darkness that makes your toes curl

I found this story fantastic. the darkness was tasteful in my opinion. I also loved the disclaimer at the beginning warning folks that even though the book has bdsm qualities they are over dramatized and not a true depiction of the lifestyle and shouldn't be taken as such. the narrator was fantastic as well the voices were each their own and were perfect. the world building worked for me it fit in my brain with the same concept of alpha and omega stuff you see in shifter books so a world were people are either subs or doms was a fun new twist. I will be looking forward to reading the rest of this series and can't wait to see more from Miss Foxglove. I have tried writing myself but can never get past the opening or sometimes it just feels like am writing a short scene so it's nice to see all the fun ideas other bring so I can experience them.

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LOVE

I absolutely love this story and I ADORED the narrator - fantastic job bringing this to life!

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Need more

Omg please let the rest have a audio version soon it was so good to listen too 😍😍😍

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1 person found this helpful

Really interesting concept!

This is a strange one? But I knew going into this that it was a dark romance and that is my thing, so I really enjoyed it! The worldbuilding also feels too vague to me at times, but it’s something I think we get more of a sense as the series progresses. This book contains intense BDSM scenes and consent is a grey area.

Trigger warnings include non-con, abuse, graphic violence, mentions of witnessing a suicide, hangings, knife-play, humiliation, gun play(?), and deaths.

The story starts off with a hanging. It’s a festive day for the city, and almost the entire city has turned out for it. On the gallows is Sabre, his mother, and his sister being hanged for being traitors. At the last second, Sabre’s life is spared, but only just. He’s taken in by the Lord who runs a pleasure house called the House of Onyx. The house is for clientele who have darker yearnings than what the other houses can offer. Lord Laurent de Rue was once himself a courtesan. He managed to pay off his debt at the House of Gold. He’s since earned himself a title and runs his own pleasure house, but maybe a bit differently and is a bit fairer to his courtesans than the other houses would.

There is a fair bit of political intrigue in between the sex scenes. I wouldn’t say this book was primarily focused on the sex, but it’s just a natural part of the way the story is told. Consent is definitely a grey area in this book, since Sabre really doesn’t have a choice in whether he wants to be a courtesan, and there’s certainly still the power dynamics at play with Laurent being the head of the brothel. I liked Sabre and Laurent well enough. And I adore the giant Dom and sadist of a man, Charon, who loves dishing out pain, but also loves cuddling with his subs afterwards. I love good aftercare and Charon is a darling. All the courtesans at the a House of Onyx are lovely. There are quite a few of them and I only wish we could have seen Sabre and Onyx interact more with them than we already do. In a very unconventional way, they’re all a little like a found family.

I’m not really all that familiar with A/B/O books, but I think this story kind of incorporates those dynamics into the way Dominants and submissives exist in this world? People in this book are clearly either a Dominant or a submissive by birth, and something they find out in puberty, if not sooner. People are labeled as such in casual conversations and this seems to be very reminiscent of Alpha and omega traits in this book’s story, minus the mpreg.

This is actually my second time reading this book since I read it for the first time in text. I was looking forward to the audio because I thought it could help with some problems I had with the writing. And it does! Kris Anthem is a new to me narrator and he does a really good job bringing this book and the characters to life. I really liked the voices he used for the characters. I thought it was really interesting to see that the sneak peak chapter for The Duke’s Demon (the next book) was included in the audiobook, as well as the author’s bio. That’s not usually something you see in audiobooks.

I guess my only critiques on the audiobook is the pacing? I can listen to audiobooks anywhere between 1.5x and 3x speed, but this one was slightly odd. There are moments where things are spoken too quickly and at other times, too slowly. So it was hard to pick a speed in which to listen to the audiobook and try to actually hear and understand everything that was going on.

One thing that was more of a surprise than anything is discovering how d’Hiver is going to be pronounced? I was definitely not expecting d’Hiver to rhyme with beaver. The audiobook pronounces the name as “dee-ver” and when I read the book, I was definitely thinking more “da-high-ver” so yeah. I had a bit of a time figuring it was Sebastien appearing in the scene when I heard the name the first few times.

The ending is very dramatic and everything is resolved quite quickly. It’s all resolved with a neat little bow as well. I would say this ends in a HEA (even though book 4 is about Sabre and Laurent again). The next book is with Devon and Duke Sebastien (and literally a demon who rides his soul!). Devon is also the villain in this first book. He’s one of many, but he ends this book quite hated, so I can’t wait to listen to the next book in audio since it’s one of my favorites in text!

***Thanks to the author for giving me the audiobook to listen and review!***

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3 people found this helpful

Very Unique World

This is a really unique world and story. The characters are amazing and I loved the story of Saber and Laurent. There's a few heavy moments in this one but overall it has a really positive and at times playful vibe. I absolutely adore all the courtesans at the House of Onyx along with Laurent's sister Rose. Everyone has a very unique personality and are really well flushed out. This world is influenced by Dom/sub personalities as they're part of people's biological makeup so there's a lot of kink throughout the series. It's all very well done and Saber definitely blooms under Laurent's skill.

The narrator definitely is amazing at bringing this world to life. I've never heard anything else by Kris Antham but they truly are one of the best narrators I've come across. Voices along with emotions were extremely well portrayed. I highly recommend the audio version and I can't wait to listen to more!

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