The Lion and the Deathless Dark by Carissa Broadbent

A bounty hunter, a vampire prince, and a blade with an attitude. Nobody here is innocent, and that’s exactly the point.

Synopsis

From New York Times bestselling author and BookTok sensation Carissa Broadbent returns with a brand new novel in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, The Lion & the Deathless Dark – the first book in the Bloodborn Duet.

Some blood tastes like vengeance. Some blood tastes like grief. Some blood tastes like nothing at all.

Under an eternal night, the world has been ravaged by ten years of war between humans and vampires. Kyrene scrapes by as a bounty hunter, bearing a blessed sword from the goddess of justice. But in the wake of a devastating loss, Kyrene commits a crime that makes her a target for mortals and gods alike – and she is still desperate for vengeance.

Her only chance at survival – and revenge – is making a deal with her enemy, the silver-tongue vampire prince, Septimus, who offers her one final to slay the gods themselves.

Together, Kyrene and Septimus must hunt the ultimate marks, all while navigating a web of prophecies and curses. Septimus is calculating and mysterious, masking secrets bloodthirsty enough to consume them both. Yet, most dangerous of all, Kyrene finds an unexpected kinship in him.

But their growing attraction is deadly in a world where the only currency is blood. And Kyrene will stop at nothing to fulfill her ultimate to kill the goddess of vampires, even if it means sacrificing love for revenge.

Review

Thank you so much to @panmacmillanexport for my copy!

I’ve read The Serpent and the Wings of Night and its sequel, but what sets this book apart is clear from the very first pages: both main protagonists are deeply, unapologetically morally grey. They have each done unspeakable things, for the right reasons, with enormous consequences. If characters in shades of grey are your thing, you are absolutely in for a treat.

I did walk in Kyrene’s shoes throughout, but my favorite character was probably her sacred blade. I loved how impertinent and blood-hungry it was. The concept reminded me immediately of Ashdrinker in Empire of the Vampire, another wonderfully talkative blade.

Kyrene is a bounty hunter who does the goddess of justice’s bidding, though she takes some creative detours along the way to earn extra money. She lives the full bounty hunter life: traveling with companions, hot torrid nights to relieve the pressure, drinking a little too much at times. She is also a walking contradiction. She won’t hesitate to sacrifice your life to save her own if she thinks you have no chance of surviving, and yet she will deeply mourn the loss of someone she considered like a daughter, or do something genuinely foolish to save the weak. Contradiction should absolutely be her middle name.

She is hired by Septimus, prince of the Blood Vampires, to kill the gods. Specifically, to kill Nyaxia, the goddess of vampires. He is every bit as morally grey as she is, and when I discovered what he had done in the hope of saving his people from their curse, I was completely shocked. And yet I understood his motives entirely. That’s the mark of a well-written villain, or rather, a well-written character who refuses to be just a villain.

This being a romantasy, there is romance and spice along the way, as well as fights and twists in abundance. I was not remotely prepared for that cliffhanger.

Not even a little.

Thanks for reading.