The Serpent and the Wings of the Night Book Review

 The Serpent and the Wings of the Night 

By Carissa Broadbent 

Series : Crowns of Nyaxia #1 

Published Year : 2022

Page Count : 450 pages

Medium used : Paperback

Genre : Fiction, Fantasy, Vampires, Romance, Young Adult, Adventure, 2024-read. 

Rating : 3.75/5 ⭐⭐⭐💫

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Its an okayish read for me. At times I found myself wondering if this story is for real. A human girl fights and wins against hard-core vampires through sheer brute force and some magical abilities that she doesn't really know how to wield. She summons them in case of need but that doesn’t work always. I read the whole book and I am just as clueless, about why she is called a serpent, at the end as I was at the start. She is clearly raised with messages of wanting and needing self protection and self denial from associating with vampires in her father's(the Vampire King) court because she is a human. Why is she called a snake/serpent? Is there some part of her history that is not disclosed at this point?

On the whole, the story is fresh and plot riveting. I felt the writing got better as the narrative progressed. The final few pages had my heartbeat doing major skips. The surprise and suspense is totally worth the read. Though some aspects to the narrative felt forced and convoluted, just taking this book as a work of fantasy, imaginative fiction helps. Liked the characters well enough and would definitely pick the next book in the series! 

A human girl is raised by the King of Vampires as a very protected and sheltered daughter. His precious jewel. She has a pass time hobby of wanting to help humans by hunting down and slaying vampires at night. This is unknown to her father - who we learn is not the most benevolent of kings/vampires. She is put forward into a competition to win the crown of Nyaxia, the goddess mother to all night creatures, the vampires. She pairs up with a ravishing and humane vampire named Raihn to be her partner in the games. They fall deeply in love with each other. The final level of the game has them both pitted against each other in a most ruthless and pitiless maneuver. She wins but also doesn't really win. Raihn has ulterior motives but they are not sinister either. The father does more sacrifice than is to be expected from a ruthless dictator. It's an okay read on the whole! :)