Six Scorched Roses (Crowns of Nyaxia #1.5) by Carissa Broadbent

 

Summary (from the publisher): Six roses. Six vials of blood. Six visits to a vampire who could be her salvation… or her damnation.

Lilith has been dying since the day she was born. But while she long ago came to terms with her own imminent death, the deaths of everyone she loves is an entirely different matter. As her town slowly withers in the clutches of a mysterious god-cursed illness, she takes matters into her own hands.

Desperate to find a cure, Lilith strikes a bargain with the only thing the gods hate even more than her village: a vampire, Vale. She offers him six roses in exchange for six vials of vampire blood–the one hope for her town’s salvation.

But when what begins as a simple transaction gradually becomes something more, Lilith is faced with a terrifying realization: It’s dangerous to wander into the clutches of a vampire… and in a place already suffering a god’s wrath, more dangerous still to fall in love with one.

Six Scorched Roses is a standalone fantasy romance novella set in the world of the Crowns of Nyaxia series, perfect for those who love dark, romantic tales with bite and fans of Sarah J. Maas or Jennifer L. Armentrout.

Review: This was such a lovely novella. At just under two hundred pages, it explored a side character that we meet in book one. But this story allows the reader to go back in time and hear Lillith's whole origin story, and I enjoyed hearing it even more than I anticipated. 

In this book, we learn that Lillith was born into a world where everyone is dying from a slow acting plague that slowly withers their bodies away. She is born with death stalking her. Determined to save her sister, she makes a bargain with a vampire, in hopes that she can use his blood to try to find a cure. But along the way, as she continues to visit the vampire to get vials of blood to use for her research, she begins to feel deeply for him. 

I really liked both Lillith and Vale. I was taken aback by one explicit voyeur scene, where Lillith wanders into Vale's house and sees something she shouldn't. This actually felt like the explicit scene in the book. There were a few elements that I wish more time could have been devoted to - I would have liked more insight into Vale's past, more depth to Lillith's family, and a little more information about Lillith's other relationships and academic career. But the author herself has labelled this a "short novel" and given that, it felt surprisingly fully developed, particularly when it came to Lillith and Vale's relationship. 

Stars: 4

Related Titles: 

• The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia #1) by Carissa Broadbent
• The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King (Crowns of Nyaxia #2) by Carissa Broadbent