Books Like Kiss of the Black Flame
If you finished Kiss of the Black Flame and want more deals and bargains, captor and captive, slow burn, start here. Each pick shares at least two tropes with it, and we've rated every one for spice and darkness so you know what you're getting into.
For reference, Kiss of the Black Flame is:
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The picks
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1. Rhapsodic
Shares: deals and bargains, slow burn
Callypso is a siren with a wrist full of black beads, each one a favor she owes Des, the Bargainer. Seven years after he vanished, he shows up to start collecting. The flashback chapters are heavy, and the burn is slower than the cover suggests.
- Deals and Bargains
- Fae
- Slow Burn
- Possessive Hero
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Harm to children, Physical or emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Graphic violence
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2. Gild
Shares: captor and captive, slow burn
Auren is King Midas's gilded favorite, living in an actual birdcage and calling it love. Then raiders grab her on the road and a fae commander named Rip becomes her problem. Gild is slow and mostly setup. Glint is where the series takes off.
- Captor and Captive
- Fae
- Slow Burn
- Morally Gray
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Human trafficking, Physical or emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Murder
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3. Kingdom of the Wicked
Shares: deals and bargains, slow burn
Sicilian witch summons a prince of hell to find out who killed her twin. Wrath is the best part, and the spice goes up a lot in book two.
- Witches
- Demons
- Enemies to Lovers
- Revenge
Content warnings
Murder, Gore, Death of a loved one
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4. Poison Study
Shares: captor and captive, slow burn
Yelena is a day from the noose when she's offered a job as the Commander's food taster. Valek, the chief of security, poisons her so she can't run. An old-school slow burn from 2005 and still one of the better captor romances out there.
- Captor and Captive
- Slow Burn
- Assassins
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Physical or emotional abuse, Torture, Murder
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5. Wintersong
Shares: deals and bargains, captor and captive
Liesl trades herself to the Goblin King to get her sister back from the Underground, and the bargain turns into a marriage. Labyrinth for grown-ups, with music at its heart. Lush and moody, though some readers feel the second half drifts.
- Fae
- Deals and Bargains
- Captor and Captive
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Death of a loved one
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6. A Dawn of Onyx
Shares: captor and captive, slow burn
A healer gets caught fleeing her village and ends up working in the enemy king's castle, and yes, the brooding commander is more than he looks. If you've read ACOTAR, you'll know exactly where this is going, and that's sort of the point.
- Captor and Captive
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forced Proximity
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
War, Graphic violence
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7. A Deal with the Elf King
Shares: deals and bargains, slow burn
A village healer gets claimed as the elf king's bride. Softer than most on this site, but it's a full fae-bargain story in one book.
- Fae
- Arranged Marriage
- Deals and Bargains
- Curses
Content warnings
Death of a loved one
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8. Fortuna Sworn
Shares: captor and captive, deals and bargains
Fortuna is a Nightmare who can see the fears of anyone she touches, and when her brother goes missing she ends up a prisoner of the Unseelie Court. Getting out costs her something very fae. Bleak, messy, and the love interest debate is half the fun.
- Fae
- Captor and Captive
- Deals and Bargains
- Morally Gray
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Human trafficking, Graphic violence
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9. The Sweetest Fiend
Shares: captor and captive, deals and bargains
Pied Piper retelling. The Piper clears a plague from her city and takes 130 people as payment, her included. The first half is plague and survival, the back half gets very explicit, and it ends mid-fall.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Fae
- Captor and Captive
- Deals and Bargains
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Graphic violence
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10. Gilded
Shares: deals and bargains, captor and captive
Rumpelstiltskin from the miller's daughter's side. Serilda's tall tales catch the Erlking's attention, he locks her in his haunted castle to spin straw into gold, and a ghost boy named Gild does it for her. Long and slow in the middle, but the Wild Hunt is properly creepy.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Deals and Bargains
- Captor and Captive
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Murder, Death of a loved one, Physical or emotional abuse
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11. Hunted
Shares: captor and captive, slow burn
Yeva, a huntress in a snowy Russian-style kingdom, tracks the Beast that killed her father and ends up his prisoner, being trained to hunt for him. Beauty and the Beast with folktales, a bow and a heroine who hates the ballroom.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Captor and Captive
- Curses
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Animal death, Death of a loved one
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12. The Hollow Kingdom
Shares: captor and captive, deals and bargains
Kate and her sister move to Hallow Hill, and Marak, the six-fingered goblin king, decides Kate is going to be his bride. Older YA and oddly sweet, the original goblin-husband book for a lot of readers. Marak is genuinely ugly and somehow it works.
- Captor and Captive
- Arranged Marriage
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Deals and Bargains
Content warnings
Kidnapping
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13. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Shares: slow burn, deals and bargains
Emily is a prickly Cambridge professor who goes to a frozen northern village to study the local Folk, and her charming, lazy rival Wendell Bambleby invites himself along. Told through her field journal. Cozy and very funny, with real faerie menace underneath.
- Fae
- Slow Burn
- Enemies to Lovers
- Deals and Bargains
Content warnings
Kidnapping
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