This was fun! I mean, as much fun as a gruesome and bloody murder competition can be, set in a world where humans are food because it is almost entirely populated by vampires. I wonder how much the edited version will change. I would re-read to find out!
Our main character is Oraya, a human who was raised by the vampire king since she was a small child. He took her from the village he slaughtered. He was just like, oh yeah I’m gonna save this one human aren’t I so noble, and the result of that is a highly conflicted young woman who feels, in my opinion, very misplaced loyalty to a tyrant.
Oraya has decided to enter the Kejari, a magical competition to honor the Goddess Nyaxia, who apparently likes it when all her subjects kill each other but let’s just go with it. The winner of the competition gets a favor from the goddess herself, and Oraya’s dream is to use that favor to help . . . shore up her father’s power (essentially, it’s complicated). So yeah, brainwashed. Fuck that guy.
Enter Raihn, a vampire with wings! He is also in the competition, and they quickly become frenemies slash friends slash of course lovers. I really liked the chemistry between these two characters, and you could feel that both of them were conflicted about the bond they were developing. Both of them know being together is a bad, bad idea for various reasons, but can’t seem to help themselves.
I was highly entertained by this book, and thought Carissa Broadbent’s writing was very intriguing. She took a trope that could have felt tired (killing competition) and made it fun to read. I’m not sure when I will get to the second book (Crowns of Nyaxia is a book series that will be three sets of duologies following different characters), but hopefully soon! I am also interested in Daughter of No Worlds, which I have out from Kindle Unlimited.