A review of all the books by Carissa Broadbent

Now that I’ve read a fair few books by this author and because some of the worlds of the different books are starting to cross into one another, I thought it’d be useful to compile them in one place.

All these reviews are my thoughts at the time of reading, as I posted it back then, I’ve just gathered them together. Use the index beow to jump to a particular book you are interested in.

The Serpent and the Wings of Night – Book 1 – Crowns of Nyaxia

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!

Six Scorched Roses – Book 1.5 – Crowns of Nyaxia

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.

The Ashes and the Star Cursed King – Book 2 – Crowns of Nyaxia

A brief plot summary

This book follows immediately after the big ending of book 1. With her father gone and Raihn as the new heir to the throne, Oraya is faced with the only option that would allow her to survive: she must marry him. Now she finds herself once again held captive in her old bedroom, brought low by grief and a betrayal from one of the few people she could trust. Raihn’s position as ruler is fragile, most of his own people will not follow a former slave, or oppose his alliance with the House of Blood, an alliance which is also on shaky ground. Oraya slowly finds some of her old courage and begins to work on her revenge on Raihn from within the confines of the House of Night. Eventually, it appears the forces working against them both are bigger than they could have foreseen and they are faced with the choice: work together or die.

My thoughts

I enjoyed this book just as much as the first, the spicy tension was just *chefs kiss*, the big battle was heart pounding and it even brought me to tears a couple times. I listened to this as an audio and I would really recommend it, it switches POV’s between the two MC’s and uses a male and female narrator for the each character. This probably one of the more enjoyable new fantasy series still coming out at the moment, it’s right up there with Fourth Wing.

Slaying the vampire conqueror – Book 2.5 – Crowns of Nyaxia

Summary attempt

Sylina is an orphaned street kid turned trained assassin in service of the Goddess of fate. This order requires so much devotion that they eyes are taken, so that their senses can be opened to the Threads. Unlike the other acolytes Sylina joined the order at a much older age and that means she knew a life outside of the Salt Keep. Her city was invaded and she escaped the War and took refuge at the keep, so she owes them, her Goddess and The Sight Mother everything but she’s never been quite able to let go of the anger left in her after the war. When their country is invaded by a vampire conqueror, The Sight Mother decides that this fire left in Sylina makes her the perfect candidate to go undercover in his army acting as his Seer and pretending to be on the run from the order as a dissident.

She successfully infiltrates the army and as she looks for Atrius’s weakness’s, she is shocked to receive orders to not use her seer gifts to slow down or prevent his gradual invasion of Glaea. She is to focus on the mission of his death and nothing else. With her past, this doesn’t quite sit right with Sylina and, as she grows closer to Atrius, seeing how he operates and understanding the plight of his people, she begins to question everything.

My thoughts

So, it’s been a minute since I read books 2 and 3 but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how this ties into the overall narrative. For 1.5 I understood the context but there’s so many houses, so many nations mentioned in the course of this series, I honestly couldn’t have told you how this ties into the main story.

This book is genuinely enemies to lovers in a way that begins slow burn but heats up pretty quickly. Their relationship progress was really well written and I liked that the main character is a badass and that the male MC recognises that throughout. However, I didn’t enjoy this as much as other books in the series but I can’t really pinpoint why… it just felt quite slow? It’s a lot of battle followed by time in a camp followed by a battle and so on. I thought the ending was pretty satisfying and I’m starting to see this picture the author is building of how everything that has happened in the overall series is related to the machinations and feuds of the Gods- it all feels very reminiscent of the stories of the Greek Gods, except these are the stories in action.

The Songbird and the Heart of Stone – Book 3 – Crowns of Nyaxia

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.

The Fallen and the kiss of dusk – Book 4 – Crowns of Nyaxia

A summary attempt

This book picks up after Mische’s sacrifice at the end of book 3, she is now in the land of the dead, as one of the dead. Asar has been taken by the God’s and is being held in their city. They don’t know what to do with Asar and the piece of divinity inside of him, plus they have no idea how they are going to bring the sun back. Mische begins to journey through death with the surprising assistance of Victor, The Nightborn King (Oraya’s father from book 1). The underworld is breaking apart and Victor seems to think Mische can fix it. Asar breaks out of the land of the God’s with the help of fate and travels the web that covers the world which only Gods can travel to pull Mische from the underworld.

Together, they set out to find the God touched pieces left behind by the God of death, to complete Asar’s ascendence to divinity and hopefully save the underworld. Except the God’s don’t want them to have that kind of power and Nyaxia is angry that Asar didn’t complete their bargain and she is too wrapped in her war with the other Gods to care about the underworld collapses, taking the earth with it. Asar hopes to find a way to truly return Mische to the land of the living but can he do it without losing touch with his humanity? Can they save the world from a war between the Gods?

My thoughts

Honestly, I am having trouble keeping track of all the lore of the Gods in this series. I don’t know if it’s the gap between when I’ve read each book or if it’s not being explained thoroughly enough. That aside, this series has definitely evolved to a different style than where it started, we’re very much now in a story of the Gods and their wars. It’s very epic and in the middle of it all is Mische and Asar’s love story, although the things keeping them apart in this book are more to do with Mische’s death and Asar’s divinity. I liked how their story wraps up however. We also see characters from the novellas Six Scorched Roses and Slaying the Vampire Conquerer in this book and see a little more of how those stories tie into the main story.

I did like this book, I think that people who started reading this series because they were told it was just your basic romantasy aren’t going enjoy the later books as much.

Daughter of no worlds – The War of Lost Hearts – book 1

A plot summary attempt

The story opens with the moment when Tisaanah is taken from everything she knows as a child and sold into slavery, saved from going to the mines like the rest of her family because of her magic and her beauty. The story jumps into the future when she is an adult, where she is owned by a powerful and wealthy man and made to dance in his clubs. It’s during one of these performances that a generous tip from a patron, which is the only part of her earnings that she’s allowed to keep, finally gets her to the price her master set for her freedom. When she goes to buy her freedom he becomes enraged, nearly whipping her to death, except Tisaanah accidentally ends up killing him with her magic instead.

She escapes, leaving across the sea to pursue her dream of joining one the magical Orders. They agree to train her but she must complete an apprenticeship first, Tisaanah is keen to return to the place she was enslaved with the power of the Order to free them all, so she manages to convince them to let her take her exams early. To her dismay, however, there’s only one person left to train her: Maxcentarius. Max is as estranged from the Orders as you can be as someone still under oath to them and at first he refuses to train her, until her learns of her past and why she’s so desperate to become a full fledged member. As he trains her Tisaanah discovers that Max has a lot of secrets from the last war behind his reasons for hating the Orders but even his distrust of them cannot dissuade her from her plan, too many people sacrificed to get her to this point. With war coming to their borders again and the Order’s interest in Tisaanah somehow tied up in this war, Max doesn’t realises the past is repeating itself until it’s too late.

My review

As you can tell by how hard this book was to summarise, there is a lot to it! I really enjoyed this book, the world is so rich, the magic system is different to a lot of other book around at the moment and I really loved the characters. Tisaanah is more than just some one dimensional book heroine, her magic isn’t unusually remarkable, her journey isn’t smooth. She is funny and smart, stubborn to her own detriment and the way her and Max’s relationship changes is really beautiful, so is the way Max himself starts to change. This is maybe a little dense to consume as an audio like I did, if you aren’t a regular audio listener but I really enjoyed it, especially as it got me through a particularly long drive on the boring UK motorways. I’ll definitely be continuing this series and I’ll be hunting for more Carissa Broadbent books.

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