Crowns of Nyaxia

About the Crowns of Nyaxia series

Nyaxia is a world of warring vampire Houses, ancient gods, and a bloody line between mortal and immortal -- and Carissa Broadbent tells its story in linked two-book 'duets,' each centered on a different couple. The Nightborn Duet opens the series with Oraya, a human raised by the vampire king who adopted her, forced to compete in a lethal tournament to prove her right to survive -- and to rule -- alongside the mysterious, exiled vampire Raihn. Later duets shift focus entirely to new leads (Mische and Asar in the Shadowborn Duet, Kyrene and Septimus in the Bloodborn Duet), while the overarching war between vampires, humans and gods keeps building underneath every book.

Broadbent writes unapologetically dark, sensual enemies-to-lovers and monster-romance pairings -- morally grey vampire love interests, blood magic, court politics, and tournament or survival stakes -- inside genuinely inventive high-fantasy worldbuilding. The series began as a self-published phenomenon before being picked up by Bramble/Tor, which is part of why its fanbase feels so devoted: readers found it before the marketing machine did.

If you want vampire fantasy with real bite -- tournaments, gods, blood-soaked politics, and a slow-burn romance that earns its heat -- alongside a genre-favorite prickly-heroine/wounded-monster dynamic, this is one of the current standard-bearers of romantasy.

How to read this series

Read in publication/numbered order. The series is built as a set of duets, so books 1-2 (Oraya and Raihn), 3-4 (Mische and Asar) and 5-6 (Kyrene and Septimus) each form a complete couple arc while feeding into the same overarching war.

Two shorter novellas -- Six Scorched Roses (1.5) and Slaying the Vampire Conqueror (2.5) -- follow secondary couples and are explicitly optional side stories on the author's own reading-order guide. They add worldbuilding flavor but can be skipped without losing any main-couple plot threads.