thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

I wish that I had read this book sooner. I didn’t pick it up cause I normally don’t read vampire stuff but I really liked this. I can definitely see why it’s getting traditionally published.

Everything Carissa Broadbent writes is pure gold, and this is no exception. Bramble took an amazing story and gave it the perfect amount of polish for it's relaunch as a now traditionally published title.

The story is still absolutely excellent, the perfect vampire story with a strong, bad ass heroine and a really cool magic system. It is definitely a must read for any romantasy lover, or fan of Carissa's work. Truly one of my favorite books in the romantasy genre and definitely my favorite by her.

This is being pitched for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses. That’s like the romansty version of game of thrones and the lord of the rings but honestly it kinda works. Oraya's family is killed and then saved saved by the vampire king. He brings her up in his castle where she spends her life in hiding. She then enters this fight to the death contest where the winner gets a wish and there she meets a fellow contestant who makes her question everything. I’m not going to lie, it was juicy.
Full review on YouTube

4.75⭐️ A wonderfully dark, brutal, romantic, and captivating high fantasy. I could not stop reading this!
Oraya grows up as a human in a world dominated by vampires and is taught to never trust a soul and always remember she is never safe. Despite living in the shadows her entire life, Oraya becomes an incredibly strong woman and skilled fighter.
She enters the Kejari, a deadly tournament reminiscent of The Hunger Games, and must slaughter her way to the top if she wants to be the one and only victor.
The world Carissa Broadbent creates is gruesome, violent, and completely enthralling. There is also a great romance subplot and some spicy scenes, that only make the book better.
Highly recommend!

The Serpent & the Wings of Night was engaging from the first chapter. It had incredibly world-building, a fun cast of characters, an unlikely heroine and high stakes. This fun, plot-driven fantasy romance is perfect for fans of ACOTAR who are looking for a well-constructed world, tons of action, gruesome fight scenes, and plenty of spice.

I loved this book! A human girl looking to claim her power in a world run by vampires by competing in a challenge to the death for the chance at gaining a favor from a blood thirsty goddess, what is not to love? It was impossible to put down, I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.

I loved Oraya's character, how she is feisty and strong from the beginning, even if she doesn't recognize how strong she is in a world filled with predators. Raihn is wonderfully flawed and morally gray and the enemies to lovers dynamic between her and Raihn was perfection. Can I also say I was obsessed with Vincent! Morally gray, ruthless, and violent, but complex and full of secrets. All of the characters were so well developed.

The plot is set up perfectly, I didn't see what was coming from a mile away, but I could see the piece's coming together just before the revile, which I loved!

This is one of my favorite reads of the year, can't wait to read book 2!

One of my favorite books to read in this genre this year! Not going to lie, looking for books to read after having Asterion withdrawals led me to this book. And that’s ok!

5 ⭐️

This book is a must read for fantasy romance lovers. This is everything a good fantasy romance should have. A plot that could stand alone without the romance, characters that you will root for, high enough stakes to be invested in, and a romance that you’ll be thinking about long after you finish the book. Seriously, if you’re thinking about reading this, you should.

#TheSerpentAndTheWingsOfNight:⁣
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Thank you so much @torbooks @brambleromance for my gifted copy! ⁣
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Here’s the nitty: This gave me major major Red Queen vibes. We have this tournament of sorts and there’s an arena a few times. We’ve got a badass snarky FMC that doesn’t know her true power and is still figuring it out, I love it. A wicked twist that will leave you painstakingly conflicted with an eagerness for book two. If you wanted an adult version of Red Queen with vampires, here you go. This is your treat, this is THE book recommendation.⁣
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First, can we just appreciate all the vampire stereotypes being smashed in this book? Broody vampires with no humanity. Sure, but with vampires like Mische with her sunny disposition and Raihn with the apologies and humanity, I mean.. it’s refreshing. Also, the fact that vampires can still be poor after 200 years and not billionaires running countries, I can get down with this.⁣
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This book is 532 pages. I zoomed through these pages like it was nothing. The story was so engrossing and I had to know what was going to happen. The dynamics between Oraya and Vincent were so interesting, this push and pull between two vast worlds, ugh I ate it up. ⁣
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I loved every moment of this book and the worst part was honestly me trying to remember the title correctly. Out Tuesday, 12/5, another romantasy hit from me.⁣
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QOTD: What’s a topic or theme you’ll always gravitate to? For me, vampires and a secluded islands in mystery/thrillers.

Brutal, captivating, unputdownable- I was fully engrossed from the start! This book had interesting world building, a compelling main character, and swoon-worthy romance. Plus, the complex relationships, intense action, and political intrigue we've come to expect from fantasy. THIS is romantasy done right, people. Take notes!!

*check trigger warnings before reading the book*

The Serpent & the Wings of Night is a thrilling fantasy that had me rushing to the end. Broadbent builds a world of intrigue while relying on old superstitions about vampires. Full of tradition old and new, this spellbinding story left me with a book hangover. Luckily for me, there's another book!

I'll keep this review spoiler free, so let's just say if you like any of the following this should shoot up to the top of your tbr list: ACOTAR, Fourth Wing, the Blood & Ash series, etc. Romantic and bloodthirsty, this is a can't miss for all fantasy/romantasy fans.

Another romantasy for the books. I liked the darker edge to the characters and the world the author built, but I felt like more spice (between three to five scenes instead of the one and a half we got) and less angst would have done the story and characters well. The writing was enjoyable enough, but at the end of the day it really just felt like a book that mashed together lots of plot lines, characters, and fantasy worlds from other books. All in all, an okay read, and I enjoyed it enough to give the second book a try.

Having already read and been a huge fan of Broadbent's other self-published War of Lost Hearts series, I'd been eager to read the Crowns of Nyaxia series before it was even picked up by a traditional publisher. Since I received this ARC, I knew I needed to dive in! I'll admit, Serpent & the Wings of Night took me a little while to win me over. There's plenty of action from the start and I was liking the characters, but it took me some time to truly care. But I was by no means bored, so it was no struggle to keep reading and by the final third of the book, I was absolutely hooked! As for that ending, oh boy, I'm glad I don't have to wait long for the sequel! I'll definitely be recommending this to Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros fans.

This was a well developed fantasy enemies to lovers full of twists and turns. While I think this book could get lost in the many large scale romantasy books that are gaining popularity this book stand out because of how good the writing is. The author slowly introduces the world that is unlike any I've seen before, but still easy to slip into. The characters are fully created and the tone and atmosphere fully pulled me into the story.

Orarya is a fascinating character who has layers (and so much trauma) that her interactions and decisions felt so authentic and I appreciated seeing her realistically handle the trauma that was delt to her over and over in the book (physically and emotionally). I appreciated that the relationship between Oraya and Raihn develops slowly considering the circumstances.

I didn't love the ending - and it is a cliffhanger so be warned - I think partly because I was almost expecting a twist ending so when it arrived it was like Oh instead of OH. I think because with how angst and dark this book is I assumed there was no way this book was going to end happily ever after or even happy for now. (And SPOILER - I didn't understand why Oraya didn't die instead when she made her wish and/or it seemed too conveniently awful? She could have just wished for Raihn to be alive, or for him to be made her consort, or .... etc etc).

But for those looking for a dark fantasy that will keep ripping your heart out, look no further.

I just finished The Serpent & the Wings of Night earlier today and I can't stop thinking about it or recommending it. This feels like if The Hunger Games met my enemies to lovers star crossed "Underworld" favorites. Like The Hunger Games there are deadly competitions with high body counts. Except this has an added twist where if you win you can ask this super powerful goddess for a boon - think impossible dream style. And like "Underworld" we have a vampire and human romance which should be trouble enough. Except add in the complicated family dynamics of Selene who has to learn about her own family lineage and the secrets they've been hiding.

This book had a slow start, then it gradually started to get interesting, but the ending was not one that I enjoyed.

I try not to mention other books in my reviews, but as I was reading this, I couldn't help but to think this was similar to The Hunger Games except... lower stakes? I think the world needs to be developed more because there were some confusing aspects about it. The Kejari seems like a strict competition where ultimately only one comes out alive but I personally felt it was quite lenient. I'm interested to see which direction book 2 will go because I couldn't really tell what this book was intending to do. Parts of the book felt like they dragged because there was so much of nothing. I would have loved more details about the tournament itself and just more information about how vampires worked in this world. The characters all lacked depth. Even Raihn, who I initially liked because of his dry humor, started to slip into some typical flat character at the end.

I'm also not the biggest fan of how the ending turned out and I'm worried it will slip into some clichés in the sequel. This book was good, but I was waiting for it to be great. There's a lot of potential in the ideas but they definitely need to be fleshed out more. We don't really get much information about how this world works, especially the tournament, and there were many seemingly contradicting factors that just made the book a little boring. However, there's a lot left to be explored and I'm hoping that book 2 will answer some of these questions.


--SPOILERS--
With Vincent helping Oraya by directly providing items, Raihn and Oraya being able to leave the Moon Palace freely, participants being about to withdraw from the competition, and just the overall lack of brutality from other participants (aside from the trials themselves), the stakes didn't seem as high as they should have been. I couldn't picture the tournament because the rules were so blurred. Also, Oraya's stance on vampires was confusing because she seems to have some hateful feelings for them but she wants to turn into one. Even if the author decides to stay in Oraya's perspective, I think her intentions need to be explained more. I was also waiting for more explanation on characters like Mische and Angelika. There's a moment where Mische seems to empathize for Angelika and unless I missed something, I was disappointed there was no further explanation. Regarding Mische, I didn't understand why Raihn followed her in entering the Kejari if there can only be one winner. I wasn't expecting her character to completely disappear halfway through and it made me question why she was introduced in the first place.Considering what the ending was, I don't get how Oraya was allowed to live but also, it was frustrated me that that was how she phrased her wish when it could have been something a lot smarter.

--DISCLAIMER--
This doesn't affect my review but the ebook that I received through Netgalley had some issues with the formatting. It went from chapter 44 --> chapter 50-56 --> chapter 45-49. It went from their spicy scene to Oraya being declared victor so I was definitely caught off guard with how jarring it was.

Thank you to Bramble/Tor and Netgalley for the free e-copy of this manuscript. All opinions are my own.
This book was just as excellent as I heard it would be! Picture this as a more adult version of the Hunger Games, but with vampires. The world itself seems physically smaller than a lot of fantasy kingdoms, which makes it easier to keep up with. The main character is strong and likeable and the tension with the love interest is well-written. You can really feel the emotions the characters are feeling with the way the author describes their facial expressions. Not to mention, the plot twists at the end were extraordinary and I definitely did not see them coming. Maybe it's the vampires, but it reminded me of JLA.
I can't wait to read the second book!

Ummmm…wow was that addictive! What a read!! This was a little bit longer than most of the other books I read, but I enjoyed every second. It is like a mixture of all my favorite 2010 series!

This book was so fun to read! I loved the aspect of a trial of games and the scenes of each challenge had me locked into the story. The found family plot is something I know readers will enjoy. Plus the banter between Oraya and Raihn was just so perfect!