Antonia Bernardin

My 3rd read of 2025 was The Songbird and the Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent, the third book in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, this is the beginning of a new duology following other characters in the series.

You can read my review of book 1: ‘The Serpent and the Wings of Night’, book 2: ‘The Ashes and the Star Cursed King‘ and the novella ‘Six Scorched Roses‘.

A plot summary attempt

This story follows Mische, sometime after the events at the end of book 2. Her restless nature and heartbreak over her God turning his back on her lead Mische to leave behind Raihn and Oraya and continue exploring the world. Unfortunately, she is caught at the edge of the Bloodborn vampire territory, home to the family of her sire that she, kind of, also, murdered during the war in book 2. Even with her death imminent, her God still doesn’t respond but when she is bought before the Bloodborn king for her ‘crime’, she’s rescued at the last minute by the infamous Bastard son of the King, Asar, who guards the mystical prison that sits over the gateway to death.

She’s taken under the guise of becoming another prisoner but when she arrives Asar reveals that he has been given a task by the vampire God Nyaxia: to revive her dead husband, who once was the God of death. As it was Mische’s God, the Sun God, who killed him and put protections in place to prevent his resurrection, someone like Mische with Sun magic is needed to complete the task. That night her God finally visits her, for the first time she was made a vampire, and commands her to go on this journey with Asar and then use one of the relics they are to gather on the way to kill the God of death once and for all, because a God cannot kill another God but Mische can.

Asar, Mische, a human who also wields sun magic and one of the Bloodborn guards, begin a journey through the realms of death, collecting relics the God of death left behind, which can be used to resurrect him but only once they’ve ascended to the deepest level of death. Mische starts to question the tenants of her faith and their task the further they travel and the more she gets to know Asar. Could she betray him? Is her God worth the sacrifice?

My thoughts

I really enjoy this series, I think the world building is super interesting, with the intertwining of Greek God esq figures with vampires and magic. I really like Mische and Asar’s character’s, even if the literalness of the grumpy vs sunshine trope was a bit on the nose in this case, I did really enjoy their dynamic. This story explores Mische’s faith but also digs into the nature of someone who is a people pleaser being confronted by someone who notices them and tries to take of her, which was some personal therapy I didn’t expect to come from a romantasy if I’m being honest. I think it’s a good continuation of this series and is building towards some bigger overarching plot involving the Gods that seems pretty interesting.