Quick Take
- Narration: Tessa Stavers handles the dual register of police procedural and erotic suspense with skill, her voice work distinguishes Jaime’s grief-hardened detective from Anastasia’s controlled dominatrix without overplaying either.
- Themes: Trauma and desire, predator and prey, identity beneath constructed surfaces
- Mood: Dark, tense, and charged, not comfortable background listening
- Verdict: A sapphic romantic thriller that earns its heat through character depth, though the pace takes time to build in the early chapters.
There is a particular challenge in writing a story where the romantic leads are also, structurally, potential suspects of each other. Jourdyn Kelly and co-author Melissa thread this needle in Tell Me Your Desires with enough skill that I found myself genuinely uncertain, at several points in the narrative, whether I was supposed to be rooting for the relationship or fearing it. That productive uncertainty is one of the book’s more interesting qualities.
Published in early 2026 and running twelve hours and nine minutes, Tell Me Your Desires crosses sapphic romance with crime thriller in a combination that has become increasingly common but rarely feels this deliberately crafted. Detective Jaime Baros, three years out from her fiance’s murder and operating mostly on insomnia and residual grief, is forced to investigate a series of killings whose victims are clients of Anastasia Grant, Lady A, a dominatrix whose carefully constructed distance from the world is about to be obliterated by both a killer and a detective who cannot maintain professional detachment.
Our Take on Tell Me Your Desires
The book is genuinely interested in how grief and desire entangle, how people construct identities around loss, and what it costs to let someone through the walls those identities create. Jaime’s arc from numbness to something resembling the capacity for connection is handled with more patience than the thriller plot structure typically allows. One reviewer noted that the awakening of Jaime was truly good storytelling, and that is right, the character work carries the book as much as the crime plot.
Lady A as a character is more complicated than dominatrix archetypes usually allow. Anastasia Grant exists in shadows not out of predatory calculation but out of self-protection, and the book takes that seriously. Her cat Derek, yes, there is a cat named Derek, serves as a kind of domesticating anchor, a reminder that the iron-controlled Lady A is also a person with ordinary attachments. It is a small but effective detail.
Why Listen to Tell Me Your Desires
Tessa Stavers’ narration is one of the audiobook’s genuine strengths. The book requires her to voice characters at opposite ends of an emotional spectrum, the closed-off, grief-armored detective and the controlled, performatively powerful dominatrix, and she makes both feel inhabited rather than performed. The thriller sequences carry tension without becoming breathless, and the romantic scenes have heat without tipping into parody.
The collaboration between co-authors brings an unusual energy to the book. Reviewers who knew both authors described the combined effort as delivering more than either alone, and the book does not feel like a committee product. The voice is consistent, the character psychology is sustained, and the thematic concerns hold together across twelve hours.
What to Watch For in Tell Me Your Desires
Several reviewers mentioned the early chapters require patience. One reviewer wrote of occasionally skipping over parts in the first half before the story fully engaged. The book takes time building Jaime’s grief and the case background before the two leads come into meaningful contact, and listeners who prefer faster-burning romantic thrillers may find the setup extended. The payoff is worth the investment, but it is worth knowing the pacing front-loads its character work.
The book also sits firmly in adult sapphic romance territory with explicit content. This is not a criticism, it is exactly what the audience for this book wants, but listeners who prefer their romantic suspense to stay within more restrained parameters should know that going in.
Who Should Listen to Tell Me Your Desires
Readers of sapphic crime fiction who want genuine character depth alongside the thriller plot will find this is one of the better recent entries in that combination. It is also worth recommending to fans of either co-author who have not yet encountered the other. Listeners who want faster-paced crime fiction without the extended romantic and erotic elements may find the balance not quite right for their tastes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Tell Me Your Desires primarily a crime thriller or primarily a romance, which element dominates?
They are genuinely intertwined. The crime investigation drives the plot structure, but the romantic and erotic elements are central rather than secondary. Reviewers describe it as succeeding on both levels rather than one overshadowing the other.
Does the early pacing issue that some reviewers mentioned significantly affect the overall listening experience?
It is worth knowing about. Several reviewers noted the first half builds slowly as Jaime’s backstory and the case background are established. By mid-book the pace accelerates and reviewers who pushed through described being fully engaged by the end.
Do you need to have read other books by either co-author to appreciate Tell Me Your Desires?
No, it works as a standalone. Some reviewers came as existing fans of one or both authors, but the book does not require prior familiarity with their work.
How does Tessa Stavers handle the dual first-person female leads, does she differentiate the two voices clearly?
Yes. Reviewers praised the narration specifically, and Stavers distinguishes Jaime’s guarded, grief-hardened register from Anastasia’s controlled composure in a way that makes the POV shifts easy to follow.
