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boba_nbooks 's review for:

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
4.5
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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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