Name: The Songbird & The Heart of Stone
Series: Crowns of Nyaxia #3 – The Shadowborn Duet #1
Author: Carissa Broadbent
Publisher: Self Published or Macmillan/Bramble (I can’t tell for the UK!)
Format: Kindle (through Kindle Unlimited)
Genres: New Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal
Noted Tropes: Enemies to Allies to Lovers, Grumpy/Sunshine, High Stakes, Vampires, Deadly Trials
Steam or Spice: Spice
Rating:
Synopsis: Goodreads
In the descent to the underworld, a bride of the sun must choose between the light of her redemption… or a dark love that defies the gods themselves
Mische lost everything when she was forcibly Turned into a vampire – her home, her humanity, and most devastating of all, the love of the sun god to whom she had devoted her life. Now, sentenced to death for murdering the vampire prince who Turned her, redemption feels impossible.
But when Mische is saved by Asar, the bastard prince of the House of Shadow with a past as brutal as his scars, she’s forced into a mission worse than execution: a journey to the underworld to resurrect the god of death himself.
Yet, Mische’s punishment may be the key to her salvation. In a secret meeting, her sun god commands her to help Asar in his mission, only to betray him… by killing the very death god she’ll help resurrect.
Mische and Asar must travel the treacherous path to the underworld, facing trials, beasts, and the vengeful ghosts of their pasts. Yet, most dangerous of all is the alluring call of the darkness – and her forbidden attraction to Asar, a burgeoning bond that risks invoking the wrath of gods.
As her betrayal looms, the underworld closes in and angry gods are growing restless. Mische will be forced to choose between the redemption of the sun or the damnation of the darkness.
Review:
The Songbird & The Heart of Stone is book 3 in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, and so I recommend that you read the completed Nightborn Duet first (The Serpent & The Wings of Night (Book 1) and The Ashes & The Star Cursed King (Book 2) before you dive into the Shadowborn Duet. There will be spoilers below for the Nightborn Duet.
One further warning, this book does deal with some heavy topics and so I do recommend taking a look at the content warnings (I myself did not and then was shocked by some of the events later – learn from my mistakes). Onto the review!
I can already tell you that I am going to struggle to write this review because I feel like everything I could say about it is going to spoil something! If you’ve read any of this series already, or The War of Lost Hearts trilogy then you know Carissa Broadbent has this skill when it comes to cliffhanger endings… She gives you characters to love and builds them up for you before sending you packing on a rollercoaster of emotions. And even though I know this, I am never prepared for the emotions that come as a result of her brilliance.
The Songbird & the Heart of Stone surprised me with how different it was from the Nighborn Duet. The same characters (with new ones obviously), and an overarching story line, and yet this was so different. I loved how you could so easily tell it was a Broadbent novel, and yet Mische and Asar’s story was just so different to that of Oraya and Raihn’s.
I already loved Mische, I adored her sunshine attitude and her partnership with Raihn in the Nightborn Duet and then to find out she was getting her own duet? I was thrilled! The only problem? After she killed the Shadowborn Heir in Book 2 of the Nightborn Duet I had no idea where she could possibly go! So when I finally picked up The Songbird & The Heart of Stone (alright, we really need a shortened version of these titles!) and almost immediately Mische is a prisoner of the Shadowbown ooohhhh I was panicking.
And I had every right to panic! I went straight into reading this – I did not pause to read the blurb! So I am immediately freaking out wondering what the hell this duet will be if Mische dies in the first couple chapters! Luckily, that’s where our Grumpy steps in. Asar, the other Shadowborn Prince, saves Mische from her impending execution and instead takes her on a journey to resurrect the dead God Alarus… They have to travel through Mothrym and the five layers before the underworld to collect the relics that will allow Asar to ressurect Alarus. And what a journey that is.
I usually love trying to piece together the plot as we’re going, but I got so damn wrapped up in the relationships Mische was building with Asar and the goodest girl in the world, Luce (an undead (technically?) dog! Broadbent through the sweetest animal companion at us!!) that I was so caught off guard by the events of the last three levels of Mothryn (Psyche, Secrets and Soul)! And the damn cliffhanger ending absolutely shocked me! I’m pretty sure I stopped breathing on multiple occassions due to what was going on – I loved it.
The problem now, you see… is that we have no idea when the next book will be out. I would be assuming, next year… but I don’t know when. It is going to be painful waiting for the conclusion to this duet given that ending! Though I think it’s clear as day and I’m safe to say there is definitely an overarching story between these duets and as of right now… I have no idea how that is going to end. Makes sense given that we are technically only half way through, but oh boy… that cliffhanger.
I hope you decide to pick up the Shadowborn Duet! It’s absolutely worth it! But please, make sure you read the Nightborn Duet first!
“You are so much more than this. And it would be a waste to throw all that magnificence away—for what? Because the sun told you to hate yourself? No. I won’t allow that.”
Reading With Tyler 
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