The Serpent and the Wings of Night: Book 1

The vampire king finds a human girl who is badly hurt, but still fighting. He takes her in and teaches her to fight. She learns that the world around her sees her as prey and that nowhere is safe for her. He cannot go back where her family was because they are in enemy territory. The only way that he will let her go is if she wins the Kejari, Nyaxia’s death tournament, and get a Coriatis Bond with her father. Will she survive?

I knew beforehand that this book was an enemies to lovers story, but I did not expect it to also be a slow burn. There were also a few plot twists at the end that had me reeling. Oraya has led such a hard life and the moment that she starts to feel safe, it is all torn away. Like how Oraya can never get comfortable with those around her, the reader is also put on edge or given a false sense of security. Quite an interesting book. I do not think that, by any means, it was the best book that I have read before, but I definitely enjoyed it.

Most of the book felt like nothing really happened which did make the end more interesting, but also made me confused as to why more did not happen earlier. I wish we got to spend more time in the Kejari with the characters that we are supposed to care about and were shown more of how well they worked together instead of being told about it. The backstories gave context, but also were awkward and interrupted the flow of the rest of the story. This is of course only my opinion and the book was still quite entertaining.

The next book in this series is The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent. If you enjoyed this book, other books like it are: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros because they both have enemies to lovers and the main characters are fighting for their lives, A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas because the main characters have to be similarly resilient against trauma and both have winged love interests, and Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins because they both have deadly games with opponents that fall in love with each other.