Audiobook Review: Arkady is the newly married and morbidly obsessive sculptor narrated by Teddy Hamilton. I did not understand the casting choice at first… but then this slowburn began to heat up and BOY did he deliver 👏 I expected the gothically sensuous writing but the KINK was an incredible surprise 🤩 10/10 no notes, no crumbs left behind.

Luna Rey narrated the ultra mysterious Petra De Villier and I could have listened to her voice for the ENTIRE BOOK. She has this affected tone that perfectly fit the 1900s New York scene and alluded to Petra’s childhood in the France. Whether she was speaking as the bitter ex-ballerina or her tempting new husband, the energy was pulsing with their attraction.

But what really stayed with me was the heart of the story: two deeply closed-off people slowly finding the courage to open up to each other. I kept coming back to how both of them see themselves as fundamentally unlovable.

Petra lashes out defensively because of her insecurities, and I found her bratty edges so human. She needs a lot of reassurance—something Arkady doesn’t naturally offer—but what I loved is that he never shames her for it. Petra hates that neediness in herself, while Arkady meets it with this quiet grace, believing she should feel safe enough to want those things from him—and that he should learn to give them.

At first, Arkady has this heavy masculine ego and bristles at how openly everyone acknowledges that his wife is above his station. But underneath that, I read him as a man who believes he’s dangerous to the people he loves. He withholds himself, trying to protect Petra from his past—until he realizes just how poorly she’s been treated by her own kind. That’s when he steps in and gives her everything he can.

Watching the way they fit together—and clash—was such a deeply romantic experience for me. Messy, tender, dangerous, and earned.

Audiobook Review: Arkady is the newly married and morbidly obsessive sculptor narrated by Teddy Hamilton. I did not understand the casting choice at first… but then this slowburn began to heat up and BOY did he deliver 👏 I expected the gothically sensuous writing but the KINK was an incredible surprise 🤩 10/10 no notes, no crumbs left behind.

Luna Rey narrated the ultra mysterious Petra De Villier and I could have listened to her voice for the ENTIRE BOOK. She has this affected tone that perfectly fit the 1900s New York scene and alluded to Petra’s childhood in the France. Whether she was speaking as the bitter ex-ballerina or her tempting new husband, the energy was pulsing with their attraction.

But what really stayed with me was the heart of the story: two deeply closed-off people slowly finding the courage to open up to each other. I kept coming back to how both of them see themselves as fundamentally unlovable.

Petra lashes out defensively because of her insecurities, and I found her bratty edges so human. She needs a lot of reassurance—something Arkady doesn’t naturally offer—but what I loved is that he never shames her for it. Petra hates that neediness in herself, while Arkady meets it with this quiet grace, believing she should feel safe enough to want those things from him—and that he should learn to give them.

At first, Arkady has this heavy masculine ego and bristles at how openly everyone acknowledges that his wife is above his station. But underneath that, I read him as a man who believes he’s dangerous to the people he loves. He withholds himself, trying to protect Petra from his past—until he realizes just how poorly she’s been treated by her own kind. That’s when he steps in and gives her everything he can.

Watching the way they fit together—and clash—was such a deeply romantic experience for me. Messy, tender, dangerous, and earned.