Antonia Bernardin

My first book of 2024 was Six Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent, a novella set in The Crowns of Nyaxia world (the series with The Serpent and the Wings of Night and The Ashes and the Star Cursed King).

This will be spoiler free for the main books in the series, so you can be safe to read this if you want to find out what it’s about

A brief summary

This book follows Vale, who meet in book 2 of the series but it covers the events that happen to Vale before we meet him. Our other main character is Lilith, who has been dying since she entered this world. Her town worships the God of plenty, who has always been kind to them until they suddenly lose his favour and their crops start to wither. In a fit of desperation her fathers curses their God for forgetting them and in doing so, incurs his wrath, cursing the town to a wasting sickness that slowly wears a person away to dust. By some miracle, Lilith survives to adulthood and decides to turn her passion for science towards the disease which has now killed all of her family except her sister, whose is ill with it but not yet dead. She has a theory that the blood of a near-immortal will be the key, so she goes to Vale’s house to strike a bargain with him. Vale has been secluded in his mountain home since Vincent – the current ruler of the House of Night in book one, defeated Vale and the previous king. So, to Lilith’s surprise, he agrees. Once a month she visits him to take his blood, in which time they discover how much they have in common, including a shared thirst for knowledge. Lilith’s God is a jealous God however, who will not take well to her associating with or experimenting on a child of Nyaxia, nor will the religious zealots in her village. Soon it begins to catch up with them but will Lilith be able to create the cure before the consequences find them?

My thoughts

To be honest even if you haven’t read the series this book will work as a standalone. As someone who has read the series, it’s a nice addition to the story and I think it will become more relevant further into the main series. I like their relationship, it develops really naturally and the romantic tension throughout, plus the spice towards the end is really good. I really like Lilith as a character, so I hope we’ll see more of her. I thought the ending was clever and gives a really nice window as to how Vale arrives into the story in book 2. I actually think you could read this before book 2 and get a lot out of it but after will work just as well.