Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: Self Published

Tags: Fantasy, Vampires, Magic, Tournament, Romantasy *TW Blood thirsty, Violence, Brutality, Strong Mention of Past Rape 

Length: 504 Pages

Reviewer: Kazza

Purchase At: amazon

Blurb:

For humans and vampires, 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.

The Serpent and the Wings of Night is the first book in a new series of heart-wrenching romance, dark magic, and bloodthirsty intrigue, perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses

Review: 

But they were fighting for power. I was fighting for survival.

Another fantasy book that’s been hard to review. I bought this because I love vampires. I love bloody vampires, yet the primary voice throughout is human, Oraya. The book offered me the potential for a kickarse heroine. I’m always up for that. I also loved the cover. So I one-clicked. The title is a mouthful and I still forget it, even as I’m typing this review. The story though, that I do remember.

Oraya was plucked, when young, from the debris of a house by Vincent, King of the Nightborn vampires. From the beginning he knew she had fight in her. She bit his guards and him. She seemingly stared death in the face and was defiant, his little serpent. He knows she wonders about her human family. However, Vincent has shut her down from young whenever she enquired, so she learned to stop asking but she’s never stopped thinking about them.

I knew the logical answer. Human lives were so fragile. Yet it still didn’t stop the dark corners of my mind from wandering. Wondering where they were. Wondering how they had suffered. Wondering if any of them remembered me.  

Those thoughts are encouraged by a friend, Ilana, who lives in a district ruled over by Vincent’s House. She is a blood vendor, a human who allows vampires to feed from her. On one of her trips to the palace, Ilana meets the then fourteen-year-old Oraya and Ilana makes a lasting impression. Ilana always wears colourful clothes, she is stubborn, full of human thoughts and feelings, all of which pulls Oraya magnetically to her. If Vincent is her father, then Ilana is her mother, but only in secret, because she either meets her at the palace when she’s acting as a vendor or Oraya sneaks out to visit her. They’ve known each other for six years. A lot longer than other blood vendors last. Ilana encourages Oraya to move away, to live life somewhere far away from vampires and their politicking and violence, but this is home, how could she leave Vincent? As Oraya is older Vincent ventures more information to her about the day he took her home. The Rishan attacked the area and it remains their territory so he cannot take her there. Nyaxia won’t allow him to intercede on her behalf in another House’s territory.

Oraya has been trained by Vincent since young. He has made sure she knows that she is prey and that she needs to be faster, better, to aim for the heart of a vampire, to thrust so hard into their ribcage that they don’t stand a chance. She’s also been coached to do away with human emotions, they are for the weak. Vincent is a vampire, a powerful one, and that sets up a complex Family or Origin for Oraya. Vincent was so well portrayed as a father who uses emotional duality to keep her his daughter obedient safe. On one hand he has kindness, the kindness is relative, he’s a vampire, not human. On the other he has ruled over her life like the Nightborn king he is. He also makes sure she remembers her human frailties. He drills in that any errors made, whether Vampire or human, are either you were wrong or in the wrong place. There are no allowances. Mistakes lead to death in a vampiric world. Which you can see as a kindness given the environment she finds herself growing up in. However, every which way you spin it – and I found Vincent to be both intriguing and mesmerising, he absolutely lights up the page – by his very temperament, his is a toxic paternal role.

When you’re young, fear is debilitating. Its presence clouds your mind and senses. Now, I had been afraid for so long, so ceaselessly, that it was just another bodily function to regulate—heartbeat, breath, sweat, muscles. Over the years, I’d learned how to hack the physicality of it away from the emotion.

***

Vincent’s moon-silver eyes narrowed at me. “You’re an insolent brat, little serpent.” He never sounded more affectionate than when he was insulting me. Maybe it meant something that both Ilana and Vincent cradled their tenderness in harsh words. They were so different from each other in every other sense. But maybe this place made all of us that way. Taught us to hide love in sharp edges.

In this world of vampires, love is definitely hidden in sharp edges. Love can be hoped for by Oraya, but at the same time she implicitly knows that if she opens herself up to it, she’s in danger. She ponders if Vincent loves her, she believes he does but with a degree of reservation. The psychological world building is stellar in this book. Vincent could be ruthless. On the other hand, he would protect Oraya. He’s bandaged her wounds. Kept her on a separate floor of his palace to keep her apart from potential predators. He brings her human medicine that heals her. Before the Kejari, he gives her intel on some of her opponents, and also gives her specially crafted knives that have (refillable) poison hilts so she has an edge. It all seems so conflicting at times that Oraya feels unworthy. 

No doubt several generations of Nightborn kings rolled in their graves to think of such a weapon wielded by an adopted human girl. I felt as if I was tainting these simply by touching them.
“These are…” I started again.
“They are yours,” Vincent said quietly. As if he heard everything I didn’t say.

Throughout the book, and before the Kejari trials, there are some Interludes. These were magic parts for me. They show you the development of Oraya, from a child to a young woman. There is often trauma in the words, like recollections of rape – yet she calls her rapist her “lover” in an Interlude; she was young in a tough world and thought it was love. The Interludes are generally written in a quite dissociative manner. As time progresses, there is far more of a questioning and awareness. The incongruous nature of Vincent can be more readily seen, and yet, you feel deeply for him and his vampiric care for Oraya. Kudos to Carissa Broadbent for her handling of the psychological aspects throughout the book. The fear, the doubt, the anger, wanting to trust, the longing, love, all of it is a palpable, living, breathing entity. 

To be human, and thus safe, is romanticised by Oraya, because if she thinks about what happens to the humans in Sivrinaj districts, it is far from safe. It is also unpalatable. But she compartmentalises the fact that humans are livestock. They’re food. Oraya hates her human weakness, that she is prey to basically everyone around her. It leaves her constantly in a state of fight or flight. Always waiting for someone to trick her. Best her. To bleed her dry. She loves Vincent, inasmuch as she knows the word love, but then she also hates vampires, of which he is their king, but then he is her father…. So, turmoil. No matter how much you want to sit on it, no matter the quieter moments, the environment conflicts her. She goes out on a nightly vampire killing run in the rundown, poverty stricken human districts. Really, it gives her a sense of justice which allows her to tamp down her anger. Vincent doesn’t know because it’s a punishable offence. But it is a big old vampire FU from Oraya.    

He didn’t even stir when I approached. Nor did he move when I took my dagger and plunged it into his chest—pushing hard until the cartilage cracked, pushing until the blade pierced his heart.
Then, his eyes finally snapped open.
Good. I liked to watch it when they realized death was coming for them. 

Then there’s the Kejari. The world building around the Kejari is brutally vivid. There is complete and utter carnage. Nyaxia, the vampire’s deity, their Dark Mother, is a cruel and twisted being, making those who choose the Kejari reenact her time spent being hunted and tortured by the White Pantheon because of unsanctioned love. She was blinded, starved, demons hunted her, etc, and the five trials reflect and represent all of these experiences she had – on freaking steroids. Fifty start off and bit by bit they pick each other off, as well as fighting demons and other things of nightmares. By the Half Moon trial, half of the combatants are dead. You think Nyaxia might have gained some insight from her torture, but no, Mother Vampire likes to inflict the Kejari every hundred years. The milk of black-red blood flows eternal in her veins.  

In the background there is the burning question as to whyyyy Vincent agreed to take in Oraya, a human. Whyyyy he allows Oraya – again, a twenty-year-old human – to take part in the Kejari. Something full of older and more powerful vampires. It can be argued he did what he did for Oraya. It can also be argued he sees a dominant outcome if she wins. Also, our girl Oraya has magic going on, so there’s something telling us she’s probably more than human. That maybe there is more to the story than Oraya knows. Then there’s the fact that Vincent has covert happenings at the same time as the Kejari. He knows Oraya is spurred on to find her human family but that seems a tad off-brand for Vincent’s nature in and of itself. 

What I didn’t realize then was that vampires lived in constant fear of their own family. Immortality made succession a bloody, bloody business. Even Vincent had murdered his parents—and three siblings—to gain his title. Vampires killed their parents for power, then crippled their own children to keep them from doing the same.

Oraya partially believes what she has been told, that Nyaxia will grant a wish to the winner. She’s not into dark deities being real, but Vincent won the Kejari two-hundred-years ago, and look where he is? The wish she wants is for Nyaxia to allow her to become Vincent’s Coriatae. His heart-bound. The stuff of vampiric legend. If she becomes a Coriatis, she is no longer human and becomes a vampire without having been vampire-born, and all with no risk of chancing Turning. Also, a HUGE fact, she cannot kill Vincent. This would make Vincent and Vincent’s House nigh on invincible. Is this about love or power?

No one but the two of them know why she’s in the Kejari. Most are in it for power, a big duh there, and to defeat Vincent. Oraya is motivated by survival and love and that’s complex because there is love for Vincent the father figure, then there’s Vincent the vampire king. And, of course, there’s the strong pull of seeming biology driving her. So, hmmm, how’s this going to play out if the human wins? If only someone placed a bet on it. Oh, wait….     

There is a eventually a relationship, a very, verrryyy slow burn relationship between Oraya and another competitor in the Kejari, Raihn, a Rishan vampire. Meaning a threat and an enemy of the Hiaj. Meaning her father. Meaning the vampires that destroyed her home. He’s a rare Turned vampire. Raihn is there with a friend, Mische, who is the most human vampire Oraya has ever encountered. Mische finds the good in everything, is kind, has humour. This both scares and attracts Oraya because she sees Ilana in Mische. She can’t work Raihn out, though. She finds him hard to read. He has a sense of humour, like Mische, but then uses Asteris as a performative kill at a gathering before the Kejari. Asteris is magic rumoured to be from the stars and is an incredibly powerful, rarer magic that is best described as your opponent(s) being obliterated by a blast. Raihn also does things like leaning against windows, staring at the sun rising or setting, and even though it hurts, he constantly pushes the boundaries around it. Raihn and Vincent share Asteris as a magic. Raihn seems too chill to be a vampire to Oryaya, add his magic and power, and it doesn’t join the dots. That’s because Raihn is like finding her father in another vampire and allowing him in, only this time it’s with all the romantic feels.  

Where Oraya finds Raihn enigmatic, he knows how to read her in most, but not all, circumstances. She surprises him with her tenacity and attitude. However, he does know where her sympathies and fears lie – with Vincent, liking those who are human or close to it – like Mische, even Raihn because he can pass as human. He knows that Oraya, while caring for humans, also feels a weakness in that longing. Still, she doesn’t quite trust him. Raihn does a number of things that appear genuine, but Vincent’s voice is always in her head. You. Cannot. Trust. Anyone. But. Me, little serpent.

“Think about why a Rishan would want to get close to you, Oraya. You.”

Ouch! 

The Half Moon trial of the Kejari requires team work and Raihn wants her to work with him. Even though Oraya knows she needs to work with someone else, it’s still hard to let him in. When she finally agrees, she basically won’t train with him for some time for fear of him using it against her at the next trial. She has been emotionally stripped back and isolated over her years in the House of Night. Thus she has been socially isolated from anyone who may be worth being around. Outside of Ilana, and no real spoiler here, Ilana is human and therefore becomes livestock, she’s lived by one vampire’s ideas and rules.

The men in Oraya’s life do use her in one way or another. This is done via couching all their feelings for her in love, affection, and safety, which definitely aren’t always truths. But she’s made and makes allowances for them: Her lover, the rapist mentioned in an Interlude, her father, who does care albeit with power as his main affect, and Raihn, who also seemingly has an agenda. Even when he does develop feelings for Oraya, those feelings come co-mingled with a vampiric need for payback and power.   

Some extra stuff:

These vampires have wings and Oraya’s description of them makes them sound beautiful. She also has opportunity to fly. What a buzz.

Food: One part of the Kejari starves them because, of course, Nyaxia was starved in her hellscape of an existence that the Kejari is based off. From about the 70ish percent mark Oraya didn’t eat. She was in the middle of a violent tournament and she had given blood to Raihn to help his bloodlust when they were all starved, she’d previously given blood to the Ministaer as a deal with the religious and creepy, she was wounded, emotionally worn down. I was waiting for mention of food at some stage after the starvation portion of the Kejari. The Moon Palace had previously provided both solid food and blood offerings to the competitors. From then on Oraya just remained food absent. It actually worried me. I finished the book stressed with one thought –  ‘won’t somebody please give our girl some food!’ 

Overall:

I want to mention that these books are well priced. Over 500 pages and much less in AUS$ than some of its contemporaries in the genre. As of today’s date it costs AUS $10.62. Some of these fantasy/ romantasy books I’ve been paying nearly $20 AUS for.

I really liked this book. I think the writer has great ideas and a lovely style of writing. Vincent was this larger than life character full of contradictions, I do love that type of character in my books. Like Oraya, it’s hard to know exactly what he’s thinking. He is very much a slave to his nature, and that can be taken any way you choose. I liked Oraya, she fought hard on several fronts. She kept getting up physically and emotionally. I wasn’t so keen on Raihn. He has yet to win me over. This book had a twist with a cliffhanger-esque ending. To be perfectly honest, you could read this book and stop here. I liked it enough to buy the next one featuring Oraya and Raihn, The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King. I believe this is a duology. I’d like to see where it goes and if there is an actual romance that fully takes root because they could be good together, or they could be messy. Either is fine by me. I’ll let you know. 4 Stars!