Let me start this review by saying that the Daughter of No Worlds series is my favorite fantasy series I think I have ever read. So…I came into this one with INCREDIBLY high expectations.

I loved this story's ability to build a complex world quickly. I felt drawn in almost immediately, which must be Carissa Broadbent’s superpower.

Where the story lost me was the romance, which was disappointing because of how strong the connection between Max and Tissanah was. Whereas, with this book, I just did not believe the MC's love or attraction towards one another. It felt almost too convenient.

BUT, I still did love the quote, ”I love you, seer.” 🫠 And the end to this book was incredible.

So, this book can be read as a standalone. That is how I read it and now I am dying to dive more into this world with The Serpent and the Wings of the Night. Honestly, I am just curious how that epilogue fits in, hmmm, it seems important.

So, if you are looking for an action-packed, forbidden romance, with a slight Bridge Kingdom vibe I think you would really enjoy this one.

Thank you for this ARC and the opportunity to give my candid feedback.

It’s really hard for me to truly love a fantasy book because sometimes the world building is too intense for me and it makes it hard to follow along. At first, I could not for the life of me get into this book.

While the backstory of Sylina ends up being absolutely intriguing, it was hard to follow along with what she was up to for the first 30% of this book. Over time, I was able to understand what she had gone through and the lack of eyesight made everything she did truly remarkable.

The romance between Sylina and Atrius started off as enemies to lovers, forbidden love kind of vibes. It happened kind of suddenly but it also wasn’t the biggest focus of the story. I give the spice a 3 🌶️ out of 5, even though it is a bit of a slow burn.

It’s interesting to see how this book fits into the rest of the series and am looking forward to see what happens in the next one. While this can be read as a standalone, definitely will make it more exciting having read the rest.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Carissa Broadbent’s Slaying The Vampire Conqueror is a captivating and sensual romantasy that will leave you spellbound. It’s a dark, thrilling, and intense read, perfect for fans of hot new romantasy set in familiar worlds. I couldn’t put it down!

I love a standalone novel that *truly* works as a standalone. For readers who haven't read any of the Crowns of Nyaxia books, this book provides a great entrypoint into the world and the lore. Sylina is.a compelling protagonist and Atrius is intriguing. I also loved getting to see part of the greater world outside of Obitraes!

4.75 stars
Like legitimately, this is what I mean when I say that I need a different Vampire story.

First off, our main character being blind and choosing the absolute best choice of eye coverings i.e. a beautiful blood-red silk blindfold? Absolutely, heck yes, I love every single second of it. If I ever go blind, catch me rocking different colored silk scarves over my eyes instead of gross sunglasses. That's how you go out in style, my people. And she can literally pull on the threads of the universe to teleport? The main goddess is the weaver of the universe that you threadwalk/seer-see by walking the threads of time?
And the fact that she has an initial plan, it gets followed to a T and you just sit there in stunned awe at her brilliance as the story continues on?

Guys. I'm not kidding. The character development, plot, and world-building of this book is mindboggling. I can't even put it into the words it deserves.

Perfectly executed "you make me ravenous" slow burn? 100% ✅
An entirely new perspective on gods, fantasy religions, and sisterhood? ✅
The perfect amount of spice (thank you chapter 35) ✅
Mindblowing story weaving that kept me up through the night and into the wee morning? ✅

There really isn't much that I would change and I will gladly reread this book over and over again purely for the worldbuilding, the magic, and our main character Sylina/Vivi.
100 times over, YES.
This is how you do a Vampire book.

I love an enemy to lover story. Especially if it's fantasy. The slow burn was good until it wasn't. You have to read about 50% just to get a tease of spice. Although the two spice scenes were good, I expect more. But I still love this world.

Hmmmmm. Okay… I was iffy on Serpents. I DNF’d Ashes. This one ughhh I couldn’t get into. Didn’t feel the chemistry. Didn’t care for the plot. I loved the timing and pacing but that was about it.

I love the world that Carissa has built in this series. This novel was perfect. I fell in love with the characters so quickly and the story kept me enthralled the entire time.

This book was such a great read, I loved the cult assassin sent out to kill her enemy, but of course it’s an enemies to lovers so the tension is there which makes the relationship between the fmc and the mmc so good. Absolutely loved it would definitely recommend!

This author never misses. The writing is spectacular, the worldbuilding is solid, and the characters are believable. I will highly recommend this book, and its series, to anyone who needs a good vampire/fantasy read.

Read This Book If…you’re craving a standalone romantasy novel!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Slaying the Vampire Conqueror by Carissa Broadbent

Genre: romantasy
Series: Crowns of Nyaxia # 2.5
Spice Level: 3/5🌶, 1-2 explicit scenes
Setting: fantasy world
POV:single, 1st person, past tense
Tropes: slow burn, enemies to lovers, forbidden, virgin

My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this standalone novel within the larger world of Nyaxia! The cult Sylina was in was so interesting and I love the twist on her blindness/disability combined with magic.

While this isn’t a true enemies to lovers book, she is sent to kill Atrius, a powerful vampire, which leads to some great sabotage and betrayals. There was more of a focus on the plot, while the relationship developed really naturally and beautifully.

I can’t wait to see how Sylina and Atrius fit into future books!

Memorable Quote: “I knew that a wounded soul craved another to mirror theirs. That was all this was.”

Thank you to the publisher for my advance copy!

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

While the premise was nice, the writing was... not what I expected. I wanted more from the characters because I felt that what was on the front cover and the front flap was not what we were given.

Slaying the Vampire Conqueror

I enjoyed jumping back into the Crowns of Nyaxia world. Sylina is a great FMC. Shes strong, brave and knows how to fight. If you enjoyed FBAA series, put this book on your TBR pile!

~Forbidden love
~Enemies to lovers
~Badass FMC
~Vampires
~Gods
~Political intrigue

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for a copy of the digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc!

i would like to note that the drc was poorly formatted, but i listened to the audio as i read so it did not greatly affect my reading experience.

i continue to enjoy the world and magic system that carissa broadbent has created in the crowns of nyaxia series! i found our fmc particularly interesting, considering she did not have the typical sight, but was able to “see” using threads of magic.

Bramble’s aggressive timeline to re-printing seemingly all of Carissa Broadbent’s back catalog is really biting into my plan to try and space these reads out! So, here we are, back with the latest, one that’s been out as an indie release for a while now and that I had been saving for a rainy day!

While I’ve definitely had favorites, I’ve always highly rated and greatly enjoyed Broadbent’s books, so I was excited to check this one out. I was particularly excited by the nature of this book, its being a stand-alone rather than part of a duology/trilogy, as many of her other titles are. And this one worked great in this format! The romance is a true slow burn, but one that resolves by the end of the book. The characters are strong enough to be introduced quickly and still pack a punch. And the world-building benefits from the various other books that are set in this same world, but still approachable to new readers, with few references to previous storylines.

Broadbent is one of those authors whose books seem to straddle the line between romantasy and romantic fantasy. They’re definitely romances, with a decent number of spice scenes and HEAs. But she also puts tons of effort into her world-building and magic system, and I think this gives the books good cross-over appeal to fantasy readers in general who enjoy a central love story. All of this to say, this was one of her best love stories yet!

I think the slow-burn nature of their relationship played out in the best way possible, with both characters coming in with their own goals and many pre-existing opinions about one another. But through the events of the story, their relationship begins forming first and foremost around mutual respect for one another’s abilities. Indeed, before the book spends much time at all with thoughts of romantic interest, we see several scenes instead of Sylina and Atrius admiring one another’s battle prowess. All of this ground work makes their eventual romance all the sweeter, as it feels as if it progresses at a natural and believable pace.

I also really loved Sylina as a character! The magic behind her blindness and the way that she interacts with the world was so interesting, from the details of her maneuvers while fighting to simple things like the ways that she and those like her connect with one another. As readers, its easy to have early suspicions about Sylina’s religion and the order that she works for. But the book does a great job exploring her slow path to questioning the way she has been brought up to understand the world, her views on authority and individual judgement, as well as autonomy. Throughout most all of her books, Broadbent has taken a keen look at religious extremism, often drawing neat but profound parallels to our current world, and this one is yet another example of this.

The book also doesn’t shy away from the violence and horror of the conflict brewing on the page. There’s a scene in the last third of the book that took me by surprise with just how grim it became. But, as this is a romance as well, things do get wrapped up with a nice HEA for our main characters. If you’re a fan of Broadbent’s work, then this is a must read! And if you’re looking for an easy entry point to her books, this is also a good place to start as it doesn’t commit you to more than one book!

Rating 9: Enticing and exciting! When you’re not busy swooning, you’ll be on the edge of your seat!

Link will go live on The Library Ladies on March 21.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor for this advanced reader copy! I can't get enough of Broadbent's beautiful world and the stories she creates. I'm not sure if the last chapter was included in the original version, but now I'm SUPER excited and impatient for The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk.

Carissa Broadbent is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I love her inventive world building and her ability to craft so many different stories out of this world, yet each different one still feels fresh and new. Excited to see more from her.

I have enjoyed every book of this author that I have read, and this one was no exception! This was such a fun read with a unique look into the world of the Crowns of Nyaxia. The world building was so good, a little dense a couple times but overall really well done! The characters were fantastic and I cannot wait to see them pop up again in the series!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Slaying the Vampire Conqueror was a fantastic addition to the Crowns of Nyaxia universe! Carissa Broadbent has crafted a compelling narrative that delves deeper into the world's lore and political landscape, enriching the overall series arc. I was particularly impressed with how this installment expanded upon the existing mythology and offered new perspectives on previously established events. It truly adds layers of complexity and intrigue to the world Broadbent has created.

Beyond the world-building, the heart of this book lies in the captivating connection between the two main characters. Their dynamic was electric, filled with both tension and tenderness. Broadbent expertly navigates their evolving relationship, crafting moments of genuine emotional resonance that left me completely invested in their journey. The push and pull, the vulnerabilities revealed, and the slow burn romance were all masterfully handled, making their interactions a true highlight of the book.

While there were a couple of minor pacing issues in the middle, the overall story was engaging and kept me hooked from beginning to end. The world-building, the compelling characters, and the sizzling chemistry between the leads more than made up for any minor shortcomings.

*I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*