I know it’s only May, but I’m claiming it: The Nightborn Duet is going to be the best of 2023. It’s Hunger Games meets ACOTAR meets Empire of the Vampire meets Divergent meets From Blood and Ash meets…I dunno…a little crack? Heroin? Just read it. And, later, you can thank me.

Let’s get into it. So, The Serpent and the Wings of Night and The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King make up the Nightborn Duet, which is the first third of the Crowns of Nyaxia series by Carissa Broadbent. The rest of the series will be composed of two more duets, which I can assume, will all fill out the rest of the world. She also has a few novellas that take place within this world, but don’t drive this storyline at all.

The world is called Obitraes, which is divided into three houses: The House of Night (Nightborn), the House of Shadows (Shadowborn), and the House of Blood (Bloodborn). Although we do learn about each of the houses and a good amount of the world, we focus mostly on The House of Night in this duet. The beings within this world are both vampire and human. I’ve read many books where actual vampire or vampire-adjacent beings are featured, but I have to say that Carissa’s take on both the race and creation of vampires might be my favorite. Nightborn vampires can either be Born or Turned (yes, they are capitalized). Born vampires are the spawn of two vampire parents and can age, albeit very slowly. Turned vampires are created a la Twilight style; humans on the brink of death, who are bitten and injected with venom by a vampire, and remain the same age forever. Differently than Twilight, however, is that Turning, in this world, has a very low success rate. Every Turned vampire goes through a critical sickness and, often, doesn’t come out the other end. Even if you make it through, Turned vampires are regarded as lower on the totem pole than Born vampires. They are often enslaved, forced to be blood or pleasure suppliers, or fighters.

For several millennia, two Nightborn vampire races, the Hiaj and the Rishan, have been at war. Why? Because the goddess Nyaxia loves to watch her children at odds with each other. The Hiaj’s wings are similar to a bat’s (hello Acotar) and the Rishan’s wings are feathered. There can only be one King in power at a time, which typically lasts for many centuries, even though, technically there is a royal representative in both races. The vampire destined to be King receives a mark on their skin called an Heir Mark, which symbolizes their vampire race and house. When the King in power or oppressed dies, that mark shows up on their next of kin. Often when Kings rise to power, they will kill any heir of theirs to reduce the threat to their rein.

Every century, The House of Night hosts a tournament in Nyaxia’s name called the Kejari. Anyone from any house can enter by giving a drop of their blood as sacrifice to Nyaxia and reciting a certain ritualistic phrase. There can only be one winner of the Kejari and once you enter, you cannot pull out. There are several trials within the Kejari, all based on the moon cycles. The Kejari is very much Hunger Games-esque in the sense that it’s a fight to the death and the winner receives a gift. In this story, the gift is given by Nyaxia herself.

OMG. I’m five paragraphs in and I’m just now getting to our characters. Okay, so our heroine is Oraya, who is human. She was rescued by the Nighborn King, Vincent, when she was a very young child after the Rishan raided and destroyed her human community. Somehow she was the sole survivor out of her entire family, so, Vincent became somewhat of a father figure. He raised her, teaching her how to fight and survive in a world designed to kill her. Over time Oraya’s fear of Vincent transformed into respect and a sort of love. She did consider him to be her father and referred to him as such.

When the Kejari comes around, Oraya and Vincent decide that Oraya will enter, so that she can win and become Vincent’s Coritae, or soul bond. By bonding with Vincent, Oraya will gain Vincent’s incredible power, becoming strong enough to visit the land where she was born, Salinae, and search or any living family members. It is during the Kejari that Oraya meets our hero, Raihn, a Rishan warrior, who begins to take an interest in Oraya, much to her dismay. I don’t want to give too much more away because, honestly, I want you all to experience every moment of the Kejari for yourselves. Truth time: I was OBSESSED with Hunger Games when it came out (both the books and the movies), so I absolutely ATE UP every minute of the Kejari.

The first book is mostly the story of the Kejari tournament, so when I got to book two, I couldn’t even imagine where it was going to go. Again, I’m not going to spoil it because I want you to experience it on your own. But here are some things that I can tell you: there’s a big civil war, so if you like that kind of thing, strategy and whatnot, then you’ll like this. Honestly, I do kind of like the “big war” in fantasy novels, which is odd considering my personality (I’m very much a pacifist). Where book one centers on two areas of the House of Night, there’s a ton of travel in book two, so we see the world expand beautifully. Carissa’s depictions of the landscape and different regions is masterful. I was able to picture the distinct difference between each place, feel the climate, smell the atmosphere, hear the sounds. And, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this here before, but I love a good roadtrip. Unlike many books I’ve read with roadtrips or travel, Carissa handwaves a good bit of the actual travel time and gets us to the destinations pretty quickly. There’s SO MUCH included in book two, though, that you end up not missing it.

What else non-spoiler can I say? Tropes: enemies to lovers, good vs. evil, evil vs. more evil, found family, I will burn the world down for you, morally grey hero(ine), forced proximity, and many others that I’m sure will come to me once I post this thing. the magic system is flawless and that’s all I’ll say on that. As an overall statement, this is a violent book, in all aspects of that word. It doesn’t hold back and many violent elements are present on the page in the story, so if that’s a concern for you at all, then maybe this isn’t the book for you. Or maybe it is, but you’ve been warned. As for rating? Pfffft. What’s the “priceless” equivalent for book ratings? This is that. According to my Storygraph account, though, both books are 5/5 stars.

So, go. Read these books. And please, for the love of Nyaxia, comment down below if you want to lose your mind with me over this story. I need an obsession buddy. If you want to check out Carissa Broadbent’s other works, which I’m strongly considering doing in the future, you can check out her website here. Till next time!