Oh that's hard we were having the same problem with DS. It was taking me lying down in our bed with him and waiting til he fell asleep. It used to be really fast but then he started messing around (standing up,talking,wanting to read more booms etc) i was getting really angry at losing my evening too.
We decided to get strict on bedtime. So we put him in his toddler bed in his room and would walk out leaving door semi open.each time he got out we would put him back in bed and say goodnight. This went on for almost 2 hours the first night. But there was no crying, only a bit of grumbling. The second night he only got out of bed twice, and the third night he did t get out of bed once!!! We were so shocked. But now either of us can put him to bed which was one of the main drivers to Doing this cos we have a new baby on the way. And he runs to bed, we read a book and that's it. Mind you there r the nights when he's a bit too wired to nod off straight away if he's had an exciting day for example. We started doing it when DS was about 22 months and wondered y we didn't sort it out sooner!
I really hope you find something that works for you.