A review by jen1804
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

4.25

Really enjoyed this read, not quite 5⭐️ worthy but a fab plot and fab characters and I’m excited for the next one.
An interesting fantasy involving vampires and one human, and a ruthless tournament to win the prize of one granted wish by a goddess.
Enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to conflicted feelings!
Decent action throughout and decent plot twists toward the end.
And a lotttt of note-worthy quotes which I captured in my buddy read with Shan 😊.

Death isn’t frightening when weighed against an insignificant existence.
Chapter 4

“I can’t take credit for everything that you’ve become, Oraya. Even if sometimes I wish I could. But if I’m responsible for just one small piece of that, it will have been the greatest accomplishment of my life.”
Vincent, Chapter 32

“Some would call you a dangerous person.”
The corner of his mouth curled. “Not with you.”
Oraya and Raihn, Chapter 32

“Don’t be so quick to throw away your humanity, Oraya,” he said. “You might find you miss it once it’s gone.”
Raihn, Chapter 33

“You don’t think I see how hard you’ve worked to hold onto your humanity? You’re more human than I am, Raihn. You’ve kept every part of it that makes you value the things in this shitty world that no one else here does. You’ve kept the compassion. It doesn’t matter if your blood runs black now. That hasn’t changed you.”
Oraya, Chapter 33

“I’ve lived through some injustices in the last couple of centuries. Seen some fucking travesties. But one of the biggest, Oraya, is that anyone taught you that you should become anything other than exactly what you are.”
Raihn, Chapter 33

“I tested it,” I said. “As long as you stay back here, even at high noon, the light won’t flood into this room. But you can still see the sun in the mirror. It’s… it’s nice in the middle of the day. The sun reflects off the church spires.”
Oraya on setting up a mirror so that Raihn can watch the sun rise and set without getting hurt by the rays🥹, Chapter 36

Offering myself to a starving vampire was more than dangerous. Practically suicide. And yet… I trusted him absolutely.
Chapter 38

Strange, that girls are so often told that the loss of their virginity marks a threshold between girlhood and womanhood, as if it fundamentally alters them in some way. It was not the sex that changed the girl forever. Not the blood that spilled between her thighs that shaped her. The blood that spilled over that marble floor, though… Those are the stains on one’s innocence that never fade.
New Moon Interlude

His eyes softened as they flicked back to me. I really did try not to notice, or care, that they drank me in the same way he drank in sunshine.
Chapter 43

“We have one night, Raihn. And then we die. So you’d better be a fucking amazing lay.”
Lol, Chapter 44

I needed it to hurt more everywhere else, so it hurt less in my heart.
Oraya on having to fight Raihn in the final arena, Chapter 48

“I love you. I loved you from the first moment.”
Vincent, Chapter 52

Raihn was so good at performances. But I didn’t know which one was real anymore. Which version of him was true.
Oraya after Raihn is revealed as the Rishan Heir🥺, Chapter 53

“And when I leave this room, and come back with a priestess, you will marry me. You will do it because I can’t kill you. I tried. I can’t. A world without you would be a dark, depressing place. And I’ve already inflicted enough pain without committing that fucking injustice, too. So let me save you.”
Raihn on marrying Oraya to keep her safe after the Rishan overthrow the Hiaj castle, Chapter 54

“You aren’t my prisoner,” he said. “You’re my queen.”
Chapter 56

“Are you going to kill me Oraya?”
“Not tonight”.

“There she is”.