The Serpent and The Wings of Night | Carissa Broadbent | a review
I absolutely, utterly, loved this book. I first read it in February 2023 and immediately pre-ordered the sequel which was released on 14th April 2023. I reread The Serpent and the Wings of Night this week before diving straight into book two. Yes, I reread it less than two months after originally devouring it. And I loved it just as much.
So, what's it about I hear you cry. As a human raised in the Vampiric royal court Oraya's used to being scared. She knows the smell of her blood marks her as prey in a city, and continent, of predators. In order to claw out a place in this brutal world Oraya enters the Kejari, a vicious tournament held once every hundred years where each competitor must survive 5 trials in order to win a favour from the goddess who created vampires, Nyaxia. Make no mistake, this is a fight to the death, and as a human Oraya is at a huge disadvantage. The Serpent and the Wings of Night is a fantastic slow burn enemies/rivals to lovers fantasy romance set in a world of gods, goddesses, vampires, human, magic and peril.
Despite being a chunky book the pacing is fast as Oraya is thrust from one trial to the next, constantly fighting for her life against vampires who want to crush her to drink her blood. However, there are slower moments between each trial where we really explore Oraya's character, her past, her ambitions, her relationships and her flaws. It works really well and makes it near impossible to put down. Raised as the (adopted) daughter of the king she is no damsel in distress, she has been trained to be utterly lethal but, as she was constantly reminded by her father, she would always be weaker than the vampires and she must constantly be alert. This means the book oozes with peril and I really felt how fragile humans were in this world and how Oraya was always on the brink of imminent death. The Kejari demands that the contestants live in the Moon Palace for the duration of the competition so not only do we have a delicious enemies to lovers story but also forced proximity in between the combat trials.
The romance is slow burn but oh so worth it with several toe curling scenes. I really, really like the love interest and the development between the two of them in not only this book, but in the sequel too is wonderful to read. Be warned though, that this ends in an almighty cliffhanger and not all is fair in love and war. These two have a lot to overcome, but the tension while they figure it out is superb. The sex scenes are explicit but there are only a few so they definitely don't overwhelm the plot. The balance is perfect.
The world building is great too. Not only do we get the excitement of combat trials and delicious forbidden romance but we also have the ever present threat of civil war. When Nyaxia created vampires she did not create them equal. There are three houses; the House of Night, the House of Shadow and the House of Blood. The Bloodborn have been cursed after falling out of Nyaxia's favour and have deadly blood magics and the House of Night is further divided into two clans: the Hiaj and Rishan. They are easy to tell apart as the Hiaj have bat like wings and the Rishan have feathered wings. There is 2000 years of conflict between the two and tensions simmer on a knife edge.
This 6 book series will be divided into three duologies following characters from each of the three houses. The Serpent and the Wings of Night and The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King are books 1 and 2 and make up the Nightborn Duet. Carissa Broadbent also has a few standalones set in this world, following characters who appear in the main series. So far we have a novella, Six Scorched Roses (I have read and loved this too), which is already out and another coming at the end of April, Slaying the Vampire Conqueror, which is a full length novel. I have pre-ordered it, naturally.
This book is one of my favourite ever fantasy romance stories and the characters live rent free in my mind. I could read about them forever, but I am still excited to read the stand-alones and the next books in the future.