Thanks to Tor Publishing and Netgalley for access to an eARC of The Serpent & the Wings of Night. This was such a good book!

Okay, controversial opinion, but this is a fantastic romantasy novel. Personally, I liked it better than FBAA. Better than Hurricane Wars, even better than Fourth Wing! Great plotting, complex characterization, intricate world building, tense action, spicy romance, and also vampires! What more could a reader want? I feel as if to share too much would spoil a lot, but there are some significant twists that work really well. This is the first in a duet and I am very happy to know the second book is already written. I immediately went to read it to find out what happened next.

I don't think I can clearly state how much I LOVED this book. It was the vampire romance I was needing. It started off a little slow and the FMC was a little annoying in the beginning but by the end I was really enjoying myself and found that I wanted more and more and you will too if your a sucker for angsty brooding bad boys. I devoured this book.
I really enjoyed the plot of the book and the twists at the end. I liked the magic systems and the different types of vampires in the world. It added another depth to the world. The action and plot was consistant throughout and the ending was dramatic and tense and made me want to scream into the void.

Check it out!

This book is a thrilling combination of Twilight and The Hunger Games, with a dash of Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries.

The main character, Oraya, is a badass and her personality is amazing. Raihn and Oraya’s enemies-to-lovers/slow burn relationship is exquisite.

Mische, another character in the book, totally reminds me of Alice from Twilight.

The world building was easy to follow, but it was lacking in some areas. I was often confused due to how minimally it was brought up.

The book took me on an emotional rollercoaster, especially towards the end. I’m excited to get more immersed in this world by reading the novella Six Scorched Roses, which I was told is better to read between book 1 and 2.

Follow a weak human woman who is trying to live in a vampire’s world alongside her father in the first book in the Crowns of Nyaxia series.

Oraya was adopted by the Nightborn vampire king Vincent as a child. Since then she learned that she could trust no one except him. He has always been there for her, teaching her to fight and survive, but she still longs to see her human family again. This wish can be granted by Nyaxia, the goddess of death and vampires, herself. To get this wish, she enters the legendary tournament, the Kejari. Only one can survive, and she is the only human in the lot. With high stakes and tough competition, she thinks the tournament cannot get any worse, but then she starts falling for Raihn, one of her competitors. He may be sexy, but he is from a rival clan within the House of Night. Though not the most creative use of the enemies-to-lovers plot, it is a fun read with unexpected twists and turns and an exciting execution of a death tournament. Oraya is a heroine for those who want an independent female lead who keeps her own identity throughout the story.

The Serpent and the Wings of Night encapsulates everything a romantasy reader loves about this blended genre with magic, intrigue, and a mounting tension that scorches every page.

I loved this book. I couldn't put it down. Every time I picked it up, meaning to read a couple chapters, I'd end up reading over 100 pages.
There are great plot twists and wonderful characters (okay, "wonderful" may not be the best word for all of them, but how about wonderfully written?), I'm so excited to get into Ashes and the Star-Cursed King soon too!
I'm obsessed. Excuse me while I go read Carissa Broadbent's entire back catalog now.

Thank you to Bramble Romance for my review copy of this one!

If you are unfamiliar with The Serpent and the Wings of Night, it’s basically vampire Hunger Games. Except all the contestants are volunteers and they can leave the arena (castle) at certain times of the day.

I don’t know how to rate this one. The first half was boring to me, because it was all action and didn’t have a lot of focus on the relationships, and I’m very much a relationship reader. That being said, the relationships were all super interesting when they were focused on! Oraya and her adopted father, Oraya and her relationship with her birth territory, and of course the enemies (ish) to lovers arc! Once I hit the 50% mark, everything got SO good that I finished it in one night and immediately downloaded the next one. So five stars I guess?

🎧 I’m familiar with Amanda Leigh Cobb from her narration of A Court of Wings and Ruin and A Court of Frost and Starlight, and she was a fantastic choice for this book! I have a little harder time understanding action scenes when I listen via audio, so I liked that I had the ebook to follow along with as well!

The Serpent and the Wings of Night is a high-quality fantasy that had me immediately hooked. I was totally and utterly engrossed by everything: the writing, the characters, the world building. This book is well over 500 pages and yet I absolutely flew through it, sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time. Too many times, books try the Hunger Games-esque competition plot, and more often than not it fails. This is how you write it-with all the same high-stakes, savage, unrelenting elements. Throw in some political intrigue, vampires that actually act vampiric, and a little slow-burn, angst-filled romance and we've got ourselves one amazing hit of a novel.

What a fun fantasy read!! I wasn't quite sure what to expect with the author but I am happy to say I was very pleasantly surprised.

I devoured this one! It’s giving Hunger Games and From Blood and Ash meets ACOTAR but vampires! The last 30% of this book had me reeling, and I can’t wait to jump into the next one!

Pals, I get it! The love for this series is immense, and now I understand why.

If you are a fan of books like Fourth Wing and ACOTAR, Carissa Broadbent's The Serpent & The Wings of Night is for you! Jump on the wagon with this new release-- it won't disappoint.

I wanted to like this book as much as the Daughter of No Worlds trilogy but unfortunately it just didn’t have that interesting and intense political aspect. It leaned heavily Romantasy though, so fans of the genre will EAT THIS UP. The tournament and the enemies/rivals to lovers was delectable. I also loved the father daughter abuse cycle that really explored what emotional abuse can be like. God I love Carissa Broadbent

This fast-paced, addictive romantasy title will be an easy sell for fans of Fourth Wing, ACOTAR, etc. The vampire resurgence is here and it's wonderful! While this particular title could perhaps have used another round of editing on the prose for my own tastes, it was a fun read that I'm sure will appeal to a huge audience.

An adopted human daughter of a vampire king enters the most dangerous completion known to vampires in order to hopefully become as powerful as them. But once she is in the middle of the competition, she learns that maybe she has not been always told the truth. And maybe she can start trusting others. I can't wait for the next book!

The Serpent and the Wings of Night had me hooked from beginning. Oraya, the Nightborn King's adopted daughter, enters the Kejari - a deadly tournament, in hopes of gaining a favor from the goddess Nyaxia. In a realm where vampires ruthlessly rule and humans are treated as mere livestock, Oraya's resilience and determination stood out to me. Despite her vulnerability and perceived human weaknesses, she remains strong.

The witty banter between Oraya and Raihn, another participant in the tournament, added an extra layer of enjoyment to the story. Their relationship born out of necessity lifts the story above the fight or die narrative of the Kejari. This book is full of unexpected twists and turns, and the ending left me with a mix of emotions.

This is a completed duology, so you don’t have to wait for the conclusion. If you like adventure, mystery with a touch of steamy romance pick this book up now. Very grateful to Bramble for the advanced reader copy. All comments are my honest opinion.

I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would! I’m skeptical of all the popular TikTok books, but this did not disappoint.

While the death games idea is not new by any standard, Broadbent certainly makes it her own with the Kejari. I could clearly picture each round, named after each of the moon phases, and understand how it all worked.

Oraya is such an interesting character, and I’m so glad that she’s so strong and independent. Her traumatic history with vampires, revealed later in the book, is essential to the story. However I was surprised it wasn’t more of a challenge or internal struggle for her.

I did find this book hard to get into at first, but by the time she teamed up with Raihn and Mische I was hooked. I hope Mische has a bigger role in the next book and is more than just an added background character. Raihn and Oraya have great chemistry, even at the end of the book,


—————SPOILER AHEAD—————

What didn’t make sense to me in the end was why didn’t Oraya die? If her wish was “I wish Raihn had won” then Oraya should have died. Did Nyaxia let her live on purpose? She does seem like she enjoys toying with her “children” and she probably knew who Oraya really was and wants to see how it all plays out.

This definitely filled my niche for a strong female-lead fantasy book. Oraya was great, her backstory and personality were strong. It was a bit predictable with the “twist” that Oraya seemed to be the only one unaware of. The author definitely hinted at it heavily throughout and I found myself dragging to get through it at the end, but I will definitely be grabbing the second in the series to pick up where this left off.

I found myself dreaming of this book. I could not put it down every time I picked it up. Surprisingly well written romantasy. I love that these vampires are different. I love that the author shows you rather than lore dumps. Very well done. I need book 2

I’m torn with this book. I loved the beginning and middle of it but the end really threw me off. I can tell this will be popular with people who love fantasy romance but I’m not really a fan of second chance romances which is what I imagine this series will end up being. I enjoyed the writing style and thought the world building was done very well. Overall, I would rate it a 3/5!

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Crowns of Nyaxia novel, The Nightborn Duet book one

I devoured this book. I haven’t read a straight-up vampire fantasy series in ages and my Twilight-loving middle school heart was singing.

I really enjoyed the setting and the story that took place in it. It gave adult-Hunger Games vibes mixed with vampires and an enemies to lovers plot. 💯

The story swallowed me whole and would not release me until I finished it! Book 2 published last week and I am dying to start it. I’ve been instructed not to skip the novella that takes place between the two books, so, I’m headed there next.

Perfect for you if you like:
Blood-thirsty vampires
An MMC with WINGS 🫠
Surprising + unexpected twists

It took me legitimately 2 weeks to read the first 4 chapters because I was bored out of my mind. This is a very, very slow start and I found the twist to be quite predictable.

The first ~50-60% of this is basically all plot driven and I found it difficult to care about the characters at all. I like plot heavy books, but I need SOMETHING character wise to keep me invested.

From the ~50-60% point, it picked up and was a lot more character focused. I liked this WAY more from that point on and flew through it after that.

That being said- the magic system felt incredibly underdeveloped. Who can access it? Is Oraya the only one or are other humans able to access it? Outside of the vampires having different magic based on their houses, the magic system really wasn’t explained, like at all.

Overall I enjoyed this, but I’m definitely going to need more from book 2.

Tropes/Highlights:
- Vampires and magic
- Hunger Games style competition
- Enemies-to-lovers
- Slow burn
- Forced proximity

Between ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5 & ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶️.5/5