If you’ve been loving The Serpent and the Wings of Night book series, this is an easy novella to fall into. While this felt a bit short considering, more thoughts below, it’s a satisfying novella set in the same world and has some fun connections and Easter Egg appeal. Keep reading this book review of Six Scorched Roses for my full thoughts.
Summary
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.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Six Scorched Roses is a short and swoony – mostly romantic angst – novella in The Crowns of Nyxia world. It has Easter Egg appeal and serves as a little treat between book one and two in the series. I’m a fan of these novellas on side characters in these rich fantasy worlds full of lore. There’s kind of a Beauty and the Beast vibe to it with a ‘monster’-esque figure, tons of libraries, and research. But it also delivers questions about letting our fears as a community hold us back from progress and saving those within.
My only complaint is that I wish it had been a bit longer or differently weighted? There were some fascinating scenes at the end – where you can see a lot of parallels in the world and especially as our characters really get to know each other – that I wish had a bit more space to grow. Maybe what I’m saying is we need standalone novels in the series, but I feel like when it got to this turning point in the story, and we got familiarized, it was over? That also lent itself to feeling a bit hasty towards the end.
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In general, I enjoyed Six Scorched Roses and the way there’s all these figures like gods and authority figures who are supposed to scare. But don’t. And I’m even more excited for the next! Find Six Scorched Roses on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, & Blackwells.