The Serpent and the Wings of Night
Ratings349
Average rating4.1
i really liked this book up until the very end! * spoilers ahead :p * she watches him kill her father, her only loved one left, and then he makes a speech about taking her captive and assaulting her and she's just kind of like... not as mad as i thought she would be? it just seemed kind of weird/insensitive to me that even considering the issues vincent and oraya had been having, she would kind of let raihn back in so quickly. i understand that he felt this was the only way to save her and that he was willing to die instead of her, but i mean that's still... your father?? that you loved?? maybe i'm being too critical but i hope the next book shows that she's a little more upset about the entire situation lol
Unlike her first series, I am not enjoying this very much at all. It's not bad, it just isn't doing anything for me. Although the writing does leave much to be desired...
I think this author is not for me. Her writing is not good. And I've read some really good fanro lately and this felt like a bad copy. Also didn't like the narrator for audiobook. Those male voices made me cringe a bit.
An interesting, if gory, world. I have a feeling I'll see the series through. Fair warning, the slow burn is verrrrrrry slow.
I’m curious about the world that these characters live in. The first book is more about the characters and less about the World. Reading other’s reviews, their questions are legit. I just see the characters taking precedence in this first book with many questions remaining about the World they inhabit.
I dnf'd this book, so I don't feel that comfortable rating the book solely on the 200-ish pages I have read. On another note, this is the first book since starting as an avid reader at 12 years old(I am now 23 years old) I didn't finish.
I had such high hopes when starting this read and maybe that was setting me up for failure, and maybe it denied me of enjoying the book as I've heard a lot of people enjoying it.
The premise intrigued me, the tropes were promising, and the fact that there are vampires in the story is amazing, the themes showed promise but somewhere along the way all those things just didn't deliver the way I had hoped they would.
I found myself rolling my eyes, cringing at how some of the dialogue was written. While there were some absolutely gorgeous scenes, they just didn't outweigh all the bad ones. I found the banter to be lacking between Oraya and (what I presume is) the love interest to be a little bit too crafted at times; he didn't seem to talk naturally.
Besides the badly written dialogue(in my opinion), the pacing and flow of the actions seemed off more often than not. For example, an enemy would enter the fight scene and I didn't even know where they were coming from. The way some of the magic was described in battle could have been more descriptive. Now, I found it hard to focus on the story and being truly immersed in it.
I also found a small yet strange plothole that I just couldn't overlook.
Lastly, there is the matter of sketching out a fully fleshed-out protagonist. There was so much potential to draw the reader into the experiences and the emotions Oraya was internally battling with. At times, I could see that the author did a really good job at it; and other times I couldn't for the love of God understand why she was doing something. I feel like I could have bonded more with her character if there had been more time spent on the complexity of Oraya's emotions.
The story had a lot of potential but to me, it didn't deliver on multiple aspects.
Hell yea I absolutely loved this
Besides the last 15 or so pages which had me LIVID so 4.5 stars
🌟🌟🌟🌟.5
I loved the story, the characters, the plot, the romance... pff I couldn't put it down!
I enjoyed this book way more than I expected, especially having a strong FMC. I loved the romance, not cheesy, it also had its evolution. And Oraya's development in terms of becoming as powerful was very inspiring, to not give up even when odds are against you or that the world taught you it is impossible.
I took half star out just because I needed more world-building, a map to understand where every kingdom was, the places, distances, politics, the reason the trial took place (it is stated as something that happens every century to honor Nyaxia, as a ritual, and you learn some of Nyaxia's trial-from which the Kejari is based on- along the way but there's just something vague about it).
I would only advice to beware of some trigger points:
- Blood (like a lot of it)
- Forced s*x
- M*rder
- Enslavement
Other than that to me it is an amazing read and totally recommend 👌🏻
Contains spoilers
This was so disappointing. How can you still love someone who MURDERS your father? The author tries to justify it with the fact that her father was awful to humans but the fact that he saved her, protected her, trusted her and loved her, deserves more than getting betrayed by the only human he showed his vulnerability to. It could have been a wonderful novel about fatherly love like maleficent but nooo it had to be about falling for a shitty man who literally fell for another woman while his wife was pregnant.
My love for this came completely out of left field, because if you described this book to me as “fantasy vampire Hunger Games romance” I would assume at the very most I would give it 3.5 stars, purely if it was entertaining. Instead, I devoured this book in a couple days and found myself so into, and very impressed by, the interesting and dynamic characters and relationships (the very complicated father-daughter dynamic, the various class dynamics, the various faction/political dynamics, all so well done), brutal and impactful action sequences that really hit hard, really well-delivered world-building (never info-dumped on you, and very naturally integrated through scenes and conversations throughout), a romance with great chemistry (where I actually was shown why they would make a good pair, and wasn't rolling my eyes because their trust and attraction was written to build up very naturally), and just an overall excellently paced book that had me saying “...ok, just one more chapter” over and over.
So glad I get to jump right into the next book in the series!
A ver, no soy de escribir reviews largas, así que no sécomo va a salir esto. Pero de los pocos libros de vampiros que me he conseguido leer. Me ha gustado el mundo que Carissa ha construido, a lo mejor no son originales los nombres y son inspirados de alguna mitología, pero me parece que están muy bien elegidos. La religión o culto o como se diga a Nyaxia, con toda la historia detrás de cada prueba, me parece fascinante, ya que Carissa no solo te hace info dump en cualquier momento sobre la religión de los vampiros, sino que te va contando pedacitos de la historia conforme avanzan a las pruebas.
La protagonista tiene como dos o tres evoluciones de personaje. Una que no vemos ya que se da en su infancia y solo nos dicen que al principio no confiaba y con el tiempo empezó a confiar en Vincent (pd: a mí me cae bien Vicent, me ha dolido más su muerte que si se hubieran muerto Oraya o cuando pensaba que Raihn había muerto). La segunda que es la que vemos como va abriéndose, dejando que su lado humano vaya tomando más el control de sus emociones sin dejar de lado su lado “vampiro” que su padre ha curtido en ella. Y la tercera como la traicionan aquellos en quien había confiado y a quien ha entregado tanto; un tipo de confianza que, en mi humilde opinión, es mucho más difícil de conseguir de vuelta que construir una confianza de cero.
《I hated him. I was ready to die for him and he killed my father, and he lied to me, and he–he–》
Yo lo odio, ¿cómo no lo va a odiar Oraya? Mi niña, pobrecita
Okay I know booktok/bookstagram LOVES this one but I've got some things to say. Spoilers ahead be warned!
My main reasons for rating it a 3/5 was largely in part to the lack of male POV. I think this story could've been a LOT more captivating if we got to see the growth of the “enemies to lovers” trope straight from Raihn's mind. I think knowing why he hates Vincent so much and seeing Vincent reflected in Oraya would've been a lot more interesting than waiting to find out till the end. I will always prefer a dual 3rd person pov over 1st person any day. Also, i have so many questions about Vincent and his motivations??
I understand a large part of this story is Oraya's struggle between loving and hating her father and the nuance of abusive relationships but holy fuck Vincent was terrible. From all we saw of him, he was pure evil. Why was she so attached? There was not enough emotional attachment shown between what is supposed to be a father and daughter. But maybe that was the point?? idk. I think the story would've been a lot more engaging and made Vincent a much more empathetic character if we knew what was going on in his head. Otherwise he's just a selfish asshole and I don't feel bad for him. His death should've elicited more sadness or even the conflict that Oraya feels but as a reader, I did not care and was in fact happy that he died. I feel like the death of a parental figure should hold more emotional weight than that.
Also why were we barely introduced to any meaningful secondary characters?? Mische was so interesting and she gets injured and leaves halfway into the trials?? That was so upsetting. We grow attached to this character and we're supposed to believe she enters the Kejari first and Raihn loves her like a sister so he enters too, but once she's injured and taken out they visit her once and she's almost never mentioned again?? It felt like they only added in them visiting to show Raihn's allies and their dislike of Oraya. Mische's character was very disappointing. She had so much promise. I was so excited when we were introduced to her but her character felt like it was created for the sole purpose of making Raihn seem more human.
I will say a strong point of the story was the idea of Kejari itself. I loved the idea of a fallen goddess using her own story as a narrative through each trial and Oraya's knowledge of Nyaxia's story and how it mirrored her love story with Raihn. The trials were fast but exciting. Seeing Oraya figuring out each one gave a lot of insight into her observation techniques and as each trial went on, it showed her internal battle quite well. Especially the end. I was NOT expecting THAT to happen. And I'm actually not sure if I liked it. Unsure if I will be reading book 2.
3.5 stars
I very nearly didn't finish this book. The first half-ish just wasn't for me, and I started to get frustrated because everyone raves about it. The romance takes a long while to start up, and not in a good way, in my opinion. Like it's not an anticipation thing, it just felt like there was nothing there between the characters. It also felt a bit slow and kind of boring to me, and I wanted more of the friendship between Oraya and Mische.
Once I got into the last third, things really began to pick up and I became exponentially more interested. The romance became really good, really quickly for me, and I'm so glad it turned out that way. The twists were also really interesting. I was intrigued enough by the end that I was excited to start book 2 to see where things would go. I hope I enjoy book 2 throughout, rather than mostly at the end, like this one.
My advice if you're struggling would be to stick this one out until the end - I think it'll turn around for you as well.
I can promise you will feel all the feels in this Hunger Games meets Vampires story. My heart was not prepared for it!
Oraya, daughter of Vincent, the Nightborne King enters the Kejari amongst other contestants. But she is the only human competing in these trials. All other contestants are vampires with amazing strength, sight, scent, magic, and healing powers.
I highly recommend this book if you liked the Hunger Games books or movies. There is really a lot of raw emotion from different characters. And others ... not so much. This was a crazy ride and I'm excited to see where it goes from here. Because man ... do I need some answers!
Entertaining and bloody with sprinkles of kindness
At the beginning, I was not sure if I'd like the story. It felt quite a bit like The Hunger Games with vampires and then started to develop into the direction of From Blood and Ash. As I enjoyed FBAA those parallels didn't bother me much.
Was the book a literary masterpiece? F*ck no. Did the characters develop? Grey is a wide colour shade. Was the tension rising between the MCs? Sure, though it honestly had me laughing out loud at a point. Did this book entertain me? Absolutely.
That being said, I will read how the story goes on but I'll have to see if I read further instalments (six books of 3x duologies; let's see about that character switching)
I give this book a 4 stars rating. The ending completely changed everything for me. At first I thought it was 3.5 stars but the last two chapters were amazing and completely unexpected.
The characters had incredible chemistry but they do felt a tiny bit flat because there were so many mysterious personalities, although I guess it was understandable because of the context of the story.
I do think the pacing is a bit slow in the first half of the book but the second one flows much more smoothly and again, THAT ENDING.
read for the swoon sisters' bookclub: first quarter 2024 (https://youtube.com/live/81QsPW7susE)
this was such a good fantasy romance! i loved the mmc so so much and i can't wait to see how the duet wraps up