#captiveprince

I'm worried I'm never going to read a series like Capri again. I've tried almost all the recs everyone makes, and it's disappointment each time. No book comes close in terms of plot, pace, or characterization. Some do manage other things, of course, but even the books I finish send me right back to Capri.

Here's what I've tried:

Into the North. Historical, Viking captor/Roman captive. This one came the closest to scratching the itch because it's well-written with solid tension. But the dynamic is nothing like Lamen despite the slavefic DNA.

Knight & the Necromancer. Fantasy enemies to lovers. Well-written at the line level but I ended up DNF'ing because the pacing was all over the place and I utterly stopped caring whether or not they got together by 15%.

The Scottish Boy. Historical enemies-to-lovers. Instant DNF because it's written in third-person present-tense and that just didn't work for me.

The Prince's Assassin. Fantasy enemies to lovers. Reading level too low to keep me interested.

Part of the problem is the stigma of romance books. It's an "escapism" genre where things aren't meant to be deep or researched or believable. "It's not read as literature!" as my librarian grandmother would say when she caught me reading bodice rippers instead of Jane Austen.

Capri, as I understand it, was born from a soup of internet culture not bound to genre conventions. It reads different from other romances because it IS different. And everything else recommended to me wasn't written that way; about half the recs I get are straightforward Romance Genre books and the other half are commercial romantasy chasing "ACOTAR but make it gay!"

There's more books out there for me to try. And if not, I can get off my ass and write more Capri fic or finish my own story about a noble sold off as a ward to the knight who ruined his family.

From Aimeric to Damen's identity to Laurent's disdain of him

My man Jord needs a break!

Grab a new sticker or TGR dust jacket to complete your collection! OR a cute new jerejean keychain 🔑

I finished the trilogy in one weekend and I could NOT stop thinking about this song while reading.

"Touch in the Night" by Battle Beast is basically Laurent’s POV in Ravenel after the banquet, the kiss on the battlements, the complete emotional spiral during the Aimeric conflict, and his self-imposed isolation right before:

“Tomorrow you leave. But you’re mine now. You’re still my slave tonight.”

LIKE???? Tell me i'm not the only one.

Here the song and the lyrics: