The Serpent And The Wings Of Night, by Carissa Broadbent

Dive into a land of vampires, magic, gods and the one human who plans to conqour them all. Carissa Broadbent captivates the imagination with this intoxicating dive into fantasy.

From the blurb;

'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 to enter the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the godess of death herself.

'But winning won't be easy against the most vicious warriors from all three vampire Houses. To survive, Oraya will be 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 strangely drawn to him.

'But there's no room for compassion in the Kejari - and nothing more deadly than love...'

Broadbent throws us into the depths of Oraya's world and dosn't wait for us to catch up.

The Serpent And The Wings Of Night absoloutly pulled me back into reading after a good month of reading-hangover. Broadbent quickly and surely crafts her world and paints us a picture of rupunzel-esc kick-ass bady in Oraya. We get a fast pace walk through her life before being thrust into the mind-bending, edge of your seat action, of the Kejari which is a stunning movement of political power plays, survival and an introduction to the Gods.

Trapped within the realms of the Kejari Broadbent wraps us up in the competition and life-or-death stakes of these once in a centuary games overseen by the God of the Vampires, allowing us to grow our understanding of this complex and diverse world through the characters we meat in the games. Standing out of course we have our love intrest, Raihn and his infusiastic and bubbly best friend Mische, who together enlighten Oraya's world view and expand our understanding of this complex political narritave as readers.

If your into slow-burn romance intermixed with gore filled action sequences then The Serpent And The Wings Of Night does not dissapoint. The tantalising will-they-won't-they that plays between Oraya and Raihn as the games develop only brings the bitter sweet reality that the games are a fight to the death into sharper focus and this struggle between the characters moves a lot of the emotional weight of the story forward.

Meanwhile outside the Kejari we get breif glimpses of another kind of fight for survival, this one a web of political systems and convulouted social dances that Oraya barley understands as her mortal mind fights to comprhend the hundreds of years of a Vampire lifetime and the complex relationships that this blooms between long-lived individuals.

Broadbent creates her Vampires in a new way which is greatly appreciated to those of us long over the clasic tropes. These Vampires are born or made, with ghastly truthes to be accepted for those that are born in a world where succssion is primarily achieved through death, while those that are made are seen as lesser, creating a class system that carries weight throughout the series. These Vampires have some classic tropes, such as long lives, greater strength and speed, inability to be out in the sun, and a need for blood; but equally offer new ideas. Broadbent's Vampires are broken into four houses, each with it's own kind of magic skillset. This skillest and house is determined by blood or by sire and paints a unique layer onto the classic Vampire ideoligy. Set within their own land mass, we swiftly learn that the world in which Oraya lives is primarily a mortal one, with Vampires the abomination of one Gods bitterness. This design both traps Vampires into a world not designd for them, and creates a complex history which Broadbent hints at throughout the novel and leaves us wanting more from.

While Oraya see's herself as weak amongst the immortals she lives with it is easy for the reader to see her strengths and a joy to watch as she grows to undertand her true power throughout the novel.

I apprictiated the twists and turns laced throughout this book, many keepng me glued to the page long after I should have stopped reading, and the finale offering the most tantalising of twists of them all.

Though the book is read from Oraya 's perspective it is also broken down into parts, with each part opening with a glimpse of her past, seen in part through her relationship with her Vampire King Father Vincent. These tantalising glimpses into both their relationship and history become steadily more paramount to the overall arc of the story as we continue through it and offer breif reprives from the rushing action of the Kejari.

While elements of Broadbent's writting style may not be to everyones taste she does mange to captivate and successfully paints the visuals of her world and characters into the minds eye of the reader.

We give The Serpent And The Wings Of Night Four Stars

ISBN - 978-1035040957 Cover Price - £9.99

Frist Published in the UK 2023 by Tor