3rd read: september 2023.

I love Capri's prose so much. maybe bc it's exactly the one I would like to weave if I were an author. crisp, concise writing that shows just enough to entice but not as much as to give everything right away.

2nd read: december 2020.

still the best enemies-to-lovers since Pride and Prejudice. everything about this is peak literature; nothing is wasted. Damen goes from being the most oblivious when it comes to Laurent of Vere to being the only one who truly knows him — the slowest build up, but that never stops burning. their interactions are so fragile and delicate, yet consistently change them bit by bit. this new intimacy is frightening, bc they're political enemies disguised as master and slave that caused each other a great deal of pain. they can't be lovers, they can't even be friends. it goes against their traumas, their principles and their countries, but Laurent is not the monster Damen believed him to be and vice versa.

and there's more. like the fact that Laurent is inevitably the smartest person in any room, but the narrator chooses to show us and leave the telling for afterwards, when Damen is too surprised not to think about it. the intricacies of Laurent's mind and the progression of his relationship with Damen are reflected on the plot, which is seamlessly woven. that's also due to the writing never taking a time off and moving with purpose through every section of the text. from Laurent's fight with Govart and the soldiers' improvement as a company to each word the characters stop themselves from saying — everything is satisfying to read. and that ending will always give me goosebumps.

1st read: february 2019.