Wow, I am honestly stunned. This book was everything I hoped it would be! I am shocked that this is a debut novel!

The world building, writing, and intricate characters made it so incredibly easy to fall in love with the first installment of this series.

Dianna and Liam are such complex characters and as the story went on, we found out more about each character and the struggles/trauma they have had to work through and falling in love with them at the same time. I also felt that the world building was phenomenal! There was never too much information being presented at once to where I felt overwhelmed, the pacing was beautiful!

The Book of Azrael has definitely earned a spot as one of my favorite reads of 2022! If you have been on the dance about picking this book up, let this be your sign to read this amazing book!

Thank you to Amber Nicole and NetGalley for supplying an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of the book! Below is my honest review.

Honestly, I was a little intimidated by how long this book is, so that’s why I didn’t pick it up. BUT THANK GOD I DID BECAUSE THIS JUST BECAME ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF THIS YEAR.

WHERE AND WHEN CAN I GET BOOK TWO?

Liam + Dianna? Great relationship between our two protagonists. Lots of banter. Perfect time on relationship building and angst. Just enough sexy time for me not to hate the book.

Don’t we just love the hero and heroine to slowly begin to like each other and discover their personalities outside of what the world labelled them as??!?

The world? Amazing! It’s nothing super new but still lots of fun. We got Dianna who literally can’t die except for one way. Tobias who can control the dead. Kaden who is a powerful king. Liam who is a god. Celestials. Other monsters. Realms that have been closed off to the rest of the world that contain lots of more monsters and are threatening to reopen again.

All this world building with no info dumps either! (Though I’m a little sad we didn’t see more of the Book of Azrael being used.)

If you’re a fan of Sarah J Maas, you should consider picking up this book. The writing isn’t the same, but the characters and world are similar-ish. If you’re not a fan of Sarah J Maas, you should still consider picking up this book anyways. It’s long but I promise it’s worth it.

Would I recommend this book? YES!

That’s how it ends?!? I need the next book immediately!

This was a five star epic fantasy:
-enemies to lovers slow burn romance
-the world is ending/ save the world trope
-incredible world building
-prophetic nightmares
-powerful female MC

Thank you NetGalley and Rose & Star Publishing for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

A fantastic new fantasy read that had me totally enthralled with world building and character background. I truly didn't know how much I wanted a morally grey female main character until I met Dianna. In true enemies-to-lovers fashion, our epically opposed main characters are forced to go on a quest to save the world, and find out more about themselves in the process. I loved the world-building that mixed a world of monsters and gods with a modern urban setting. Also, this book had me wanting way more spicy scenes between Liam and Dianna and I can only hope for that in the next book!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Rose and Star Publishing for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

First of all, this book is long, nearly 900 pages, for a debut novel. Kudos to the author! Maybe it’s been a while since delving back into fantasy but I was unprepared from my usual 300-400 paged books. However, we do go on a bit of a journey of sorts and I appreciate the dual POV always.

We follow Dianna, a Made supernatural being who was previously human, and Liam aka Samkiel, a literal God, on their unexpected quest together to find The Book of Azrael to stop the literal end of the world. The world building was really immersive; descriptive enough without having cumbersome language. I loved getting to know more about The Hand, personally selected celestials that form Samkiel’s council, and having a wonderful love to hate villain. Spice is fairly minimal, but present.

The book ended on a cliffhanger that I am now anxiously anticipating the next installment already (even though it was published 3 months ago). No spoilers, but how the prophecy came true broke my heart. Can’t wait to get back into this world!

4.5/5 ⭐️

Thank you netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story had a very likable MC that kept me interested throughout. The story was enjoyable and I would read more by this author.

✅Enemies to lovers
✅Amazing Cliffhanger
✅Prophecies
✅Amazing world building
✅FMC villain
✅Forced Proximity
✅I hate you but I’ll kill anyone who dares to touch you

This book has everything I have been craving in a book for a while, I loved it. Liam, Dianna, the world building, the diversity of creatures. Amazing.

At first I’m going to admit I almost did not finish it, but with every turning page I became more consumed by the story. Dianna is a woman who gave her life away to save her dying sister, getting stuck serving to a very powerful and feared male creature for centuries. Liam is the World Ender, a being so powerful that no one has seen since the Gods Wars. That is until something that involves Dianna happens, making come to Earth.

They’re looking for the same thing, but at first, not for the same purpose. They’re sworn enemies, he almost killed her whole race during the Gods War. But while they dig deeper into their search, they find hope in each other, they get to know each other.

“I felt her posture change, a bit of that cocky edge she wore so well dropping away . That bothered me. The air around us became charged as clouds billowed in the distance, my temper festering. I wouldn’t allow anything to dim her spirit”

Dianna was so amazingly written, she is painted as the villain but as you read more, you are able to sympathize with her, you understand why she does everything she does. She’s really fierce and badass and knows how to stand her own against the most dangerous people, she’s the definition of Strong Female Lead.

Liam was amazing too, the way everyone sees him as a hero, but in the end he hates himself and is ashamed of everything he has done. He is scared of history repeating itself, and with Dianna at his side, he’s able to see a new perspective of everything. Liam is what my dreams are made of, his exterior is so rough and powerful but when you get to know him you see he’s sweet and he cares more than he lets on.

The world building was magical, I felt as if I was there with them every step of the way. I have always loved when fantasy books have prophecies, and when I got to the end of this one and saw what it meant I was utterly flabbergasted, I was surprised, I felt blindsided. The cliffhanger left broken and feeling a void.

This book was really great and I can’t wait for the next book to see what happens.

This was perfect for enemies to lovers fans, the world building was immaculate and the plot was intimately formulated which gave way to such a fabulous novel.

The dual perspective worked really here, it was spicy, contained elements of magic and the paranormal, and generally just had everything that you would want in a fantasy book!

Defo recommend
!

"I didn't remembered how long we talked, but somewhere amidst her laughter and smiles, I decided I would rip the world apart for her."

First book of the "Gods and Monsters" series

I'm speechless!!!
This was the best and true enemies to lovers fantasy I ever read!
Loved Liam and Dianna so much and The Ending!!! I really loved this and can't wait for the next book in this series, I need to find out what's going to happen next. I didn't wanted for this book to ended. Also I cried in the cliffhanger in the end but cannot think of a better ending!
Everyone needs to read this book now, it was perfect!!!

THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING.! But I need the second book now asap, it was so good!!
I couldn’t put it down and just whizzed through it! Left me speechless, in love, give me sooo many feels!

An honest to god enemies to lovers that's hard to put down. While I enjoyed the book as a whole, I felt like it ran a bit long and could use some additional editing. Solid fantasy romance.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free via Netgalley, and I am reviewing this voluntarily.

Honestly I have a love-hate relationship with this book for a number of reasons. I feel this book could have been a lot shorter--some passages could have been cut. Some didn't make sense. Like, you could prob cut 50 pages and still have a full story. I also know this is an ARC copy so it's not the finalized, edited version, but there are a lot of sentences that need revised again, and spelling errors did slip past the editor. I'm normally not nitpicky about that sort of thing, but it was glaring and I had to say something.
This isn't to say the book is bad--its not--it does have potential. But this book really fell flat for me. I know a 3 star seems like an average review but I'm frustrated.
The storytelling is great, and I love the whole ig'morruthen thing, it's unique. I did like Dianna and Gabby, their relationship is similar to my own with my sister. Liam/Samkiel wasn't that interesting imo, and fell short. I do like the world building in this book as well. The cover is pretty too.
The spice was mid. Could have been hotter
Maybe as the series goes on it'll get more interesting. Someone on TikTok was raving about it and it was an auto-approval, so I'd nothing else I got a free book out of It, even though I got frustrated with it.

I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book! I am fairly new to the fantasy genre, it was one of only a handful of books I have read that had vampires in it so I was hesitant because I thought it would require a deeper knowledge base. I am so glad I took the plunge and read it because I was so hooked! I read it walking from my office to different offices as I had to go to meetings or get things done kind of hooked. As I was reading, I was given enough information but not overloaded with it so I could follow along with the story and characters. It is a book newbies like myself and long time fantasy fans can enjoy. There were a few twists that I did not see coming which made me go "WTF" and keep reading late into the morning. (FYI, my boss asked a couple of times why I looked so tired so I just blamed you Ms. Amber Nicole!)


*****Minor Spoiler*****

I really appreciated that there was a significant amount of time between the enemies met to the time their relationship changed. It was not a week or a few days, it was a few months where a lot happened and they had to endure things together and work together. They actually had the time and ability to change their minds in a more realistic way. For those of us who love "enemies to lovers" trope but hate when it seems to happen overnight this makes the story that much more enjoyable.

I had heard about it from BookTok and wanted to give it a try, but I put it on my list of books to check out rather than just pick it up because I was nervous about investing almost 800 pages to a book that was the first in the series for a first time author. I was on Netgalley to review a different book and saw this so I requested it and was thrilled when I got approved. I figured that if I didn't like it I would not waste time.....now.....well I just ordered the hardback copy and am hunting on Facebook trying to find a way to get an autographed copy.

Read this book!!!

Speechless... that is what I am after reading this book.

This book was probably one of the best high fantasy books I have ever read in a while. WOW. Was the book long? yes, but I was entertained throughout the whole thing. This book had me on my toes the entire time and when I thought I knew what was happening, it took a different turn. Amber Nicole really keeps you on your toes and throws curve balls during every part of this book.

Dianna and Liam (Samkiel) are the main characters of this book. Both of them are super strong-headed main characters. I loved their chemistry throughout the book and enjoyed how they are kind of there for each other when no one else is there. The trauma in this book is so well written that you feel exactly what the characters are feeling. You feel their agony, frustration, and loneliness throughout the whole book. Each obstacle they face you understand the action they take and why.

I tried to read this book as slowly as I could so that I could savor it because I knew that I would not like the fact that I would have to wait for the next book to be out. Please make it come out soon!

If you like high-action, hater-lovers, high fantasy, and a book that will throw curveballs at you, please read this book. It's a long one, but I promise you won't be upset.

Thank you Netgalley, Amber Nicole, and Rose and Star Publishing LLC for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this High fantasy romance novel. I enjoyed the dynamic of the sisters relationship and wanted to see a little bit more of it. The writing was excellent. I finished it and bought a copy immediately after so I could reread it. I want to see what I missed the first time. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Overall rating 3.5 stars.
There was such potential for this book but unfortunately in the end it missed the mark by what a slog of a read this over 800 page book was.
The premise of this book was very captivating with gods, otherworlders, world enders, ancient beings etc. With a slow burn enemy to lovers trope, forced proximity and forbidden romance. Theres an epic fantasy plot with high stakes and all combined would have made this book amazing...unfortunately the writing just lacked. It was slow, the story felt so "fluffed up" for no reason. The sections i did enjoy, I enjoyed immensely but those only lasted a few pages before another load of pages of nothing much. The start was slow, it only really picked up for me at 15% when Liam finally turned up. I understand that Gabriella was very important to Dianne from the beginning but that was reiterated again and again in the multiple chapters of them just chatting and doing everyday life but didnt add to the intial impression at all.
Despite the pacing issuing, the world building of the ancient world was very intriguing, and I did really like Liam as a character. Dianne was only okay at the beginning but grew on me more as she came out of her facade near the 30-40% mark. That ending does redeem itself a bit and made me super intrigued as to what will happen next... I just hope the next book isnt as long.
If this book was about half the length it would have been near perfect....at over 800 pages it was bit too much of a slog.
Thank you Netgalley and Rose and Star Publishing for an early copy of this book in exhange for an honest review.

I picked up this book not knowing what to expect and ended up loving it! Couple of things that stand out:

Worldbuilding: The world we're thrown into is different than what you would expect. It's like if magical realms/magical beings had mafias.

Both MCs aren't out to be heroes, they are thrust into a situation where they have to decide which side to take, which made the characters complex and flawed (and realistic). I also enjoyed the females MC's "I guess I'll help you" attitude.

The relationship between the MCs is great and I laughed out loud a couple of times at their banter.

Highly recommend!

The prose was poor and the characters hard to sympathize with. I found myself unable to finish the book; it was hard to get myself to turn to the next page.

I am honestly still reading this and have been on and off reading it for 4 months. I’m determined to finish because this book has come with such high praise. But I am 40% into the book and I still do not feel hooked on the plot or characters. It’s definitely and interesting setting - but it just hasn’t been doing it for me.

I’ll continue to trudge through - because I have high hopes - but with my ARC copy expiring soon, I need to review!

This is a masterpiece. The descriptions were so good they were to the point and didn't bore the reader. The worldbuilding was super interesting, rich without any info dumps.
Badass characters! They are always a treat and this book had them written so well. The author made me fall in love with Dianna, her personality, her actions, everything. Hot headed, impulsive characters are my weak spot and the book hit that!
The book was filled with great tropes, all executed to perfection. The way this book handled different sexualities without it seeming forced made me very happy, safe to say the author has full points on the representation front.
I noticed a few spelling and grammatical errors, but it was overshadowed by the overall greatness of the book.
It's exciting, full of action, and had me on the edge of my seat.