# The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

### The Serpent and the Wings of Night

**Carissa Broadbent** · Crowns of Nyaxia, book 1 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/the-serpent-and-the-wings-of-night](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-serpent-and-the-wings-of-night)

A human raised by the vampire king enters a tournament no human has survived, allied with a competitor who has every reason to kill her at the end of it. Tightly structured, genuinely sad, and better written than most of the shelf it sits on.

- Spice: 4/5 — Explicit. Several explicit scenes in the back half, unhurried and emotionally weighted.
- Romance prominence: 4/5
- Plot: 5/5
- Worldbuilding: 4/5
- Darkness: 5/5
- Writing craft: 4/5
- Burn: slow
- Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn, forced-proximity, morally-grey-mmc, touch-starved
- Creatures: vampires, humans, gods
- Setting: The vampire kingdom of Obitraes and the trial of the Kejari
- POV: first person
- Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: graphic violence, gore, death, self-harm, abuse
- Best for: Fourth Wing readers who want the tournament structure with sharper prose behind it.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

## Sources

- https://openlibrary.org/search?q=The+Serpent+and+the+Wings+of+Night+Broadbent

## What to read next

- [The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-ashes-and-the-star-cursed-king) by Carissa Broadbent — spice 5/5. Readers who want a second book that deepens the first rather than repeating it.
- [Quicksilver](https://houseofareader.com/books/quicksilver) by Callie Hart — spice 5/5. ACOTAR readers who want the same shape with the heat turned up two notches.
- [A Dowry of Blood](https://houseofareader.com/books/a-dowry-of-blood) by S.T. Gibson — spice 3/5. Readers who want dark romantasy with prose that would survive being read aloud.
- [Kingdom of the Wicked](https://houseofareader.com/books/kingdom-of-the-wicked) by Kerri Maniscalco — spice 3/5. Readers who want a devil love interest and a completed series to go with him.

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