Antonia Bernardin

My 65th book of the year was The Serpent and the Wings of Night, the first book in the crowns of Nyaxia series, by Carissa Broadbent.

* I’ve since read book 2 ‘Ashes and the Star cursed king‘ and the novella ‘Six Scorched Roses‘

A vague summary

Oraya is the adopted human daughter of the Nightborn Vampire King. Raised in a court that would kill her in heartbeat, Oraya survived by becoming just as ruthless as the vampires around her. To fulfil her dream of being as powerful as the vampires around her and, consequently, being able to safely go searching for any remaining human family she might have, Oraya enters the Kiljari. To survive this vicious tournament, she is forced to make an alliance with the attractive and mysterious Rhain.

As the tournament progresses, war brews outside its’ walls and Oraya is faced with uncovering her father may not care about her as much as she thought, all while trying to be prepared for Rhain’s inevitable betrayal. Soon, she begins to question everything she thought she knew.

What did I think?

I listened to the book as an audio and I really enjoyed it! I did kind of see the ending coming but I don’t think that takes away from the book at all. It uses quite a few classic fantasy tropes, including flashbacks between the past and present and I’m really enjoying the fact that vampires fantasy fiction is making a come back! This is genuinely enemies to lovers and the build up to them getting together is well done (I felt). I’ve already got the next one downloaded to listen to!