I think I found my latest obsession after Saber of Truth. The Laboratory Assistant by Natalia Loya is a historical, dark romance book that is so eerie and calm that it kept me on my toes. I'm listening to the audiobook and my jaw dropped the floor when the FMC did something so terrible that I didn't see coming.
You don't want to miss this hidden gem.
Here is some more info from Goodreads:
Petrograd, 1916 When her aristocratic family is left destitute, Mariya grows desperate to survive—and to support her widowed mother and sisters. She finds financial relief in a job with Dr. Nikolas Rodin, a reclusive scientist. While the work makes ends meet, Mariya is soon pulled into the eerie rhythm of the a realm of orange gaslights, unsettling experiments, and a man whose genius is as seductive as it is unstable. Tuberculosis and revolution both ravage Russia. The chants of protest ring in the streets and when consumption strikes her household, Mariya must choose between her family’s security and a love that shatters all moral paradigms. Meanwhile, in the surreal shadows of the laboratory, both reality and sanity begin to bend. And when survival demands scientific progress at any cost, devotion itself becomes deadly.
