Rating: 5 Stars

Publisher: Self-Published

Tags: Fantasy, Romance, Vampires, Dark, Violence

Length: 504 Kindle Pages

Reviewer: Karen

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! 

Genre/Tags: Romantasy, Bloody, Violent, King, Queen, Goddesses, War, Fantasy, PNR **TW Blood. Death. Grief. Dark Elements.

Author: Carissa Broadbent 

Story Rating: 5 Stars

Narrator: Amanda Leigh Cobb & Aiden Snow

Narrator Rating: 5 Stars

Length: 19 hours & 27 minutes

Audiobook Buy Links: Audible or Amazon

Review: 

**THIS IS BOOK TWO OF WHAT IS CURRENTY A DUOLOGY FOR ORAYA AND RAIHN. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.  I ALSO USE ONE VISUAL DARKER QUOTE. 

Did you really think, Vincent whispered in the back of my mind, that I wouldn’t account for you, too, my little serpent? I flinched. Once, I’d craved his voice so fiercely. Now, it brought with it a wave of complicated emotions.

**There is a TLDR section at the bottom of this review with an overview.

So, I always knew this book would get off to a rocky start. Because Raihn, the vampire Oraya grew feelings for during the Kejari, and feelings are not something Oraya likes having, and the man she’s loved as her father for sixteen years, Vincent the Nightborn King, hmm, let’s just say they did not mesh well at the end of book #1, The Serpent & the Wings of Night.

This book picks up post Kejari, the vampire trial. Oraya is vacillating between sadness and anger, which can happen with grief, but then you add a layer of betrayal and you have a complex cocktail of feelings – sorry, Oraya, there’s that word again. The depressive grief wins out over betrayal for a while. Totally understandable.

My father lived in the hazy moments before I opened my eyes every day, caught between waking and dreaming. I treasured those moments, when my nightmares had faded but they’d yet to be replaced with the grim shadow of reality.

I know what it’s like to have people die. Family. Those you love easily, and those you’ve had a complex relationship with. It all hurts. However, a while after losing that person you had a complex relationship with can allow you to grow into your full potential. Not always, but often. I understood Oraya’s start to this book. The relational complications. All Vincent was to her and also wasn’t. The potential of Raihn who, understandably to her in the beginning, did not potentiate in the way she thought. Trusting someone when you have never allowed trust to form a part of your vocabulary, then feeling like that backflipped on you. I understand why some readers felt she needed to avenge Vincent. But Oraya is half vampire and that side understands the violent past and present of that nature. She is also half human and she has hurt for sometime about that, but had never been allowed to grieve it prior. She’s been lied to about it. Now, bit by bit, she has her emotional reins loosened about what that fully, holistically means for her. And you can’t keep a stabby gal down.

As Raihn is wont to say when Oraya gets pissed-off face or fires up, “There she is.” I know it annoyed some readers but I liked it. What it stood for. It was Raihn recognising what Oraya was feeling. That she was coming back into herself. Like at the Kejari when Oraya fought against almighty odds. Every time Raihn says “there she is,” Oraya was getting her dander up, at Raihn or someone or something else she didn’t like. It wasn’t always for the right reasons but, equally, it was also for the right reasons. It meant Oraya was on the journey to be who and what she is meant to be. Not who or what someone is telling her she could or could not be. Oraya is a fighter. She’s bloodthirsty. She’s a motherfucking queen and I was ready for her to shine.

Meanwhile, Raihn is dealing with a wife that is angry with him and hurt by him. He thinks about another woman in the past who showed him kindness when there was no other. Now, with Oraya’s pain, he is drawn back to that difficult time once again, and all because of another Kejari.

I got into bed, but didn’t sleep. Nessanyn’s words floated through my mind, this time with a cynical tinge that was distinctly mine.
Who wins?
Well, Nessanyn sure as fuck didn’t.
And Oraya didn’t, either.

Then there are the vampires who resent his newly found power and status as King after Nyaxia’s Heir Mark gift – Shadowborn, Hiaj, even his original house, Rishan, they’re predominantly gunning for him. The vampires who don’t want him in power can take a ticket and stand in (a very, very loooong) line. How dare a lowly Turned slave come out on top. How dare he become the Nightborn King. To add to all of this, he has residual trauma from over seventy-years spent as a slave under Neculai, then his time under Vincent’s and Hiaj rule. And the same goddammed nobles are still swanning around, being pricks. Raihn wears a smile, a sneer, gives occasional speeches like Neculai once did, but he does not get the same respect from the nobles. He married Oraya after the Kejari because she saved him – he loves her and wants her safe in return – but it seemed shady at the time. Oraya is the previous Hiaj Nightborn King’s daughter. In the Rishan’s minds she’s the enemy and he should have killed her. And as much as Raihn feels he puts on a good show, no matter if he pretends publicly to show cruelty toward Oraya, something these vampires all respect, it’s pretty unmistakable he has feelings for her. His crown is shaky as fuck for multiple reasons.

There are several attempts at easing into vampire society and none of them go well. Ballgowns and blood. On the first occasion, Raihn calls all the nobles to the Nightborn Palace in Sivrinaj to bow before him. It’s the norm but also risky. Things don’t go two thumbs up well. It’s not that he didn’t expect it, he did. He punishes one of the nobles, someone Raihn already loathes, when he calls Oraya a whore. Meaning he rips Marta’s head off, something I found extremely satisfying. However, Marta’s cousin and equally noble prick, Simon, won’t see it Raihn’s way. There’s going to become further support problems. And, my god, Simon turns into the freaking Terminator. Enjoy that! Anyway, in a shock move, Vale, one of the most respected Rishan vampire nobles, sweeps in and bows before Raihn, taking the offered position as his general. Vale has a newly Turned  wife as well. All in all, the first ballgowns and blood night scares a few, while mostly slapping a Band-Aid over the sharp edges of the vampire Houses. It’s simply buying time. Raihn has a few people behind him. Apart from Mische, his best friend, everyone else is somewhat sketchy. Including the most dodgy of them all, Septimus – he who likes to bet on outcomes and is all about self.

To make Raihn’s early fraught rein – cough cough – better, Septimus speculates that Vincent used seers when he was in power to give him an edge. There have been rumours. This could be valuable to Raihn if he can find those god blood pieces used by Vincent. Sure, it’s not the usual for vampires to use seers, but Vincent was incredibly powerful for his two-hundred-year reign. Searching the Nightborn Palace doesn’t yield much so there’s a push to find these items that Vincent probably would have hidden. He was nothing if not secretive. The directive is for Raihn to travel to Vincent’s original home town, Lahor. While it’s not realistically the best time, his shaky reign and all, Raihn wants Septimus off his back. If they do find some god blood items that’s a bonus for them, not him. Raihn, rightly, presumes Oraya will be interested in visiting Lahor to discover more about her father. Vincent shut down talk about his family as well. Road trip it is. Although they literally fly there.

Lahor is a remote city of the House of Night, and to put it mildly, a creepy shithole. This part of the story was extremely gory and giving Children of the Corn: Dystopian Vampire Edition vibes. We have Vincent’s crazed sister, Lady Eveleana, ruling a decrepit castle like it’s something out of Home Castle Beautiful, with her little army of vampiric Turned and bonded blondes who are way too young, giving it massive ick factor. And Eveleana is a traditionalist around humans – they’re prey and livestock. She’s also not shy about using a bit of vampire taxidermic lepidoptery as well. Runs in the family. Anyway….You just know there’s nothing good coming out of Eveleana’s backstory. In book #1 we learn what happens to the family line of a new King. Seeing the aftermath was something extra.

The Narrators: I was so, SO happy to have a male narrating alongside a female. I love it when authors do that. It makes the book better. There are romantasy books out there I refuse to buy in audio because they lack male narration for the MMC. I’m not alone in this as I talk to other readers. I already know and enjoy listening to Aiden Snow. He has a lovely deep-timbred voice. I must admit he wasn’t how I expected Raihn to sound but he was really, really good in his narration. Clear and strong and heartfelt. I’ve never heard Amanda Leigh Cobb previously but she has a good voice. Clear. I felt she truly embraced Oraya’s personality. My recommendation if you like a bit more of a visceral experience, go the audiobook version. The story lends itself beautifully to audio, and Cobb and Snow deliver.

Raihn: There was some wonderful growth for Raihn. I wasn’t Raihn’s biggest fan in The Serpent & the Wings of Night. Like the Hiaj’s head guard, Jesmine, once told Oraya about Raihn, ‘he’s pretty trouble’. I appreciated that. The whole Kejari ending was problematic and Raihn didn’t handle it well. I now know more about that. He didn’t have much of a choice once Oraya threw him for a loop with her decision to save him. He also knew what lay ahead. He would have to be somewhat leashed otherwise his sponsor, for want of another word, would pull support and much needed troops after Raihn’s bit of regicide. It left him in an untenable position and the last book ended badly for Oraya. Not quite Nessanyn bad, Neculai’s wife, she died, but Oraya has been left deeply hurt. No one is more aware of this than Raihn. But, man. He really let Oraya soar in this book. He let her come into her own and helped her step out from under Vincent’s shadow. I thought Vincent was an incredible character in book #1, and even though he’s dead, he gets poignant air time here. I enjoyed that. There is still that ruthlessness but also melancholy and the full understanding that love was something he just wasn’t able to fully connect to in a way  humans need. The author did an incredible job of delving into multiple complex relationships and doing them justice.

I stopped short.
I couldn’t help it. I needed to just take a minute to look at her. Her wings were out now, the red shockingly vibrant even under the moonlight. Her gown glittered like the night sky itself. And her posture– she held herself like such a queen.
Sometimes I found it impossible to imagine how Oraya had ever thought of herself as helpless. She was the most powerful person I’d ever met.

Oraya: I loved her in the first book, I loved her even more here. She can still hear Vincent in her head. Not quite as much, but often enough to help her fight. Not enough, though, to stop missing him. She’s mad at him for keeping pertinent details from her, both emotionally and from the standpoint of being the heir to the Hiaj crown. If she had become his Coriatis, as was planned, would he have shared it all then? She can use his sword, the Taker of Hearts, as it responds to Vincent’s blood within her. Her blood. She wields that sword well. She takes no shit from anyone once she gets her legs back underneath her. There is the justified hurt and anger toward Raihn, he killed Vincent. Toward Vincent for making her believe he was her only family. So yes, Oraya had some hurdles to overcome, but she did. She had to work out how to make the Hiaj vampire guards work with the Rishan’s. Rival Houses = no easy feat. Raihn was always there to nudge her but she was the one who took the steps. Then ran. She didn’t stop loving Vincent. Sadly, though, he never told her anything about her deceased mother, which she desperately wanted to know, and he absolutely could have given her that. But things took a turn. And even though she is dead, her mother came through for Oraya, and Raihn, too. A nice touch.

  All this time, I had been trying so desperately to decode my father’s past, my father’s secrets, to find the power I needed to reclaim my kingdom. How fitting that in the end, it was my mother who gave me the answer.

I cannot begin to plumb the depths of all the events in this book. It’s a lengthy read at 626 pages or a tick under 20 hours of audiobook listening. I actually started out reading then switched over to audiobook. There’s a lot going on. Multiple battles on multiple fronts, both personal and physical.  Multiple times when Raihn saves Oraya and vice versa. The Hiaj and Rishan guards working together is a first. Others join as well. Oraya and Raihn have a protective love of humans. Not something other vampires share with them. Humans are considered food. Oraya, though the Hiaj Queen, remains half human, Raihn remembers his time as a human and has always liked to mingle in amongst them, drinking their “piss beer.” While Oraya was healing her heart, Raihn had already put steps in place around the human districts. Together, the future looks bright.

TLDR: The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King offers plenty. Action. Bloodshed. Violence. Power struggles. My god, Simon becomes the freaking Terminator. I just kept thinking those iconic words –  ‘I’ll be back.’ Wow. Dude would not freaking die! There is the right balance of sex. Excellent world building. Multilayered character development. Excellent romance. Carissa Broadbent really poured her heart and soul into the MCs. Where I had doubts in book #1, I had none – z e r o  d o u b t s – here that Raihn and Oraya are meant to be anything but together. Forever. I hope she writes another book with this pair, and there’s certainly an untied thread or two she could delve into with them. There are other books in this series but Mische, as lovely as she is, isn’t what I’m looking for in a FMC. I might read Lilith and Vale’s story, Six Scorched Roses.

Overall: 

If you like bloody vampires. Some nasty vampires. Vampires who bite. A kickarse female lead. Some excellent romantasy. Second chances. Plenty of action. A fantastic fantasy world. A MMC who supports and lifts up his partner, it doesn’t have to be about him, no putting her down to make him feel better. And if, like me, you enjoy some good payback and are fine with the ensuing bloodshed, then here’s your book. Loved. It. 5 Stars!

Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: NineStar Press 

Genre: Fantasy

Tags: YA, Genre Fiction, QUILTBAG/LGBTQIA, Magic, Dark Elements

Length: 365 Pages 

Reviewer: Karen 

Purchase At:  amazon, NineStar Press 

Synopsis:

Arnaka Skytree grew up believing she was chosen to bring new magic to the world. As the heir to the cult of druids responsible for keeping their floating palace habitable for the wealthy aristocracy, she’s expected to wield her power as those before her did: by culling the souls of peasant women.

But when Arnaka learns more about the source of her magic, and that her best friend’s soul will be harvested, she embarks on a journey to end the barbarous practice and to restore a long-forgotten harmonious system of magic practiced by the original druids. Along the way, she discovers she’s not the only girl chosen to restore balance to their world—many others have powerful magic inside, and with them, she will tear the floating palace from the sky so everyone can live in the sun—out of the shadow of the eclipse.

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Review: 

It would be easy to say that The Soulstealers is simply an LGBTQ YA fantasy. The MC, sixteen-year old Arnaka Skytree, is a young female of colour who comes from a powerful magic line but ends up with friends who happen to be from a variety of backgrounds and orientations. Diversity is definitely a cornerstone, and letters within QUILTBAG get good representation. But there are layers to the story, a message or three, and trials.

Gender and expected roles are a strong factor. There is a patriarchy in this world, men using women to do their bidding via magic, paying lip-service to women having power. Class and wealth are instrumental in delineating between those who are ‘worthy’ and those are ‘not’. Druid lines within the floating palace are the upper class within society, then there are those in the Below, people who are viewed as less-than and used as magic-boosting familiars – which means their death. Judicial decisions are made based on anachronistic laws. Words such as “devious” are used to keep people in their place by the powers-that-be. They try, use and abuse others for their own means.

Arnaka is interesting in a fantasy world about magic and the consequences of her line’s magical intricacies. The concept of Soulstealing, as opposed to Soulkeeping, opens her eyes to what is happening, and there are consequences. She can also be frustrating for about a third of the book because she sends mixed messages to the reader. She is both a product of her environment, which is realistic, but she is also an agitator, which I get. She wants to please her mother but as she grows into adolescence she chooses that path less and less. Arnaka can be petulant at times, and then she rebels. She doesn’t know what she wants, but it’s understandable. She’s sixteen and her best friend, the girl she loves, is sacrificed by her mother to continue the practice of Soulstealing, although they prefer to be called Soulkeepers. It’s something Arnaka never wanted to happen but Girl knew her destiny and insisted on it. She also has to select a suitor so she can ‘breed’ magical druid women to continue the Skytree line.

“Druids don’t come from thin air. Baby girls with golden eyes and strong magic are your duty. Our family’s line within the Soulkeepers rests in your hands.”

Girl/Hannah/Promise remains in Arnaka’s life as her familiar, a light force around her, blinking in and out as a reminder of someone Arnaka can’t communicate with in a tangible way anymore, wondering where she is and what has happened to her. I’d have been rebellious and petulant too. Arnaka definitely develops as a person over the course of the book, especially with the help of friends, a magic relic, and newly acquired knowledge of what she does and doesn’t want, and what has been occurring to people at the behest of her mother and her mother’s ilk. It’s upsetting and she rails, fights, against it. The Skytree magic is not as she thought it to be, it’s a bastardisation of all she respects and loves – nature, her world, people, life.

Hannah remains ever-present throughout. Even though at the very beginning she is sacrificed for Arnaka’s sixteenth – her Choosing – there’s a well written entwining of past and present that allows the reader to understand the development of the connection between the two. The way Girl/Hannah/Promise was chosen as the soul familiar for Arnaka was indicative of Mother throughout – cruel, uncaring, manipulative. Then there is Nara, originally a servant of Arnaka’s, who grows from a scared palace slave to a strong but incredibly kind and sure girl as the story unfolds. Tamlin’s a warrior and a female – not the norm in this world – and a minor love interest for Arnaka. Juscar was a nice balance to their group. Hannah’s brother, Lucan, is understandable in his hurt, his visible anger for Arnaka.

The characters are mostly three dimensional. However, sometimes I had so much dislike and feelings of hostility for the antagonists and situations of their making it was almost like a personal wound. I found it hard not to allow them to overshadow the protagonists because of it. A lot of that stems from my age. I grew up in a time when great emphasis was placed on gender roles and your place in society. For example, women had to leave work when they married. Only one person could be the breadwinner, and that was without question the man. Behaving a certain way, like a young lady or a proper woman, was implied and required, female assertiveness was generally seen as “contrary” behaviour. I know there is still a way to go, but it’s getting better day by day. Books like this are a great addition to any library for young people. Readers can enjoy the fantasy and the world, and there is a message of necessary equality, hate is destructive. You can be what you want to be, love who you want to love, but it can be a hard-fought battle at times. You can call yourself anything, say anything, but your actions are what support your character.

“Lucan called me a killer. Just for asking that their souls be kept!”
Master Findrick grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her in a way few others would dare. “Child, you cannot say that to them. Theirs are the souls you and your family will steal. One day, you will steal Girl’s.”
“Keep,” Arnaka corrected. “As in Soulkeepers.”
“No, child. No. I am sorry. To them, you are the Soulstealers. You’ve never been anything else.”

The world building is solid, vivid, without overwhelming the reader, and it gives you a strong sense of the world these characters are living in. It’s easy to visualise. However, it’s the events and the characters themselves who elicit the most visceral reaction.

In the End:

I rarely read YA anymore. I only read this book because I very much like Jacqueline Rohrbach as a writer. The cover is also divine and promised me diversity, which it delivers. I thought this was a strong book that takes aspects of our contemporary world and meshes them in a fantasy setting with young characters. The leads are mostly strong but realistic females, there’s a lesbian romance in the background, and a story which hits some darker notes, hopeful ones as well. The ending is somewhat obtuse. Is there to be a sequel? Is this it? I couldn’t quite tell. However, YA can be a bit that way, generally young characters have their whole life ahead of them, it’s hard to wrap that up in a book.

I loved the headings of each chapter, they anchor the chapter and characters and events to the building story line.

If you’re looking for an LGBTQIA YA fantasy that can be darker, has a core group of characters who form a small ensemble, with strong world building, one definitely containing a message, and it’s well written, then I recommend the well named The Soulstealers. 4 Stars. 

Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: Indie

Genre: Fantasy

Tags: Historical, Mythical/Lore    

Length: 29 Pages

Reviewer: Karen

Purchase At: amazon.com

Synopsis:

Nevan lives a simple life. He works hard in the fields with his brothers and his grandpa, and adores his mother wholeheartedly. He’s a good boy who usually stays out of trouble, but even when Grandpa warns him to stay away from the pond, he can’t help feeling curious about it…and the creatures that watch him whenever he’s near.

Review:

The Fairy Pond is a short novella. It encompasses family and tales handed down from a grandfather to his youngest grandson. Not all the tales are seen in the same light, certainly not the one about the pond on the family farm. The question is who is right, Nevan’s Grandpa or Momma?

First and foremost there is a wonderful family dynamic to this story. Nevan is the youngest and he soaks up his grandpa’s tales. All the boys form a close-knit family lead by their widowed mother. They’re may live a simple lifestyle without fancy trappings, but more significantly, they’re loving and supportive.

 All the boys loved Momma with a devotion that was palpable, and she took this small opportunity each night to give a moment of undivided attention to each. Nevan waited by her side quietly, enjoying the feel of her worn callused hand in his.

Then there is grandpa who shares similarities and, perhaps, secrets with young Nevan and Nevan’s deceased father. Ones that centre around the pond.

There is a good juxtaposition throughout this novella between a close and caring family life and what may lay in the pond. What may lay beyond their love and their hard work and their farm. It is historical but when it’s set is never mentioned, nor should it have been. The imagery says it all.

The only problem this novella faced was the lack of a more suspenseful atmosphere. I would have liked a more intense sense of foreboding throughout. If you’re like me you also prefer a bit more punch. If, however, you are searching for a more fantasy-esque story that centres around the powerful connection family has with some folklore and supernatural elements, then The Fairy Pond delivers it in a nice package.

In the End:

The writing of The Fairy Pond is predominately gentle. There’s no grandstanding or incendiary moments, but there is a moment to gasp, cause to hope nothing will happen to young Nevan. He and his Grandpa have a strong connection that transcends more than words and tales.

This short novella delivers a sense of a loving family working hard to survive with a lurking nearby presence. There is clarity and connection with the main characters, especially in relation to the innocent and sweet character of Nevan, and his Grandpa with a sense of familial duty. Interesting reading for those who are time strapped but still want to read nicely written and fleshed out lore/otherworldly stories. 4 Stars.