Toxic

A Dark Romance

De: Nicole Blanchard

Narrado por: Michelle Sparks, Aiden Snow

The Joker meets Haunting Adeline in this dark, forbidden romance where a prison nurse is caught in a dangerous web of obsession with her ruthless psychopath patient.

My life has been a series of bad decisions. Marrying an abusive man was the first... but falling for a dangerous inmate where I’m a nurse may be the worst.

He’s brutal, heartless, and twisted. But he’s also the only one to notice the bruises on my skin. His forbidden touch becomes my addiction. His drugging kisses my obsession.

After I learn the truth about why he’s in prison, I try to escape, but he finds me. Now I'm his prisoner.

Toxic is a standalone dark romance featuring a pierced, morally gray antihero with Joker energy, obsessive “Touch Her & Die” protectiveness, and a dangerous cat-and-mouse dynamic with the prison nurse he refuses to let go. It contains explicit sexual content and a full list of trigger warnings can be found at the beginning of the book.

©2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Evening Star Press (P)2024 Evening Star Press

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Intense, filthy, suspenseful—Nicole Blanchard delivers all the goods in this addictive forbidden love story! I absolutely loved this book!" —USA Today bestselling author K Webster

Duet narration audiobook with a morally grey Hero.

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💜🩷💙💚
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍
Character development: ☹️😄😍😮🥰
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Duet Narration

The heroine: Tessa - she was born addicted to drugs, abused by her father from a young age, she is now a nurse at a male prison facility where her husband Vic is the warden. Her husband abuses her and regularly forces her to have sex against her will. Though she acts like she enjoys it to keep him from getting angry because she has learned what happens when she doesn’t keep him happy. She is very skilled at blending into the background at both home and work, so she doesn’t draw anyone’s attention. Her husband controls almost every aspect of her life, she has to be home and have dinner ready by a specific time every night to keep her husband from getting angry.

The Hero: King (a.k.a. Gracin) - He just arrives at Blackthorn prison. His reputation proceeds him, he is considered a high-risk prisoner. When he gets sent to the infirmary right after arriving, he finds he is attracted to the pretty nurse that takes care of him, and he ends up cornering her and asking about the bruises he sees on her wrists. He ends up with a job in that same infirmary and sees her daily, getting more bruised and beaten and he draws pictures of her.

The Story: Tessa had gone to the police in the past and pressed charges against her husband, who had been abusing her since their honeymoon, but the judge dismissed the case making her look like a crazy woman. She learned to do her best to keep Vic happy since then. On the day that King arrived at the prison, Vic is told what happened by some of the guards and beats her violently for flirting with the new inmate, even though she did nothing of the sort. She had to call in sick the following day. After the beatings get worse, and she isn’t eating or sleeping, she realizes if she doesn’t do something soon, she will fade away.

“How is it possible that one man, someone who is supposed to uphold the law can tear me down, and another who is supposed to be the scum of the earth, build me up.”

I have to admit, this story took me by surprise more than once. There quite a long part that took place before Gracin escapes prison and both he and Tessa surprised me quite a bit. The blurb on Amazon said the Hero was morally grey, but I was still expecting him to turn out to be a good guy, I almost expected him to for some reason be some kind of undercover agent in the prison to look into the warden, with the way he was so interested in Tessa and what her husband did to her. Plus, there was a scene where the warden was upset because someone with more power than him, got Gracin assigned work duty in the infirmary. So, when he does something really unexpected, I was actually very surprised.

One thing I hate about romantic suspense is when the two main characters get intimate in a time when they should be getting out of dodge. That happens in this one, and it is just stupid.

This audiobook was told in dual points of view via duet narration and was narrated by Aiden Snow and Michelle Sparks. The are two of my favorite narrators. Aiden has a deep, gruff voice that is super sexy, and Michelle has a clear, feminine voice that is very expressive and natural sounding. Aiden’s parts are short and to the point in keeping with the character of Gracin, but he does a perfect job.

It was really good

I didn’t like the fact that they copied the “little mouse” from the Cat and Mouse series by H.D Carlton

CNC

Predictable good story. Good spice and a good length. Liked the voice actors and enjoyed the story

King Me

This story was very well written. It has just enough of everything and the voice actors are perfection. I’m ready to go from a little mouse to a full grown cat…meow

the readers voices helped me feel the emotion in this book.

the way the narrators put the emotions into their voices as they read this book was so perfect that I couture it off. it was a perfectly written book that was read perfectly to me.

Loved it

Great story line, detailed and well thought out. Spicey and kept you guessing. Wish it was longer.

Overall 5/10

I was excited for this book as it was all over booktok as I was looking for a little novella in between some books!

Overall, it was an OK listen (read).

Did I love the book? No.
Did I enjoy the storyline? Sure
Was it predictable? Yes

This book ventures into HEAVY abu$e topics and overcoming the struggles. I love Grayson for Tessa and was happy they got their HEA! I will say, I had to completely skip over a chapter as it was just too heavy for me but luckily I understood what happened in the scene for it to be brought back up in later chapters.

Please note: I came into the book knowing the TW but even then it was HEAVIER than expected!

Voice narrators did an excellent job and appreciated the duet narration.

Suspenseful and Sexy!

Very fun story, and quite addictive! Not as much smut as I had hoped for, but still a fun read! :)

Toxic hea!

Great storyline, lots of secrets, check trigger warnings! She’s a broken down scared woman turned badass by a very deep dark badass! Is she the toxic one or is he???

Strength

This is an exiting, thrilling, enjoyable book! The narration was so well done! I highly recommend this book!