The Fallen and The Kiss of Dusk (Crowns of Nyaxia #4) by Carissa Broadbent / Books Teacup and Reviews

The Fallen and The Kiss of Dusk is beautifully written, immersive, and addictive vampire romantasy that blends love, sacrifice, and a blood-soaked war with emotional depth and unforgettable character arcs.

The Fallen and The Kiss of Dusk

The Fallen and The Kiss of Dusk (Crowns of Nyaxia #4) by Carissa Broadbent

Publication Date : August 5, 2025

Read Date : November 10, 2025

Genre : Fantasy / Romantasy

Pages : 638

Source : Kindle Unlimited

Previous Books I Read in this Series –

The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Book 1)

Six Scorched Roses (Book 1.5)

The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King (Book 2)

Slaying the Vampire Conqueror (Book 2.5)

The Songbird & the Heart of Stone (Book #3)

Synopsis

Mische made the ultimate sacrifice to save those she loves – and plunged the world into an eternal night. Now, imprisoned by the gods and obsessed with revenge, Asar is desperate to find her again.

When a goddess offers them a final path to redemption – and back to each other – Asar and Mische embark on an extraordinary mission. Together, they must seize the power of the god of death so Asar may do the ascend to true divinity.

Their journey will take them through mortal and immortal realms, alongside both old friends and ruthless enemies. But as the underworld teeters on the brink of collapse and the gods prepare for a war, Asar and Mische must decide what they are willing to sacrifice for the power to defy death. In a game of vengeful gods and ancient betrayals, there are some debts that even love may not be able to repay.

Review

The Fallen and The Kiss of Dusk picks up exactly where the previous one ended, which makes it nearly impossible to talk about without brushing against spoilers, but I will try to keep things as clean as I can. Mische saved millions of vampires from Atroxus, the God of Sun, and in doing so she plunged the world into darkness.

That single act caught the attention of the entire White Pantheon. They brought down their version of justice on Mische and imprisoned Asar, who now carries not only the power of Alarus but also a part of him. The gods fear the possibility that the brother they killed two thousand years ago might truly live within Asar.

War between humans and vampires is no longer a possibility but a certainty. War between the White Pantheon and Nyaxia is a ticking fuse. In the middle of all this chaos, Mische is desperate to return to the veil between the underworld and the living world to reach Asar, and Asar wants nothing more than to touch Mische’s soul and bring her back to life.

When a goddess offers Asar a path back to Mische, he takes it without hesitation. The price is a quest to gather the pieces of Alarus: the mask, the eye, and the heart. These will grant Asar the full power of the god he once served and allow him to revive Mische, but using them might cost him his mortality.

Every choice requires sacrifice, yet the one thing Asar and Mische refuse to surrender is each other. Watching them attempt to retrieve Alarus’s remains, face the horrors in their path, and fight for a future that keeps slipping through their fingers is gripping from start to finish. The tension of whether Asar can make Mische whole again and whether they will earn a happy ending kept me hooked.

The writing is far more polished and immersive this time. It is engaging, emotional, and addictive. I enjoyed both points of view, but Asar’s chapters were the ones that hit the hardest. The Fallen and The Kiss of Dusk has everything: petty gods who make human flaws look harmless, oppression and power plays, betrayal, grief, loss, sacrifice, redemption, and a love story full of yearning and tension.

The expanded worldbuilding is one of the strongest aspects of the book. We go beyond the forgotten lands and the place where Alarus was murdered. We explore the House of Shadow, its culture and traditions, and Vathysia, the House of Death.

We learn more about the White Pantheon, their home Ysria, their influence over the world, their movements through it, and even Nyaxia’s domain. The introduction of demigods was a complete surprise. The world is vast, layered, and complicated, and the author weaves it beautifully into the characters’ journeys.

Asar is my favorite male character in this entire series. His development is phenomenal. We finally learn about his past, how he was brought to the House of Shadows, the deprivation he endured, and the love he was denied since childhood. His grief over Luce, Ophelia, and now Mische is heartbreaking.

His losses have made him powerful, dangerous, and unyielding, yet he still refuses to take more power than he needs if it could hurt Mische. He rises to godhood in this book, yet Mische somehow still shines brighter, and that dynamic is fascinating.

Mische carries a mountain of guilt from her past. Now she is crushed under the guilt of killing a god, plunging the world into darkness, triggering an inevitable war, and watching the underworld crumble despite calling it home in the previous book. Her struggle feels raw and believable.

I understood why she felt unworthy of a piece of Alarus’s power, unworthy of her mortality, unworthy even of Asar’s love. Facing the Sentinels and the Goddess of Justice only deepens her doubts. Her journey through the underworld and then onward with Asar, as they retrieve Alarus’s remains, allows her to confront her past, heal, and rise into a character who is strong, grounded, and deeply admirable.

Seeing familiar characters again was a delight. I expected it after the warning Oraya received at the end of The Ashes and the Star Cursed King, and the author ties that loose end perfectly. Oraya and Raihn have meaningful roles here, but the biggest surprise is Vincent. I did not expect him at all, yet he is every bit as compelling as he was in The Serpent and the Wings of Night. His conversations with Mische are some of the best moments in the book. He guides her through the underworld and beyond, and even though he says little about Oraya, his actions speak for him. The quiet closure he gives her is powerful and beautiful.

The romance between Asar and Mische is slow burn, messy, intense, and raw. They fight their way through hell, through gods, and against fate itself to stay together. They are not each other’s weakness. They are each other’s strength, and that strength shakes the heavens. Watching their relationship grow is emotional in all the right ways.

The climax is brilliant. It is unpredictable, tense, and impossible to look away from. I genuinely could not imagine how the story would resolve beyond a certain point. The way the author twists the narrative in favor of Asar and Mische is impressive, and the involvement of the Goddess of Fate changes everything, including the book’s ending. Now I am counting the days until the Bloodborn duology releases, the first of which is coming in 2026.

Overall, The Fallen and The Kiss of Dusk is beautifully written, immersive, and addictive vampire romantasy that blends love, sacrifice, and a blood-soaked war with emotional depth and unforgettable character arcs.