The Book of Azrael

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received a free arc from the publisher to read and review the book - all thoughts are my own.

Dianna is an other worldly creature, a monsters. Feared and powerful, she has a deal with the most dangerous and powerful person until she betrays him to work with a legend from another world.

Wow! This story was amazing, filled with banter and wit and dark plots. I loved the characters and plot twists and different creatures.
The romance was also a major subplot. Be warned, there is spice!
I would definitely recommend for fans of Crescent City or A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas.

I can’t wait for the next instalment.

Originally didn’t give feedback because I DNF, but it’s hurting my feedback ratio, so I’m going to say that some of the characters were interesting, but I didn’t care to continue. I also would never give a star rating to a book I DNF, but this makes me.

Omg this is a great book. I can’t wait for the second book.

I can’t believe I have to wait for the second book to come out. I need to know how Dianna is going to be now with the ending being a Cliff hanger. Like omg why do authors hove to have cliff hanger. I love the relationship Dianna have with her sister Gabby. I know my big sister with so the same with me. And I will do the same for her. I also love the relationship with Dianna and Liam. I love how Liam is trying to learn our world. I love how he learn how to roll his eyes because that is what Dianna does so much. This book was so good and I can’t wait for the second one.

I really enjoyed the book even though I found the first 15 chapters confusing because you where jumping between time lines and i could not focus on that.
But everything else was really good it was a good enemies to lovers with a sneaky one bed trope which i did not expect in that part.

I was lost a couple of times because some characters had different names and that was not always explained in the best way.

But the story was well written with good fleshed out back stories for all the characters but like not to much like i feel i will no longer have things to discover about them in the next book.

I am looking forward to the next book and keep up the good work

There is so much to love about this book. The Book of Azrael is wonderfully unique. The characters are dark and deeply flawed. Diana and Liam are both on opposite sides and this is a brilliant enemies to lovers storyline. You honestly can't believe the two protagonists could ever have feelings for each other at the start.
The background to the plot and the worldbuilding has been carefully designed, I was a bit confused sometimes, but there was so much history it really helped bring the story to life.
Dianna is a brilliant character. She's a definite anti-hero and I love seeing the villain from their perspective. She's a creature of death and destruction but incredibly likable and strong because of everything she has been through and her loyalty and love for her sister.
The plot is fast paced and keeps you on your toes. I loved the twists and turns a long the way.
I feel that anyone who enjoyed From Blood and Ash would really enjoy this novel.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and Amber Nicole for providing me with an arc. This is a pure must for those who love Fantasy Romance.

In this book, we follow Dianna, who was once a mortal, but now works for Kaden, a monster who helped her save her sister. She is a weapon and has to do everything Kaden asks. Then we meet Samkiel, also known as the World Ender, or Liam. He lives alone on the remains of his former world, which was destroyed after the Gods War. He isolated himself from everyone in the aftermath and didn’t want to be involved in politics or governing. But something happens, and he has to come back. The threats he thought were in the past are still here, and the new world is again in danger. Dianna should be the enemy, but they must work together to save the world.

What is most surprising about this book is its rich and complex world-building. We have Gods, Monsters, celestials, vampires, witches, and many more magical/mythical creatures. Everyone has different powers and a different place in the world. It isn’t very info-dumpy, too. As the plot progresses, we become aware of their existence and the rules that govern their universe. Initially, I felt a little confused, but it quickly clarified. The setting here is not our world; the characteristics are similar to our modern world.

The characters are mostly interesting. Dianna is fierce, hot-headed, stubborn, loyal, funny, and kind to those she loves. Liam is lost and disengaged, suffering from PTSD. But he has to find his way back to being a leader. They work very well together, and I really enjoyed the dialogues and the banter. However, I found that they kept making foolish decisions. We get told repeatedly that Liam is mighty and Dianna is brilliant, but I struggled to see it on the page. Maybe in the sequel.

What bothered me about this book is that it is not very well edited. The beginning was very slow, and I almost DNF’ed it because nothing was really happening, and it was going nowhere. I felt that there were a lot of scenes throughout the book so that we could spend more time with the characters but weren’t advancing the plot in any way. It is also a little too descriptive for my taste, especially in the beginning.

This is an excellent book for those who love a slow-burn fantasy romance without too much spice, enjoy a rich world-building, and don’t mind scenes that aren’t there for the plot but to get to know the characters.

The plot was interesting and I thought it was executed fairly well, I didn't mind the characters but I wasn't particularly fond of anyone.

This review is going to be a bit shorter than normal and I'm not going to give this book a rating because I just had problems finishing it. Sometimes the formatting would be so off that it hurt my eyes to try and read the book, which I get, it's an ARC so the book is going to have some errors but there were just too many for me to be able to read the book comfortably. I think once the errors are fixed I'd be able to pick it up again and give a more thorough opinion.

I received The Book of Azrael from NetGalley and Rose and Star Publishing, LLC, in exchange for my honest review.

This book was GOOD. And so much better than I was expecting. If you love fantasy romance, true enemies to lovers, a well-thought out plot that is not in any way overshadowed by the romance, a badass female lead, an endearing sister-sister relationship, non-stop action, then I hope you love this story too.

Dianna and Liam’s relationship started as true enemies and was so authentic and sweet as they became friends and eventually something more. It was SO well done and thoughtful. There is a little spice 🌶 but I’m hoping we will see more in the next book 😉

I was a bit hesitant going in and my one complaint is that it felt a little long, like it could have been trimmed down 100-200 pages. I wasn’t sure where it was l going the first 30% BUT once it picked up, I couldn’t put it down.

And that ENDING 😱. I was assuming there would be some kind of cliffhanger but I was not expecting that! I will 100% be picking up the next book in this series. The Book of Azrael is out now!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing this ARC! I really, really wanted to like this book because I've seen so many good reviews for it, but I was honestly really disappointed. The premise of the story is really interesting and there was a lot of attention on world-building which I liked. However, the pace of the story was just so slow that I almost DNF'd. The romance felt really forced and not at all enemies-to-lovers. It feels like Dianna was just made to be a monster to fit the enemies-to-lovers trope without actually having the her and Liam work through those differences. I honestly think that this story would have so much potential if it wasn't focused on the romance between the characters. I know it's supposed to be a romantic fantasy but the world-building and the plot without the romance feels more than interesting enough to keep readers engaged.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.
I've heard everyone raving about this book on Booktok and I was super excited to read it and you know what? Booktok lied to me again.

The Book of Azrael is book one in the Gods and Monsters series. It is a multiple POV story told through the eyes of Dianna (the monster) and Liam (the God).
This was a very engaging debut novel.

This book starts with action, which is great. You feel drawn to the main character and immediately put into the mission that she is on. I love that aspect because it can be hard to draw someone into a new world with a slow, descriptive world-building beginning. That being said, however, I did feel like the overall history of the world was hard to follow at first. It was clear enough that there was a battle and that there are enemies, but it took me a while to understand exactly who was fighting and who were enemies, and the 'levels' of sentient being in this world.

Overall, the plot was very solid. I was never bored reading what happened, but I did think that the romance part of this book was so slow that it seemed to be a YA.. However, with language and violence, I would assume otherwise. By the time I got to the end, I was ready for more action. Although I understand this is the beginning of a series, I still felt like there was so much buildup to the eventual meeting between the two most powerful beings in this book and that never came. I think this is a solid 3.5 stars (rounding up to four) and I would certainly read the next book of the series. That being said., I am not sure if I will have to run to the bookstore the second that the book comes out.

This was way too long. It was fine. Spice was fine. Overall did enjoy it. I was just over it by the time the book was done.

Will read something else by this author but don’t necessarily would recommend this book to everyone

I wanted to enjoy this book after seeing all of the hype around it. However, I had a very difficult time getting through it and it took me a long period of time to finish. It was okay as far as first books go and I am sure after time and experience, the author will only get better. When a debut book is this long, I am always skeptical.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
I tried to force myself through this. I really did. I wanted to see what people liked about it so much.
However, it gave My Immortal (the infamous fanfic, not the song) vibes after all the needless description of character's outfits. The writing was bad, the characters felt shallow, the worldbuilding was lackluster
I was really hoping to like this- but I just couldn't

I found the size of this book very intimidating, but I am appreciative of high fantasy and I think it has to be considered high fantasy at 800 pages long. It would be an absolute crime if this book was slow but it was enjoyable and finishing this book in two sittings is good.

A brief summary is that our protagonist has sacrificed her mortality to save her sister and is now under the servitude of Kaden, who requires the Book of Azrael.

I requested this book via NetGalley because I wanted a high fantasy novel that wasn’t Brandon Sanderson or emphasized male characters too much. Of course, I wanted a book of quality with a fresh voice and that’s what I got! This book is not derivative at all and I don’t feel it is trying to copy formulas of big franchises.

This was a comfort read in terms of tropes like a villainous female main character (Dianna) and enemies to lovers yet not unreasonable, poorly written spice at all. This book gave me a lot of things I never knew I wanted from books. I feel that in my limited experience of high fantasy, I haven’t read anything like this and I absolutely loved it.

This book is excellent from the characters to world building. I am excited to see more from these characters.

Finally, yes this book does show a bit of inexperience as a debut and the editing could be improved but it is a very promising start and I am thrilled to have read this e-ARC.

I really enjoyed this book! The characters and plot were fantastic and I couldn't put it down! I can't wait to read more from this author!

I absolutely loved this book! It sucked me in from the description because its not every day the MC is the villain but it was perfect for this book. Amber Nicole did an amazing job creating complex characters that immediately sucked you in and did an amazing job building a world unlike any other. At first it was a bit overwhelming but the more I read into the story the more I saw how connected it all was. Dianna and Liam's enemies to lovers relationship was so well written. The banter and chemistry between them was amazing. Even the side characters were well written and didn't feel like just a side character but instead they were intricately woven into the story and made it so much more. I thought Nicole did an amazing job creating a unique world unlike any other fantasy book I have read but no one warned me about the worst cliff hanger ever. I NEED the next book to come out asap!

Thank you to netgalley and Rose and Star Publishing, LLC for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley and Rose and Star Publishing for this ARC!

This novel hits so many romance tropes and it is wonderful! It has: Forbidden Romance, Only One Bed, Slow Burn, Enemies to Lovers, and Forced Proximity, Villian as FMC!

I found all of the characters incredibly likeable and interesting. It was so fast-paced and addicting I read this entire novel in one sitting. I cannot believe this is Amber Nicole's first novel, I cannot wait to read more from her!

I did subtract one star from my review because at this time it could use one more pass by an editor there are a few typos, missing punctuation, etc.

Overall:
Plot 4/5
Spice: 1/5

The Book of Azrael is the first in a new Gods and Monsters series. Dianna gave up her humanity to save her sister and now serves Kaden as a killing machine monster. Liam is the last of the gods who has hid himself away from everyone but now that a monster has been revealed to be alive, when all though extinct, he has returned to kill them all. This book is long but it keeps you reading with all the banter, sass, and action. I also enjoyed the enemies to lovers.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.