4.5 ⭐️ rounded up
Captain of the Carissa Broadbent Fan Club reporting for duty 🫡

She's done it once again. While The Ashes & the Star Cursed King is markedly different from The Serpent & the Wings of Night, I thought it was better. It had everything I loved about its predecessor and more. It was a slow-burn romance and a high-stakes political fantasy with all the thrills a perfect blend of those two genres has to offer. Though, the characters had so much more room to breathe, to process, to grow, and to fully come into their power.

Often I find with romantasy duologies that the second book will try, and fall short of, recreating the allure of enemies-to-lovers without souring it... but not this one. Oh no, I was at the edge of my seat the entire book. When I tell y'all I was at a loss for breath at that betrayal... yeah. The plot was juicy.

Broadbent has a deft hand at navigating complicated emotional relationships. Watching the two main leads learn to trust eachother, and in so doing learn to love in the other person what they hate about themselves, was poignant. But as much as this is a love story, it's also about a father and a daughter. Oraya has to uncover lost pieces of her past and and reconcile the fact that her father was flawed with the fact that he loved her more than anything.

(There was also plenty of badass sword fighting, spice, and vicious vampire shenanigans to space out all the sap as well. Fear not.)

The satisfying way that Broadbent ties together the beginning and end of her stories never gets old. The little symbolic callbacks feel like finding the last few pieces of a puzzle you thought you'd lost, and slotting them in.

I can't wait for the rest of the books in the Crowns of Nyaxia series! I'm so glad this world is expanding past one duology.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the eARC.

This book had me a bit confused, the storyline had quite a few gaps. I know people don’t like world building in romantasy but it needs a bit more. Definitely has a lot of potential and it was good just wished it was the next level so it could be amazing.

Carissa Broadbent is one of my top tier fantasy romance authors, she consistently delivers! This series is another banger and I loved the conflicting emotions between Oraya and Rain. I also appreciated how Oraya was instantly over the betrayal, as I find lost of romantasy rushes into a resolution so they can get back to the spice.

I will forever continue to pick up CB's books!

I had so much fun with this duo!!

It reads very easily for being so long! And it being a dual POV was the best choice.

I love slow burn and political intrigue and this gave it all.

My one qualm is that everything worked out a little too perfectly… but I’ll take it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Ashes & The Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent!

On a random trip to Walmart, I discovered The Serpent & The Wings of Night in the book aisle. It quickly jumped up to one of my top five favorite books of all time. I'd been in a reading slump and it was the first book I felt I couldn't put down in a long time. The Ashes & The Star-Cursed King did not disappoint. While I enjoyed the first book more, it was solely for the competition aspect. I loved all the trials and challenges that Oraya and Raihn went through in the Kejari as they slowly began to trust each other and fall for one another. The Ashes & The Star-Cursed King was the perfect sequel to such a brilliant book. In some books, the hate to love doesn't flow right. But it was the perfect transition of Oraya hating that she loved the man that killed her father, and then realizing that he had done more for her than Vincent ever would have. It felt natural and believable. I'm excited to be reading the third book next. One of my favorite characters from the very beginning was Mische, and the fact that she gets her own book is a testament to how adored she is. You know it's a good book when you're attached to the characters and you think about them long after the last page has been turned.

The banter in this book was topnotch. I was unsure how they were going to carry over the enemies to loves trope into the second book, but it was so well done that I read over half the book in one sitting.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

In The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King, forgiveness is a huge theme. After the events in book one, how can Raihn and Oraya ever trust each other? The betrayals, the lies, can there be a chance they could ever speak again? Within The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King we explore rebellion. We explore the idea of making alliances with people we hate just to wrest back power. All these awful compromises we are forced to make. But after so many of these, have we become the very powerful, cruel, force we tried to depose?

Wowowowoow!!! This book made me feel so many emotions and I am forever changed upside down right side up lol you name it! This book took me on an adventure and it took me on a ride! I would highly recommend this book to anybody! Trust me, I was not ready for the twists, and I was not ready for what the author had planned! It was just as good if not, even better than the first book!

Impactful. Romantasy. Just...breathtaking. I cannot get enough of this series and this author. The Ashes and the Star Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent was a 5 star reread for me! YES!

Love love love this book! Raihn broke my HEART at the end of the last book and it was so frustrating in the beginning, but it was SUCH an excellent transition back to being themselves :) Oraya is a QUEEEEEN

I liked but didn't love this one. It was a solid romantasy and I enjoyed reading it but it was similar to a lot fo other books I have ready so nothing really stuck with me after I was finished.

I love romantasy titles and I was glad to see Carissa Broadbent's new series. It's refreshing to go back to the world of vampires when so much today is either just fae or dragons. Book two unfortunately didn't resonate with me as much as the first one. It felt needlessly long too. I felt like it took too long for me to really feel invested in the book and while I appreciate politics and world building, this goes a little too hard. It's still a good series and I'll be reading the last one. I hope it doesn't take as long to pick up as this did.

Dual POV
Angst
Action packed

There she is........

I fell in love with the MMC Raihn and the FMC Oraya. Raihn was a powerful, confident vampire king that knows when to step aside and let his queen shine! This story was beautifully written with intriguing characters and descriptive world building. I am so happy Raihn and Oraya had their HEA, there were several times throughout the book I was afraid they wouldn't. The author had me on the edge of my seat with the action and storytelling.

I really enjoyed this series and look forward to reading more from Carissa Broadbent.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC read for my honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and Ms. Broadbent for the opportunity to review "The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King." I had a really hard time rating this book. This is the second book in the series of the Crowns of Nyaxia and I found it to be different than the first. While the first one was more fantasy and action packed, this novel came off as a more romance novel. For someone, that isn't much of a romance genre fan it was a let down. I also found a lot of discussion about emotions and feelings that I think went on for too long. That being said if you like romance/fantasy you would probably enjoy this book, which is why I rated it 4 stars.

I give this book a very solid 4/5 stars. This book was SO. GOOD. I started and finished it within 48 hours. It was impossible to put down.

The world-building in this book was phenomenal. I felt as though I was within the story, experiencing everything right alongside Oraya.

Oraya, just like in the first book, struggles with her feelings surrounding Vincent, and her humanity. This being said, I really enjoyed how much character growth she had in this book, and the maturity you could see her develop through everything she discovered, and went/goes through.

Raihn is *chef’s kiss*. He is one of my favourite fantasy MMCs, and the way each Part in the book starts with an Interlude gives readers a glimpse into his past from his perspective, which let’s us to see into his emotions and true desires.

This book was most definitely a slow burn, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. There were many feelings and lots of conflict within Oraya, and I think that if the romance / spice had been sped up, we, as readers, would have lost so much insight into her struggles to accept not only Vincent, but her life as a whole and the changing world around her.

When a patron recommended "The Serpent & The Wings of Night" to me a few months ago, I was skeptical; it's not my usual genre. My forays into vampire-related entertainment have generally consisted of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Vampire Academy.' I did also read 'Twilight.' But the thing that all of those have in common is that other than the fact that there are vampires, they're pretty realistic insofar as the world. When it comes to super-fantastical vampires and such overall, it's not usually what I'm going to go for, if given the choice. But Broadbent quickly roped me into the world she's built, and the intricate lore it holds. Oraya and Raihn were compelling, the relationships were so human despite the characters being, well, not human, and I just couldn't put it down, because I wanted to know what was next for them. The dynamic between Oraya and Vincent, too, was beautifully complicated and expertly drawn, and getting to reunite with Oraya and Raihn following the utter chaos of the end of "Serpent" was a no-brainer when "Ashes" came up as an option for advance reading. Like its predecessor, I had a hard time putting it down (I think I may actually have almost growled at someone at work when, how dare, they needed me to do something), and I was just so thoroughly along for the ride. It is as solid a sequel as I've read in quite awhile, and I can't wait to see what she has in store for book three, which is set to follow my favorite character of all, the effervescent and utterly delightful Mische. I also can't wait to get this into my rotation of Readers' Advisory options at work.

This book picks up right where the first left off. Our two main characters have gone from enemies to lovers and back to enemies. The set up makes it believable that they are struggling to see eye to eye. Meanwhile, it is refreshing to see the main female character struggle with the loss she recently faced and figure out how to proceed forward. It did feel like a little bit of a slower build up than the first book, but still quite enjoyable!

Audience: Adult
Plot: 4.75 out of 5
Characters: 4.5 out of 5
Spice: 3.5 out of 5
Keywords: Enemies to Lovers, Vampires, Heartfelt, Political Intrigue, Epic battles, Magic

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Netgalley (Thank you to Tom Boherty Associates and Tor Publishing Group).

“But one day, the things that are the most painful are going to be sources of strength.” (Chapter 29)

This is part two of the Crowns of Nyaxia duology, and this novel is a fast-paced, enemies to lovers romance that takes place shortly after the events of the first book, and is a seamless continuation of Raihn’s and Oraya’s stories.

Differing from the first book, this novel is told through dual POVs – Oraya and Raihn. Having dual perspectives this time really allowed me to immerse myself more into the story, especially Raihn’s. Oraya and Raihn must work together, again, despite everything that has happened, with their ultimate goals aligned in ruling the kingdom jointly. This novel focuses primarily on Vincent’s secrets and his connection to the “god’s blood,” Raihn’s backstory, and Oraya coming to terms with her past. But ultimately, the story is about how Oraya and Raihn will restore both their kingdoms.

The novel is divided into sections, each named after a moon phase. This novel division was very interesting to me – and some of the phases mirrored some of the events happening throughout the novel. At the beginning of each section, there is an Interlude, where the author presents flashbacks in the third person, which I really enjoyed. These flashbacks allow the readers a glimpse into the trauma and complexity of the characters.

If I could make one reader’s recommendation – it would be to read this book immediately following Serpent and the Wings of Night. In my opinion, it makes the characters, story, and surrounding emotions all the more intense. Ashes was such an emotional rollercoaster, that there were times when I didn’t know what to feel, and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much – for the complexity. The worldbuilding within Obitraes was so immersive and expansive, that I am glad that there will be more stories set within the world.

I would recommend this book, and also the complete duology, to anyone who enjoys paranormal fantasy with magic, enemies to lovers, and spice. It would be perfect for readers of action/adventure fantasy series such as Fourth Wing and Throne of Glass. This is a duology that I will be thinking about for quite some time.