Book Review: ‘The Ashes & the Star Cursed King’ an Epic Grimdark Conclusion to This Fantasy Romance Booktok Favorite
After absolutely devouring The Serpent and the Wings of Night, and the novella, Six Scorched Roses, I had to jump right in to book two. Now reminder, book one was like if Kate Beckinsale’s Underworld had a baby with a vampire Hunger Games. This book is so different from book one, and I think that’s why I’ve seen people not love it as much. The pace of book two is much slower with lots of political intrigue, and the action really doesn’t start until much later. There’s also a lot more spice in my opinion. And I didn’t realize until I sat down to write this, but this series really is a mix of fantasy romance and grimdark fantasy, so if you love those two things, you’ll probably love this series.
Things to Know:
Self published, and available for free on Kindle Unlimited, but a new traditionally published hardback comes out June 4th, 2024
Political intrigue
Marriage of convenience
Enemies to lovers
Rival Houses
More spice than book one
Dual POV
Book two of a completed series
We pick up where we left off in book one: so pure chaos! It’s actually so hard to write a spoiler free review for this because where do I even begin with what happened?! Let’s just say, it’s all political machinations, and I hate Septimus with every fiber of my being. If you’ve read the novella, you’ll recognize Vale and Lilith, and I was so excited to see them again, and having their backstory made me feel like I had insider knowledge—more than Oraya and Raihn, which was actually cool considering what happens…
“He was just as broken as the rest of us, and he was so determined not to acknowledge it that he flayed you with those sharp edges and then berated you for having skin instead of steel.”
Now, I hear people’s complaints. And I will say, if I ‘hear’ Raihn say one more time, “There she is,” I’m going to hurl something against the wall. This phrase is used ad nauseum, and I did get sick of it. Like, we get it. It’s not cute anymore. However, there’s a dance scene! If I haven’t talked about it before, let me tell you, I am such a sucker for a great dance scene with great dialogue. And yes, it was amazing. Plus, it’s dual POV, and I honestly loved getting Raihn’s perspective and you can see how they’re thinking about each other. Where book one was all action and badassery, this book is more character driven. We dig deep into these character’s past, their fears, their dreams, their motivations. So if you’re not into character driven stories, you might find this one a slow read until we get to the action towards the 75% mark. And I do wish we’d seen a bit more fight from Oraya and Raihn with each other at the beginning of the story. They’re literal enemies, and the way they treated each other just wasn’t quite what I had pictured in my head considering how the last one ended. Don’t get me wrong, I still love them both so much, but I just wanted the beginning of the novel to have a bit more oomph.
“She’s mine,” he said. “I don’t share.”
“It was the kind of kiss that made doubts wither.”
Overall, I did enjoy this series a lot, and like I mention above would recommend the Crowns of Nyaxia series to fans of fantasy romance who don’t mind some grimdark fantasy mixed in.
“My downfall and my most valuable supporter. My weakness and my strength. My worst enemy and the greatest love I had ever known."
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