Why could Lucía Cojocaru’s ‘dark romance’, ‘The slave I loved’, be controversial and successful?

What is the dark romance?

If we speak in Spanish, dark romance It is a type of literary genre, within the romantic genre, which means dark romance, So we can already get some idea. According to Planeta de Libros, this subgenre refers to a type of novel that mixes romance and eroticism in violent worlds or scenarios with morally ambiguous characters. These types of books have been quite popular on Tik Tok and have also done so among young audiences, even though many have +18 scenes.

How I started reading dark romance?

Since the romantic genre is not my favorite, although I do consume it a lot for professional reasons and for my more curious side, I have not read a large number of dark romanceHowever, a year ago I came across a seemingly simple but profound little book by a self-published writer with whom I have been working (although this fact has not influenced my opinion), Lucía Cojocaru.

The novel is titled The slave I loved and it has the air of a medieval tale with a rather dark and, at times, controversial romance. For me, the strong point of this story, which saves some other details of the author’s writing, since it is her first novel and in some parts it is noticeable, is the troubadour air that it has. Not only because it seems to develop in a kind of Fictional Middle Agesbut because it seems like a very Walt Disney-esque story. But be careful, Mickey Mouse’s ears are cut off.

The slave I loved by Lucía Cojocaru.

King Zarek is possibly the most handsome king in the entire land. But he is also cruel, very cruel. Lucia is a young peasant girl with beautiful blue eyes and blond hair who dreams of finally marrying the love of her life, another peasant like her. But Zarek only has to see her from afar in the crowd to decide that her destiny will be different: if she is going to be someone’s, she will be his.

Some of the keys to the success that this story could have, in addition to the one already mentioned by its narrative in the form of a storyis that our main character, Zarek, is a seemingly emotionless man who completely loses his mind for a naive peasant girl. The roles are very clear and we have seen them in many stories: The cold and powerful man with the loving and innocent woman. Here we also foresee the tug-of-war that will be the tone of the whole story: King Zarek He will try to subdue Lucia while she will resist by all means..

Disobedience, forced union, power relations, love and hate.

How could a little girl have fallen in love with a king? And not just any king, but one that many feared, a cruel king whom a simple girl could dominate if she wanted to.

What may seem like a very safe love story between two people, from different worlds, who after hurting each other fall madly in love and end up happy and eating partridges, ends up being something even more cloudy. First because Zarek’s way of subduing Lucia is going to raise a lot of blisters. Second, because the ending is very shocking. The ending, another reason for its success.

Hay explicit violencehay submissionhay jealousy, revengehay degrading behavior And, among all this amalgam of dark feelings, blossoms love. Perhaps because love is like those little flowers that grow in the middle of the pavement, no matter how trampled they are.

Our protagonist, who could represent the kinder side of the story, It is not as passive as usual. In fact, her initiatives are the ones that lead to an unexpected ending. I like this. Even though she is perhaps the one who loses the most and the one who will piss us off the most in the whole story, because sometimes we feel more anger for the victim than for the executioner, Lucia is the one who really brings about the big turn in the story. And it won’t be to everyone’s taste.

Lucía Cojocaru manages to write a complicated and complex story in a very simple way and in just a few pages. She gives it that dark fairy tale feel and generates many sensations in a very short time. In addition, she has a good skill for sensory descriptions. I have noticed that this is the author’s first novel because, for example, the formation of love between our protagonists is weaksome things are obvious and some Childhood behaviors and scenesBut the future of this author looks very, very good.

Lucia was still his, but no longer as his queen, but as his slave.

The slave I loved of Lucía Cojocaru it’s a dark romance simple, from a new author who shows promise, with very controversial scenes, a shocking ending, and a narrative style that reminds us of stories like Beauty and the beast. With palace intrigues and a high emotional, erotic, romantic and violent tension. A story that, with a few more polished things, could undoubtedly become a success. And create many contradictory opinions among readers.

🔥🔥🔥🔥By the way! It’s very cheap in paperback!