Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

204 reviews

ginnymiglierina's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romance between a human and a vampire could never end well…and it doesn’t. The friendship and romance between Oraya and Raihn, full of banter and rawness and half-truths, develops organically and is so satisfying to read, even with its dark twist at the end. The last 60 or so pages had me in a chokehold - it felt like the end of a SJM book. 

The story is well paced, the action doesn’t drag out too long and the “slower” parts are still animated and interesting. I think the tournaments and trials are becoming a little overdone in fantasy books and it feels like reading different versions of the same book - especially when there is a more or less powerless human who is somehow stronger than anyone with powers or other creatures and manages to defeat the opposition. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the story and world building and I’m interested to see what happens with the rest of the series!
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svershon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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radiergummi15's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Warning: slight spoilers, but only for general vibes + context for content warning


Very addictive, good plottwists and cliffhangers, interesting themes (humanity & power(lessness)), not my favorite romance, but still enjoyable. Very interesting parent-child dynamic. I don't know how to handle the ending though (in good and bad ways). Do look up the content warnings and please be aware that the way this book handles the topic of sexual assault might be disturbing to some due to (main) characters making explicit threats about it. Also don't pick this up if you don't want morally gray main characters.
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boba_n_books's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️ / 5

The Serpent and the Wings of Night is my first Carissa Broadbent book, and suffice it to say I am HOOKED.

Oraya is the adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Vincent, and throughout her 23 years, her father has taught her to do away with her humanity and embrace the vampiric way of life. She is taught time and time again that she can trust no one and that she is prey in a world full of predators. Vincent has always wanted Oraya to be more than just a human, and her chance to do that comes in the form of the Kejari: a legendary tournament hosted by Nyaxia, the goddess of death and mother of all vampires. Oraya is the only human in the tournament and underestimated by most of the other competitors, except for one. She is forced to create an alliance with Raihn, who is a ruthless vampire and an enemy to her father's crown. Despite all of her instincts and training telling her to stay away, Oraya finds herself innately drawn to Raihn for reasons she can't quite explain, and that terrifies her. Especially because, though they may be allies for now, there can only be one victor at the end. 

The author does an excellent job building this world slowly and through anecdotes instead of just telling readers everything about it. I enjoyed the entirety of this book, but once I hit the last 100 pages, just like in a Sarah J. Maas book, sh!t started to go down. And I was here for it. When my husband tried to talk to me, I wouldn't listen because I was that engrossed in the story. 

Broadbent has a way of drawing you in, and the first-person POV helps you truly understand Oraya and come to love her despite her standoffish demeanor and ruthlessness. Though I read a lot of fantasy romance novels, I can assure you this one will stick with me for a long time. 
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savannahsshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Wowwowow! This book really grabbed me by the throat I absolutely loved it and cannot wait to read the next book! For me this is more like a 4.75⭐️ than a 5 but damn it was close and I cannot wait to read more of this series and this author
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cosy_aims's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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literarymary95's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I don't know why but I was not a fan of this book. I'm still planning to read the sequel but hopefully that one's better.
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heyz0mbiez's review against another edition

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3.5

Spoilers:

This was going to be a 5/5 read until the very end. No issue with the plot twists though I kindve expected them, but Oraya was set up to have so much rage and anger and at the end she just--- gives up? She just goes along with this forced marriage without even fighting back? "But she was in love with him!" Who gives a fuck? He literally killed her father right in front of her, betrayed her, and made a complete fool out of her after she gave up everything to save his life. Why is she not as enraged as i am? Overall, a pretty large let down to a story I otherwise enjoyed up until that point. Might increase my rating to 4 after I stop being so angry about it

Outside of then plot, I really loved the writing style of the book. The prose hooked me with the first two paragraphs. It wasn't so purple that it was excessive, but definitely more elaborate and descriptive than I've come to expect from modern fantasy.
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time4tori2read's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent brought me back to fantasy after being on hiatus from the genre because of SJM. Broadbent's writing and character development lived up to the hype, and I enjoyed every minute of the book. I do wish some characters were given more page time, and from what I hear, Broadbent is writing stories just for those characters which I'm excited to dive into. The pacing, dialogue, and characters were all well-developed, and I found the challenges exciting. I enjoyed that the reader was not inundated with world-building prose and that it developed naturally to help me frame the characters in their world without distracting me from it. I hope the next book gives us a little more ambience and world building to fully understand it. 

I would like it moving forward if there could be a content warning at the start of the book and also if the glossary of terms could be mentioned in a table of contents or beginning author's note so that readers would know to easily reference it. I LOVEEEEE that Broadbent did this, and I think that more fantasy authors should take a page out of her book as it helped reorient me and clarify any of my confusion (without me having to page through previous chapters). 
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natashaleighton_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Vampires are back with a bang in this breathtakingly pacy and deliciously addictive fantasy from Carissa Broadbent. Blending heart-stopping action and slow burn romance with a plot twisty, Hunger Games style premise that had me utterly HOOKED! 

The world-building was (to paraphrase Mary Poppins) practically perfect: vividly descriptive without slowing down the plot with unnecessary exposition, but also not too fast that the story (or our characters’ progression) feels rushed either— an impressive feat that even the most well established authors often struggle with. 

But not Broadbent, who navigates her way through intricately woven character arcs and shocking plot twists like a literary Machiavelli; pulling strings and stealing hearts with her evocative prose. 

I’m also happen to be a sucker for well written characters so loved the attention to detail (and three dimensionality) we see in protagonists Oraya and Raihn as they navigate the complex and brutal vampire hierarchy, it’s never ending power struggles and life-threatening court intrigues. 

As a human raised by a Vampire King (after the death and destruction of her entire village), Oraya has learned to survive in a world that only sees her as prey. So exploring her compelling & resilient journey, alongside the scorchingly intense attraction building between her and rival contestant Raihn was marvellous! 

The enemies turned reluctant allies were both in depth and engaging characters who, surprisingly, have waay more in common than I first thought. But I also loved some of the supporting cast too, particularly Mische, whose perky, sunshine-y demeanour had me rooting for them every step of the way too! 

I don’t want to spoil anything (particularly Raihn’s heartfelt disclosure of his past) so all I will say is that I enjoyed getting to explore both of their poignant backstories, flaws and conflicted inner feelings - as they attempt to fight their way to victory.

Overall, an enthrallingly intense, vampire centric Romantasy that fans of Hunger Games, True Blood or Buffy The Vampire Slayer should definitely consider checking out. 

And also, a huge thank you to Pan MacMillan and Bookbreak for the stunning PB copy.
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