Hello lovelies,
This review is highly overdue. Carissa Broadbent is surprisingly one of my new favorite authors, not only for the first book, The Serpent and the Wings of Night but also for the second book, The Ashes and the Star Cursed King.
This series follows a princess who is a human princess raised by a Vampire King in a world where being a human is seen as a risk. We very quickly see her prove to us, the audience, that being underestimated is an even bigger risk for one's opponent. Something about an underestimated young woman's main character lights such a fire in me when reading and makes me root for her so much more and faster than I would normally. I feel like it's such smart writing when you take an inherently normal-seeming character and put her in a world where she's underestimated. It makes you more interested in rooting for her. I mean, who doesn't love an underdog? I will say there's much more complexity to it. This main character is so intellectually smart and Superior to those around her that not only does her physical prowess and ability to fight put her on another level compared to her counterparts, but also her intelligence and her ability to undermine them. The book starts off with a competition in a very Hunger Games way, however, only in the sense that it's to the death. There is only one winner, and the stakes, in that sense, are much higher than they would normally be. The book does a really good job of making sure that we have full faith in her capability before the competition even starts. However, the fact that she is still human and doesn't have the ability of a lot of these other competitors still keeps us on the edge of our seats throughout the book. There are many twists and turns throughout the story especially the ending, it was something that I was not expecting and I pride myself normally on being able to figure out the twist and turns of where a story is going. Looking back, there was definitely some clear foreshadowing, and I was close to my gas, but I was still incorrect about how I thought the book was going to end, and I was overall very pleased with the twist ending. This book does have some spice and a love story, but the thing that I love the most is that it is not the Forefront of the story or the plot. It is a subplot through and through I thoroughly enjoy. I am first and foremost a fantasy Adventure reader, so being able to pick up a book that is so heavily popular, especially when it's recommended on Tick Tock, and it is a fantasy first romance second book, was very surprising in the best sense. this is definitely not a ya book I Cannot recommend that somebody underneath your 15 read it there is definitely spice and not meant for a younger audience. There is also a lot of gruesome detail in the way that the competition is handled by the competitors, so if you are not someone who can take gory details well, I would definitely shy away from recommending this book as it's very vividly described. The second book was something that I was nervous about because the book seems to end off on a cliffhanger but not necessarily in a way that seems like it would need a second book necessarily. She does a really great job of tying up a lot of loose ends, even with the twist ending where I feel like, yes, I wanted to know what happened, but I also felt like the main character's story had come to a natural conclusion, so I was really nervous going into reading the second book. However, I feel like I was more shocked than I was in the first one by the information. I hadn't realized we didn't get in the first one. The female main character of the first book is such an unreliable narrator because she truly didn't have as much knowledge as I thought she did about the world or the kingdom that she was born into. The second book takes a broader look at the world itself, and the political espionage of the second book takes on a much more interesting journey than the competition aspect of the first book. I found it more intellectually stimulating and the twists and turns of the political aspects of the second book were very intriguing and I found them to be very exciting to read. and the kind of person who really enjoys reading about the inner workings of people's minds, so getting to see two main characters narrate the second book and seeing how they handle situations differently and the outcomes of the essential war that was taking place in the second book was very fun and intellectually thrilling. Overall, for a duology, I'm very impressed a lot of times. I feel like books and duology series can just be one book, however for this series I'm thoroughly pleased that it was too and we get more of the World building and character development that I didn't even necessarily realize needed to be done. I think Carissa is such an amazing author and truly wrote Such a Fantastical world as well as a journey for these two characters. I cannot imagine not recommending this book to anybody. It's so thoroughly well written and so smartly done I really enjoyed this fantasy series. let me know if you guys have read it or if you loved it as much as I did. I'm also open to hearing any potholes or bad things that I messed with in the novel. I love hearing other people's opinions of the books that I read and broadening my take on a novel or an author.
Happy reading.
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