Twisted Love on Netflix: where does the series stand and when will it come out?
16 June 2026
The Poisoner, by I.V. Ophelia | Free Audiobook
18 June 2026
Audiobook details
A secret has been living next door for seventy years
Hemlock Hills looks like any other small town until you learn what walks its streets after dark. Vampires stopped hiding decades ago, and most people have learned to live alongside them the way you learn to live alongside any neighbor: carefully, and without asking too many questions. Volik has spent that time the way he spends every year, locked in an office at Stalden University, teaching, waiting, pretending the waiting does not cost him anything.
Nix arrives at Stalden with a simple plan: keep her head down, get through the semester, and stay far away from the vampire everyone whispers about in the faculty lounge. She has read enough about his kind to know better than to get curious. But curiosity is not what pulls her toward him. Something older and far less polite than curiosity takes hold the moment they are finally in the same room, and neither of them gets a vote in what happens next.
What follows is not a quiet courtship. It is centuries of restraint breaking apart in real time, a bond neither of them asked for and both of them feel in their bones, and a town that is about to find out exactly how dangerous Volik becomes when something he has waited for is finally within reach.
S.J. Tilly built a name for herself in mafia romance, so a vampire fated mates story felt like a left turn going in. It did not take long to see that the instincts that made her earlier books work, the tension, the possessiveness, the slow unraveling of two people who should not be drawn to each other, translate almost perfectly into this new world.
The premise leans hard into a specific kind of fantasy: a centuries old vampire who has been waiting for his fated mate, and a heroine who walks straight into his orbit without meaning to. Tilly does not waste time easing into it. Volik's perspective opens with his body changing the moment he senses Nix, and from there the book commits fully to the bond as something physical and immediate rather than a slow burn.
Nix herself is written with more agency than this kind of premise usually allows. She is not simply swept along. Her wariness around Volik and the town's open secret about vampires gives her some real footing, even once the pull between them becomes impossible to ignore. The age gap and the size difference between the two leads are treated as part of the fantasy rather than glossed over, which is clearly what readers picking this book up are hoping for.
Stalden University as a setting works better than expected. There is something quietly effective about hiding a centuries old predator behind a faculty office door, and Tilly uses the campus backdrop to build small moments of normalcy before letting the supernatural stakes take over in the back half of the book.
The narration is a three person cast, with Chloe Ryan, Sean Masters, and Samantha Brentmoor splitting the perspectives. Sean Masters gives Volik a low, controlled register that cracks at exactly the right moments, and Chloe Ryan keeps Nix grounded even as the plot escalates around her. Across 12 hours and 4 minutes, the alternating narration keeps both halves of the bond distinct without ever feeling disjointed.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Volik by S.J. Tilly drops you straight into a fated mates bond between a centuries old vampire and the journalism professor who walks into his world without any warning. Volik has spent seventy years of open vampire existence locked away at Stalden University, and Nix is the new arrival in Hemlock Hills who never planned on getting close to him, let alone becoming the other half of his soul.
The free trial, cancellable at any time, gives you full access to all 12 hours and 4 minutes, brought to life by the three person narration of Chloe Ryan, Sean Masters, and Samantha Brentmoor. The cast splits Nix and Volik's perspectives cleanly, with Masters giving the vampire side a controlled intensity that breaks at the right moments and Ryan keeping Nix's voice sharp and grounded throughout.
The audiobook remains yours forever, even after the trial ends. The free trial also gives you access to thousands of other titles, with no commitment. Start listening now.
More Romance Audiobooks
US-based editor & staff writer focused on audiobooks. Honest reviews, curated “best of” lists, and practical guides with an accessibility lens.
