46 pages • 1-hour read
Brutal Prince
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Background
Genre Context: Mafia Romance Subgenre and the Enemies-to-Lovers Trope
Brutal Prince provides a quintessential example of mafia romance, a subgenre of contemporary romance that thrives on high-stakes conflict and competing power dynamics. These narratives typically feature a dangerous, morally gray protagonist from an organized crime family and a strong-willed love interest (often from a rival family) who challenges their authority, providing both internal and external obstacles to their love story. The subgenre finds its roots in classic dark romance and forbidden love stories such as Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Brutal Prince draws inspiration from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, opening with a lavish party crashed by members of a rival family. However, unlike the forbidden love plight of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, Lark’s protagonists are forced into an arranged marriage of political convenience that forces them into constant proximity—additional classic romance tropes that create an environment of intense friction and inescapable intimacy. Lark’s Brutal Birthright series sits alongside other contemporary examples of the mafia romance subgenre, including J. T. Geissinger’s Queens and Monsters series and Danielle Lori’s Made series, all of which have connected with large, book-based fandoms on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Structurally, Brutal Prince centers on the enemies-to-lovers trope, a narrative device where initial animosity evolves into passionate romance, exemplified in literary classics such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, as well as contemporary examples like Sally Horne’s The Hating Game and Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me. The appeal of this trope lies in the dramatic tension and emotional payoff of overcoming profound conflict. In Brutal Prince, Lark roots in the animosity in a long-standing family rivalry and concrete contemporary grievances—Aida accidentally sets fire to Callum’s library, and Callum’s enforcer cripples Aida’s brother—obstacles that raise the stakes of the novel’s central romance. The enemies-to-lovers trope resonates across myriad subgenres of romance fiction because it “taps into the deep truth that the most powerful connections often emerge from the most unexpected places. The bitterness, the tension, the constant push and pull—those are just stepping stones toward a deeper bond” (Rabia. “Why We Love Enemies-To-Lovers: A Timeless Trope.” Medium, 2025). The genre’s conventions allow for an exploration of love and loyalty in a violent world, where the protagonists’ initial war against each other transforms into a united front against external threats.
Sociocultural Context: Irish and Italian Mafia Rivalries in Chicago’s Social Landscape
Brutal Prince grounds its central conflict in the historical tensions between Irish and Italian American organized crime syndicates in Chicago. This rivalry, which intensified during the Prohibition era of the 1920s, provides the real-world backdrop for the animosity between the Griffin and Gallo families. Historically, gangs like the Irish North Side Gang, led by Dean O’Banion, and the Italian Chicago Outfit, famously led by Al Capone, violently competed for control of the city’s lucrative bootlegging operations. Members of each side carried out calculated attacks on the other’s criminal enterprises, which Lark mirrors in the violent cycle of offense and retribution between Polish mafia boss Zajac and the newly formed alliance of the Gallo and Griffin crime families. The novel specifically invokes the history of Chicago’s Irish and Italian Mafia rivalries, with Callum recalling how his and Aida’s “great-grandfathers battled for control of the illegal distilleries” (23). This long-standing feud provides a historical foundation for the deep-seated hatred between Lark’s fictional families.
The novel further develops this sociocultural divide by mapping it onto Chicago’s distinct neighborhoods. The Irish Griffins, representing new money and political ambition, reside in a lavish Gold Coast estate, while the Italian Gallos live in Old Town, a neighborhood steeped in history and tradition, reflecting their connection to “the old country” (1). Lark establishes the animosity between the two families by highlighting the differences in their neighborhoods. Aida notes that, “Our house was built in the Victorian era. Our street is quiet, full of massive old oak trees […] The Gold Coast is the new hotness. It's all pish-posh shopping and dining and the mansions of the richest motherfuckers in Chicago” (6) Similarly, Aida’s father dismisses the Griffins’ opulent lifestyle as typical of the Irish need to “flash their money” (6), echoing the historic enmity between the Irish-American mafia in the early 19th century and newly arrived Italian immigrants carving out their own place in the criminal underworld. By weaving together real historical conflicts with the symbolic geography of Chicago, the novel creates a believable world where the arranged marriage of Aida and Callum represents a high-stakes negotiation between two warring cultures.
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