The Serpent and the Wings of Night is for readers who want a vampire romance built around a competition, where the person fighting beside the heroine is also the person she may one day have to beat. Carissa Broadbent puts a human heroine in a world that treats humans as prey, sends her into a deadly tournament and pairs her with a rival she is drawn to despite the danger. If that sounds more thrilling than cozy, this is probably your lane.
Oraya, the Kejari and the House of Night
According to Broadbent’s own page for the book, Oraya is the adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king. In her world humans are treated as prey, and she wants to become something more than that. To get there she enters the Kejari, a legendary tournament run by the goddess of death, where she must compete against fierce warriors from all three vampire houses.
The setup applies two pressures at once. One is personal: Oraya is a human measuring herself against people built for this kind of fight, and the page frames the tournament as a way to prove she is more than prey. The other is political. The description says a war is brewing for the House of Night and that it threatens everything she knows about her home, so the Kejari is not only a private test of nerve. What happens to her in it appears to be tangled up with the future of the kingdom she belongs to.
That combination is what separates the book from a vampire romance in which the heroine simply meets a mysterious stranger. Oraya begins with an ambition, a brutal tournament and a looming war, and the romance has to find room inside all three.
You’re on the list. Your free stories are waiting in the Reader Vault. A Light Kept for the Night
An alliance with the person you may have to beat
The central question is whether the human-and-vampire competition premise works for readers who want an intense romance. The description gives a clear answer. Oraya is forced to ally with Raihn, presented as a mysterious rival: a ruthless, efficient killer, an enemy of her father’s crown and her biggest competitor. She is unexpectedly drawn to him, and the page says their growing attraction could destroy her in a kingdom where love is especially dangerous.
Read closely, that is a romance with its stakes written into the structure. The alliance is compulsory, so the two are not choosing each other under ideal conditions. Raihn is described as an enemy of the crown her father wears, which makes loyalty a live problem rather than background detail. And because the page says the tournament leaves no room for compassion, tenderness looks like a liability. Readers who enjoy weighing a character’s choices against her feelings, and who like a couple whose trust has to be earned against real incentives to betray, have a specific reason to try the opening.
If you would rather have a courtship insulated from the larger plot, expect the competition to keep intruding.
Tone, and what the author promises
The page describes the book as the start of a new series of heart-wrenching romance, dark magic and bloodthirsty intrigue. It also places the book near From Blood and Ash and A Court of Thorns and Roses. That is the author’s own positioning. The page does not state the point of view or narrative voice, so the opening pages are where you will find out whose head you are in and whether the voice suits you.
Where it sits in the Crowns of Nyaxia
This is book one of Crowns of Nyaxia, which Broadbent’s author site lists at seven books: The Serpent and the Wings of Night, Six Scorched Roses, The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King, Slaying the Vampire Conqueror, The Songbird and the Heart of Stone, The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk and The Lion and the Deathless Dark. The site describes the series as three duets, each following a different couple and a different House or kingdom. Each duet can be read on its own, but the books share an overarching storyline, and the site says you need the whole series for the full story and a satisfying ending. Two optional books follow other couples in other places.
In practical terms, you are being invited into a long world rather than a single self-contained love story. Broadbent also writes a separate four-book series, The War of Lost Hearts, which her site lists alongside Crowns of Nyaxia, and she describes her work as fantasy with tough heroines and a lot of romance.
What readers praise about Oraya and Raihn
Readers on major book-review sites and romance bloggers who love the book tend to single out the same strengths. Several praise Oraya as a capable, lethal heroine rather than a damsel, saying the constant danger makes her vulnerability as a human feel real. Others describe the pacing as fast and hard to put down, with the tournament trials driving the story and quieter moments deepening the characters. The slow-burn, forced-proximity shift from reluctant allies to lovers draws repeated approval, as do the vampire houses, the threat of civil war and the rich, atmospheric worldbuilding. Some reviewers add that the intimate scenes feel tied to the characters and are sparing enough not to crowd out the plot, and one blogger calls it a book they would happily reread. A few compare its mix of vampire lore and epic fantasy to other popular romantasy.
From Alisson Bento’s books
Romantasy · Vampire
A vampire romance about a protector who would take a bullet for her, and might.
Kindle edition · Check Kindle Unlimited availability on Amazon.
Content notes from the author
The book page lists these content warnings: violence, torture (off page), a flashback of rape in which consent is withdrawn, self-harm, emotional abuse, slavery and references to sexual abuse. That is the author’s published list for this title, and it is substantial for a book that is also marketed as a romance. This summary is not a comprehensive inventory, so consult the current edition’s notes before you read, especially if any single item is a hard limit for you.
Who may like it, who may want to skip it
The premise looks well suited to readers who like arena-style stakes, enemy-adjacent love interests and a heroine who has to outthink people stronger than she is. It may suit you less if you want a gentle first meeting, a purely domestic romance or a book that resolves entirely within one volume. Anyone who avoids the material listed above should weigh that first.
A few things to test in the first chapters:
- Oraya’s goal: can you say in a sentence what she wants from the Kejari, and do you care about it?
- Orientation: do the vampire houses and titles arrive at a pace you can follow, or do they pile up?
- Raihn’s introduction: does the alliance feel forced by circumstance rather than convenient for the plot?
- Tone: do dark magic and bloodthirsty intrigue blend with the romance as promised, or does one overwhelm the other for you?
Reading it alongside Fourth Wing
Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing, as this bookseller’s description has it, sends Violet Sorrengail to Basgiath War College to train as a dragon rider after being meant for a scribe’s life, and a powerful, ruthless wingleader named Xaden Riorson sees her as a threat. Both books place an underdog heroine in a deadly contest with a dangerous rival. The difference is world and mechanism: dragons and a war college there, vampire houses and a single tournament here. Neither description tells you how its romance plays out, so the comparison rests on premises alone. Our Bride review looks at a different kind of obligation, a political marriage between supernatural communities.
From this site’s shelf
The Vampire King’s Obsession by Alisson Bento follows archivist Hallie as she tries to understand a private lender’s escalating demand against her brother. It shares a woman facing a powerful vampire world with rules she must learn, but it is a standalone about debt and family, with no tournament, houses or multi-book scale. Browse the vampire romance shelf to compare.
For a free read, A Light Kept for the Night pairs lantern-workshop heir Mara Ellery with secretive collector Orin Vale around a dangerous harbor light. It is an adult M/F coastal vampire romance with kissing and no graphic sexual detail, an original couple’s story before The Vampire’s Locksmith and unrelated to Broadbent’s characters. Read online; email unlocks the remaining chapters.
Sources checked 20–21 October 2026. Reading suggestions compare advertised premises; they do not promise matching heat, consent dynamics or endings.
