Carissa Broadbent

Carissa Broadbent is an American fantasy romance author whose Crowns of Nyaxia series turned a self-published vampire romantasy into one of the genre's defining commercial successes.

Carissa Broadbent is one of the great success stories of the modern romantasy boom — an author who built a devoted readership through years of independent publishing before a single book, The Serpent and the Wings of Night, propelled her to the front rank of the genre. Her work is distinguished by its darkness, its atmospheric prose, and its commitment to the slow-burning romantic tension that her readers prize, and she has become a model of how the contemporary fantasy-romance career can be made outside, and then inside, traditional publishing.

The Indie Author Who Broke Through

For much of her early career, Broadbent published independently, writing fantasy with strong romantic threads and cultivating an audience the patient way: book by book, reader by reader. That long apprenticeship in self-publishing gave her an unusually direct relationship with her readers and a sharp understanding of what they wanted — immersive secondary worlds, morally complicated characters, and romances built on tension rather than convenience.

The turning point came with The Serpent and the Wings of Night, the first book in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, which she released independently in 2022. Driven by enthusiastic word of mouth on BookTok, the novel became a phenomenon large enough that it was eventually picked up for wider distribution by a major publisher, bringing her vampire-soaked, tournament-driven romantasy to a vastly larger audience. The trajectory — from self-published obscurity to mainstream prominence on the strength of reader passion — has made Broadbent a frequently cited example of how the genre’s economics have shifted in the social-media era.

The Crowns of Nyaxia Series

The series that made her name is built around an original and richly imagined mythology. Nyaxia, a goddess of the night cast out by the other gods, created the vampire bloodlines, and the world Broadbent constructs around her — its competing Houses, its deadly century-old tournament, its court politics — gives the romance a genuine fantasy spine. The Serpent and the Wings of Night and its conclusion, The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King, form a duet that fans regard as one of the strongest in the genre, and Broadbent has continued to expand the world with further stories set in the same mythology.

Alongside Crowns of Nyaxia, Broadbent is also known for her War of Lost Hearts trilogy, an earlier secondary-world fantasy series with the same blend of immersive worldbuilding and emotional intensity. Together, her series demonstrate a consistent set of preoccupations: the cost of power, the negotiation of identity in a hostile world, and the way intimacy can be forged under extreme pressure.

A Distinctive Voice in Romantasy

What sets Broadbent apart from many of her peers is the seriousness with which she treats her own darkness. Where a great deal of romantasy is bright, quippy, and fast, her writing is atmospheric and often lyrical, willing to sit in grief, danger, and moral ambiguity. Her heroines tend to be vulnerable in ways that matter — physically outmatched, emotionally guarded, shaped by trauma — and they survive through intelligence and will rather than effortless power. That emphasis gives her books an emotional grounding beneath their fantastical trappings, and it is a large part of why readers form such intense attachments to them.

Her approach to romance is similarly disciplined. Broadbent favours the genuine slow burn, building attraction through banter, shared danger, and grudging trust over many chapters before allowing it to deepen. The patience can frustrate readers who want immediate heat, but for those who value the payoff of an earned relationship, it is precisely the appeal. The result is romantasy that satisfies on both the romantic and the narrative level, with the love story and the fantasy plot reinforcing rather than competing with each other.

Reception and Influence

Broadbent’s commercial success has been substantial, and her influence on the genre extends beyond her own sales. As one of the indie authors whose work helped define the romantasy wave alongside higher-profile names, she has demonstrated that a writer can build a major career on the strength of reader devotion and a distinctive voice, without waiting for traditional gatekeepers. Her books are fixtures of the BookTok ecosystem, recommended endlessly by readers seeking darker, more atmospheric fantasy romance, and her transition to wider publication has only broadened that reach.

Critically, she is regarded as one of the more craftsmanlike writers working in the space — praised for prose that rises above genre boilerplate, for mythology that feels genuinely invented rather than assembled, and for romances that respect the reader’s intelligence. For readers discovering romantasy and looking for the deeper, darker end of the spectrum, Broadbent is consistently among the first names recommended, and her continued expansion of the Crowns of Nyaxia world suggests a career still gathering momentum. She stands as a representative figure of her moment: an author who turned independent grit and a singular vision into one of the genre’s most beloved bodies of work.

Where to Start

Begin with The Serpent and the Wings of Night, the first book in the Crowns of Nyaxia series and the title that made Broadbent’s name. It introduces her signature blend of atmospheric darkness, a vulnerable but formidable heroine, and a disciplined slow-burn romance, all set within a deadly vampire tournament. Be sure to have its conclusion, The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King, ready, as the two books form a single emotional arc. Readers who connect with her style can then explore the earlier War of Lost Hearts trilogy. It is the ideal entry point for anyone wanting romantasy at its most immersive, mythic, and emotionally serious.