The War of Lost Hearts Books in Order

The War of Lost Hearts Series by Carissa Broadbent is a fantasy romance series set in a world where human magic-users are enslaved by vampires — used and discarded for their power. Mische is a former human slave who became something else when she survived what should have been her death; Asar is a vampire with an impossible mission into the realm of the dead. Their forced partnership across a journey through death itself creates the conditions for a romance that neither of them planned or wanted.

Broadbent continues the world-building she began in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, expanding the mythology of her vampire universe while telling a story with a different emotional register and different protagonists. The underworld setting provides a genuinely distinctive backdrop — strange, beautiful, and deeply dangerous — that differentiates this series from standard vampire romance fare.

Broadbent's strength is her ability to write romance that feels emotionally earned within genuinely dark fantasy contexts. Her characters are shaped by their traumas in ways that make their connection both difficult and meaningful, and her world-building provides real stakes that give the romantic development actual consequences.

Familiarity with the Crowns of Nyaxia series enriches the experience, but the War of Lost Hearts works independently. Begin with The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King or the first War of Lost Hearts volume. Fans of Broadbent's previous series and dark fantasy romance readers will find this a compelling continuation of an impressive fantasy world.