The Serpent and The Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

Synopsis:

Human or vampire, the rules of survival are the same: never trust, never yield, and always – always – guard your heart.

The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself.

But winning won’t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival.

Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father’s crown… and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him.

But there’s no room for compassion in the Kejari. War for the House of Night brews, shattering everything that Oraya thought she knew about her home. And Raihn may understand her more than anyone – but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.

Tina's Review

@inkedinmudd

Rating: 🧡🧡🧡🧡

A book with vampires? A book with vampires with wings? Say absolutely nothing else. That was my initial thought process for this book. That and I had to see what the crazy insane hype was surrounding this book and the author.

There were some areas of the book where I would have loved more info regarding how things came to be or why things were in place. You get minimal world-building in this story, and for some situations, I just think we needed a little more detail than what we got. Also, some things felt bland in the world-building, and I couldn't flesh out detailed images while reading. Sometimes that leaves a disconnect between the story and myself that I would have loved if it had been stronger.

That said, I understand why the book has so much hype, but it didn't quite hit its mark for me. I wanted so much more out of it that I didn't get. Even still, it was alright, and I would pick up the second book and the author's other works.

Jessica's Review

Rating: 💙💙💙💙

When I think of fantasy, vampires are a must. I was super excited to read this book, not only because of the hype behind it because of the vampires. I enjoy reading peoples versions of vampires. Some have the same characteristics, and some are different. I love the characters in this book, the different personalities were the best part. I do wish there was a little bit more of the world building because for fantasy this book left a lot to be desired. The trials were magnificent, and they really made the book. The moon palace sounded magical and dangerous at the same time. Vincent ( one of my favs) is deff morally gray and you could definitely feel the love he had for his daughter without him saying the L word. There are some twist and oh shit moments but I feel the book did not have the fantasy feel that I’m use to when reading these kinds of books. It was in all a good book and I would recommend it. Will deff be reading the second book to see how things go!

Taylor's Review

@25thavenuewest

Rating: 🖤🖤🖤🖤

Ahhh, here we are. The end of another book. But how will I review this one? Because I’m still not sold on how I feel.

I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either.

Oraya was a very dry, stiff character at the beginning, which makes sense for who she is. So it was nice to see her melt a little and really start to think for herself. That being said, I really didn’t like that she allowed Vincent to consume her thoughts and actions. She basically functioned for him. Which, eh, isn’t my favorite with a strong FMC.

Raihn was the comedic relief, sarcastic, beef-cake we all needed. His character is mysterious and suspicious at first, which also set his story up nicely too.

I think my real issue was sometimes too many words are used to tell a story, and I think a little of that happened here. There’s a lot of flowery verbiage used, and while I understand it’s a fantasy novel, I just felt like that could have been cut down. The predictability of it all also had me a little annoyed. I expect things to blow my mind in a fantasy novel, so that’s 100% a me thing.

I’m not mad I read it, all 482 pages, but I can say I’m not eager to jump into book two.