-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
The Shadowborn Duet #1 (Crowns of Nyaxia #3)
by Carissa Broadbent
New York Times bestselling author and BookTok sensation Carissa Broadbent returns with a brand new novel in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, The Songbird & the Heart of Stone, where A Court of Thorns and Roses meets Dante's Inferno, in an epic fantasy romance of love and treachery between mortals and gods. Features beautiful case art and a detailed map.
In the descent to the underworld, a bride of the sun must choose between the light of her redemption… or a dark love that defies the gods themselves.
Mische lost everything when she was forcibly Turned into a vampire – her home, her humanity, and most devastating of all, the love of the sun god to whom she had devoted her life. Now, sentenced to death for murdering the vampire prince who Turned her, redemption feels impossible.
But when Mische is saved by Asar, the bastard prince of the House of Shadow with a past as brutal as his scars, she's forced into a mission worse than execution: a journey to the underworld to resurrect the god of death himself.
Yet, Mische's punishment may be the key to her salvation. In a secret meeting, her sun god commands her to help Asar in his mission, only to betray him… by killing the very death god she'll help resurrect.
Mische and Asar must travel the treacherous path to the underworld, facing trials, beasts, and the vengeful ghosts of their pasts. Yet, most dangerous of all is the alluring call of the darkness – and her forbidden attraction to Asar, a burgeoning bond that risks invoking the wrath of gods.
As her betrayal looms, the underworld closes in and angry gods are growing restless. Mische will be forced to choose between the redemption of the sun or the damnation of the darkness.
"Emotionally intense and richly detailed… Broadbent proves this series has legs." —Publishers Weekly
"The fast-paced plot involves a swoonworthy enemies-to-lovers love story, drawing readers in from the first paragraph. Give this romantasy to Sarah J. Maas fans." —Booklist
This information about The Songbird & the Heart of Stone was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Carissa Broadbent has been concerning teachers and parents with mercilessly grim tales since she was roughly nine years old. Since then, her stories have gotten (slightly) less depressing and (hopefully a lot?) more readable. Today, she writes novels that blend epic fantasy plots with a heaping dose of romance. She lives with her husband, her son, and one perpetually skeptical cat in Rhode Island.
If you liked The Songbird & the Heart of Stone, try these:
by R. F.. Kuang
Published 2026
Dante's Inferno meets Susanna Clarke's Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor's soul—perhaps at the cost of ...
by Caro De Robertis
Published 2025
Perfect for fans of Circe and Black Sun, this bold and subversive feminist retelling of the Greek myth of Psyche and Eros explores the power of queer joy and freedom.
by Madeline Miller
Published 2020
Winner of the 2018 BookBrowse Fiction Award
The daring, dazzling and highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Song of Achilles.
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
