In late 2023, I got introduced by Carissa Broadbent’s books. I’ve started The Serpent and the Wings of Night, the first book in the “Crowns of Nyaxia” series. I already owned this book for a while and other readers really seemed to love it. This book indeed got me out of my reading slump. I read the sequel at the start of 2024 and unfortunately, this didn’t work well for me. Recently, the third book in the series got published, The Songbird and the Heart of Stone. Did this book live up to my expectations?

About the book

The Songbird and The Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent
Series: Crowns of Nyaxia #3
Published by Bramble on November 19, 2024
Pages: 418
Genres: Fantasy, New adult, Romantasy

New York Times bestselling author and BookTok sensation Carissa Broadbent returns with a brand new novel in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, The Songbird & the Heart of Stone, where A Court of Thorns and Roses meets Dante’s Inferno, in an epic fantasy romance of love and treachery between mortals and gods. Features beautiful case art and a detailed map.

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 god of death.

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.

My review

Before reading

Whereas I really enjoyed the first book in the series but didn’t really like the second one, I was very curious what this third book would bring me. I already knew we would follow two different characters this time and that Rainh’s and Oraya’s story was done. However, the main character of this novel is Mische and I really enjoyed reading about her in the previous books. I therefore expected this book to be totally up my alley. Positive reviews by fellow bloggers only added up to these high expectations. This book was one of my most anticipated reads of this season. This review however is the story of how this highly anticipated book turned out to be one of my most disappointing reads of the season so far. Because no, this book couldn’t live up to my sky high expectations.

Characters

As stated before, this book is about Mische and we should get to know this very optimistic character from the previous books better. She was always positive and therefore she made me curious and I was eager to find out more about her and her backstory. Naturally, a romantasy novel is nothing without a male main character. For this book it’s Asar, a vampire prince who has been exiled to the Underworld for years. Now, he gets sent by his family on a mission to resurrect a God from the death. He has to take Mische with him as her punishment for killing yet another vampire prince, Asar’s brother. Asar is a character that’s difficult to fathom since he is really closed. He has his guard up fulltime and since he only gets his own POV in the final chapter of this book, I was barely able to get to know him. Readers know as much about Asar as Mische does, since this book is written in her POV entirely, except for the final chapter. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get to know him, nor the other characters. Indeed, neither Mische. These characters just have been written poorly. I didn’t believe what I was reading, Mische isn’t that character I used to like anymore. She was dull and uninteresting. She has gone through a lot, which is stated multiple times. However, since I didn’t feel any connection to both Mische and Asar, I just didn’t feel the chemistry between this cast of main characters.

Writing

Even though I didn’t like the characters at all, I enjoyed the writing style. The chapters are quite short, which made it easy to get through this book fast. The fact that Broadbent has chosen to use single POV narration is a loss in my opinion. I believe Asar could have contributed so much more to this story. Maybe it’s habituation, because I’ve been reading multiple POV narrated books a lot lately. There are necessary flashbacks, these are clearly indicated. I therefore wasn’t confused by them.

Plot

One of the biggest issues I had with this book besides the characters, was the plot. I had the feeling that this never moved forward and that it was very repetitive. Mische and Asar had to go to the Underworld, which is divided into five or six parts. These parts are equal to the parts this book is divided into. However, in each and every part the same cycle got repeated. I was beyond bored and was contemplating whether to DNF this book countless times. I pushed through, because I was still looking for that glimmer of hope that I would eventually like this book. Unfortunately, I zoned out a lot and was very confused by where all the side characters came from. I never got into the book, I simply couldn’t get sucked in. The ending was an interesting plot twist, but it didn’t convince me enough.

Final thoughts

The Songbird and The Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent was not the book I was hoping for. I was very much looking forward to it, but it turned out to be pretty disappointing. If I checked Goodreads reviews beforehand, I could have known, but I didn’t unfortunately. The characters and plot were not what I was expecting, I was beyond bored and unintrigued. I therefore doubt whether I want to continue with this series, I wonder if it will get better by the next book. It’s such a disappointment after liking the first book so much.