part of that is that Melody forgives him and takes him back with a barely uttered apology. With the way he treated her and wouldn't even let her defend herself, there was no way she should have been okay with just that.
29 reviews
September 4, 2023
I didn't even finish this one. The opening scene was intense and didn't fit the usual BDSM trope. He seemed there more to inflict pain just because, he would be a bad guy that gets kicked out in most books. There was no character or plot development before the scene. I kept reading to see if it got better, but then he talked about how he enjoyed making students think they were failing his class even if they were top students. To add to this, he was going to use this to manipulate a student into joining a submissives brothel. This is the point where I stopped.
Profile Image for Sharon.
1,812 reviews41 followers
October 27, 2020
I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with this book and I was pleasantly surprised.

Melody is attending a prestigious university on a scholarship and things are going well until she catches the eye of Professor Richards. Turns out that there is a secret society on campus that trains students to be submissive and cater to the whims of the faculty and other powerful men.

I completely loved the dubcon elements of the story and the complexity of the secret society was well written. If I had to admit what was missing for me was after Melody is initiated. We seemed to jump from the steamy story to more of an internal conflict of Professor Richards. I would have loved to learn more about Melody’s journey. I hope we get more of the amazing steam in the next book.
#MSBB
Profile Image for sab.
454 reviews72 followers
April 9, 2022
dnf 25% and skimmed the rest until the end. why is there more ow scenes than scenes with the actual heroine what the fuck also the way he “traps” her i swear same book different font it was so predictable 😵‍💫 and i was genuinely looking forward to this book too
Profile Image for cidney.
80 reviews1 follower
dnf
August 1, 2023
DNF (13%)

What can I say? This book gave me the major ick. I might try and stomach reading through it another day, but today is not that day.
Profile Image for Neisha † The Poet †.
1,275 reviews35 followers
September 12, 2021
Entitled, manipulative, predatory, jealous, possessive, dominate, and conceited. I am going to read this about 10 more times before the year is out because I loved it THAT much.
Profile Image for Patti.
1,364 reviews19 followers
January 8, 2022
For me this book kept flopping from boring to disturbing and creepy.
Profile Image for Shedevilreads Bookstagram.
2,147 reviews107 followers
September 14, 2023
Teacher's Toy by Vivian Murdoch is a dark romance that I listened to on audio narrated by Logan Anare and Marie Hawkins. This is the first book in the Loftry University Playthings series.

This is the first book of Vivian's that I have read, and it won't be my last. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Professor Richards and Melody. I personally would classify this book as more of an instant connection erotic story with very little romance. It's more about Professor Richards carnal desires for his student Melody and introducing her to the BDSM lifestyle.

I can't wait for the next book in the series Bratva's Brat to be released on audio so I can get Grigori's story.

Logan and Marie did a great job on the narration. I look forward to listening to more of their work in the future.

I would recommend this book if you like erotic romances, dark romances, BDSM romances, age gap romances, or taboo (student/teacher) romances.

The Flock Team
Profile Image for Ashlee.
42 reviews4 followers
January 4, 2024
I can totally understand some readers' low ratings for this book. I can definitely see the red flags regarding characters.

But

I very much enjoyed this piece of fiction. It was spicy and intriguing. I would say a solid 3.75 stars. Overall, it was a very good read.
Profile Image for Thereadersteacup .
64 reviews
July 4, 2023
It was fine... a few things were questionable but I liked the idea. Unfortunately I took a break while reading this for a day or two and when I got back I was kinda over it. Sorry 😞
31 reviews7 followers
October 20, 2020
Vivian Murdochs first book in the University Playthings Series tells the story of naive scholarship student Melody and how the deliciously devious Prof Richards ensnares her in a secret society like no other. This story is fabulously filthy, decadently delicious and definitely going to get your pulse racing.

I love first person POV, and understanding the emotions and motives for both main characters actions makes you part of the story. Though seemingly naive, the thoroughly likeable Melody is perfect for the Society, a natural. As we move through each new scene we see her not so gentle introduction to a new world of pleasure, the journey from a seemingly vanilla girl to Submissive.

Prof Richards is the Dom made to train Melody. He is a seriously sneaky b***ard, leaving poor old Melody with no options. His scenes are super hot, with total control over his Submissive’s. And as so many have discovered at their cost, he is not the Dom to mess with. But hot damn - he is delicious. Is he going to be able to keep his legendary cool detachment from his new Submissive?

Favourite Viv moment ? Expected to choose the Deans Office, we do love an audience. But instead I’m going for Prof Richards Office with a certain student, payback is a b....!

Totally hooked from the start, I seriously couldn’t put the damn book down. Not much deters me from a morning lie-in, but there I was... up at 6am to finish what I’d started. The sex scenes are fabulously written, filthy and frequent, just the way I like them. The story, damn it’s really good! This whole naughty little secret society secreted away in plain sight, kept marvellously hidden? It just adds to the kink. I loved it! We know we have a whole cast of filthy Professors just waiting to take us down a dark pathway, with their (kinda) willing partners - totally aware this a pretty mutually beneficial arrangement... if they can play the game that is.

This is not a cosy bedtime read ladies, this is a keep that bedside drawer open read. You are not going to want to miss this book. Read it. Now. Did I mention it’s hot?!
Profile Image for ngin .
44 reviews2 followers
July 7, 2023
Yeah, I don't know what it is, but something was missing. Majorly.
There was minimal sexual...anything. The book felt clinical. Dry. Here is an array of some paddles and whips, and we are gonna smack her on the butt with them. It's about as exciting as it got for me.
The professor was boring AF. I don't even know what he looks like. Does he have brown hair? black? blond? is he Asian? White? Black? An alien? Is he short? tall? fat? fit? I don't know.
Same with the girl. I am guessing she is petite?
She is about as exciting as a cup of warm milk. She has no real ambitions, but she really wants to stay in college I guess?
What's her backstory? What's the issue with her family? I dunno.
I don't know anything about these people and I haven't learned anything about them either.
Is he in love?
Is she?
What happens after she graduates?
Is he still domming her?
Is she becoming a starving artist?
I dunno.
I don't really care.
There is nothing here to make me care for these characters even a little bit.

I am totally fine with dubcon, noncon, and none of it bothers me really, if it makes sense. But this felt weirdly predatory--a bunch of these guys making students into basically unpaid prostitutes? with vague promises of 'you'll be taken care of' after school. Like I dunno, but do I need to be jacked off on by a bunch of guys so I can get a job after college? Not really.
I am not sure if the premise really worked. There were no safe words and it seems like the submissives had no power of any kind, which goes against the BDSM philosophy. Also, trading these girls like they are slaves and basically selling them is just kind of ...icky.
Profile Image for QuinnReads.
3,719 reviews204 followers
Read
June 10, 2024
Price of Cheating

Vivian Murdoch Loftry University Playthings bk 01 Teacher's Toy

What makes this dark are the frequent punishments and some questionable consent. I'm not always up for this type of story, but I was looking forward to my first Vivian Murdoch book knowing this was part of the package.

Professor Jeremy Richards wants to scratch an itch using Melody "Mouse" Davenport. He plays dirty. While I could never be that dastardly, I found it intriguing. If only plans went accordingly....

Don't romanticize me, Mouse. I'm not some historic hero sent to save you. I'm more likely to bend you over and take that tight little ass of yours than to save you."
-- Jeremy Richards

The plot is thin, the punishments frequent, and the releases are bittersweet. Overall, I enjoyed the escape, but I'm on the fence with my rating. It's a 3.5, but my struggle is with rounding up or down. I'm going up for now but may change it after I've thought in it some more.

I read along with the audio book. The book on my Kindle doesn't start the same as the audio. The first couple of chapters were partially switched up. The rest of the book followed along.

The narrators are Logan Anare and Marie Hawkins. I liked both.

Story: 3.5 stars
Narration: 4 stars
Listening Speed: 2.0x

H = 30s or 40s; h = 18
Profile Image for Tabatha Reed.
1,687 reviews198 followers
January 31, 2022
Meh, this wasn’t terrible but it was great either. You definitely have to actively suspend your disbelief to lean into this one. The whole setup is preposterous but for the sake of spicy reads it’s not the worst.

I prefer my Hs to be massively more possessive. The professor did eventually get there but it felt too little too late to me. He had already more than made an ass of himself knowing what she’d go through with punishment, “doctor” examination and initiation.

The antagonism between him and the shrink was puzzling too. I kind of understand the shrink needling him but making such a big deal about “correcting” his infatuation was bizarre.

Safety squad might want to skip this one. There’s an extremely detailed sex scene between H and 2 OW in the beginning of the book. There’s another scene of him engaging in impact play with an unidentified sub OW. Truly there was more between him on OW on page than there was with h.

Story 3/5, Heat 4/5, Angst 3/5

Slow burn, there’s a crap load of sec and punishment throughout the book, H with OW etc, however H and h don’t have sex until 73%.

No condoms, no virgins, MASSIVE manwhore, impact play, humiliation, degradation, exhibitionism, dub con, sharing (sort of), no real push away, a brief separation/breakup, OM/OW drama. No cliffhanger and HEA

Profile Image for Tina D..
21 reviews
December 27, 2021
It felt a little weird to me, you've got a predator luring girls in only to turn around and protect the only girl he actually wants but didn't want to actually WANT her. I would've liked to see more of the book from Melody's POV and more possessiveness and claiming from the Professor. The book was slow then it was a race to get everything in that was needed to continue onto a next book as a cliffhanger. Honestly felt like there wouldn't or shouldn't be a next piece in the series because this book feels so unfinished, there needed to be more closures between the mains. It was honestly a struggle to finish this book, I love reading its one my favorite things to do and I try to never leave one unfinished but this one honestly tempted me. The whole sex brothel concept was just too far fetched for me to suspend my brain long enough to believe the plot and honestly every single male character skeeved me out and that's one if the things that made it hard to read and finish, and I tend to read very dark romance books .
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Erica Ezell.
65 reviews
April 19, 2021
*Trigger Warning*

Ok so if you're not down for some naughty dirty BDSM... maybe don't read this book.
As I read this I couldn't help but wonder if some of the scenarios and situations were actually happening at my college and if I was just oblivious to what was going on around me lol
In the beginning the main character Melody is trying her best to maintain her scholarship without realizing that her Professor had been keeping an eye on her hoping that he'd find an in to convince her to join in the naughty dirty fun.
If you're not ok with the whole Dom and Submissive thing find another book....OR give it another chance. Vivian brings this to life with her vivid imagery, you just need to read it to understand.
Profile Image for Alo Ha.
228 reviews9 followers
June 1, 2025
I've seen this series recommended a few times and finally decided to give it a shot.

D🔥mn, this was a hot read! I love a good Teacher/Student romance and this definitely fits the bill but with a dirty little twist. The sex scenes pack some major heat but I also loved how jealous/possesive the H was with h.

Watching an alphahole H struggle with falling for the h is one of my favorite types of reads, especially when the H struggles with the foreign emotion of jealousy etc. So hot!!

Can't wait to read the next book in the series and I will definitely be reading the authors other books as well.
3,552 reviews52 followers
October 18, 2020
This was quite the dark romance and is a bit of a scary thought that perhaps there are such secret societies in real life? I couldn’t help but feel bad for Melody though it was obvious that she and Professor Richards had quite the chemistry together. Their attraction to each other was pretty steamy hot, and though they had to work through a ton of roadblocks, it is good to see that every ended well for them. This book was entertaining.

I received a free advanced reader copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a fair and honest review.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews

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