This book is full of so much promise, which is what made it so much more disappointing to read. I was so deeply invested in the premise, but there is almost no conceptual followthrough.

If you love action-packed fantasy romance with slow burn enemies to lovers, grumpy x sunshine, forced proximity and one bed trope then I recommend you to read this one! If not, then you are missing out on this fantastic debut!

The plot is well written with dual POVs - Dianna and Liam and a couple of flashbacks as well.
The world building is intriguing and unique which is written with great writing style.

The characters, main and secondary are well developed and very likeable.
Dianna, our morally grey FMC is a badass heroine and I adore her unconditional love towards her sister.
Then there's our love interest, the grumpy male-Liam. He's my absolute favorite. His background story helps us understand about his character and also see another side of him.

I really like the slow burn romantic build up between Dianna and Liam.
I really love the banter, sarcastic comments and also some cozy moments where they started to open up to each other which will lead to spicy scene!
(They're my new favorite couple now!💕💕)

The ending has a huge cliffhanger that I wish I have the next book right now!!
There's only one thing I wish from this series, more background story from the villain side.

Overall, this is a fantastic debut book to start a fantasy romance series!
Once you get hooked into this book, you'll never want to put it down!
This book is highly recommended and I really hope the author will publish the next book asap to answer all these questions in my head!

Special thanks to Netgalley, Amber Nicole and Rose & Star Publishing for granting this review copy to me. I'm leaving this honest review voluntarily!

Honestly, this book had potential, and that's probably one of the most heartbreaking things about this. Conceptually, there was a lot going for it: urban-ish fantasy set in a world where gods and monsters are all around, protag stuck in a (steamy) deal with a villain in exchange for the wellbeing of her sister, the adversaries are (hot) heroes doing "good", and everything moves at a pretty quick pace, with plenty of twists, turns, and romance.
Which is probably why it was so much more disappointing when this fell flat.
To be honest, I think this book had the potential to be truly exceptional if it had just gone through another edit, because the most jarring aspects of this book could probably have been fixed with a once over from another pair of eyes. I felt like I was less than an inch away from connecting with the characters—their personalities and abilities were all so interesting—and then they would say something, and I would be catapulted away from that connection and back into finding them two dimensional.
If I wasn't someone who found writing style and dialogue fundamental to my ability to engage with a story, I think I would have genuinely enjoyed this—and if that isn't an aspect that's important to you, this may be one for you.

*4.5 stars*

Thank you to NetGalley and Rose and Star Publishing for giving me an e-arc. I am giving this review honestly and voluntarily.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the plot, characters, and the overall storytelling. I found myself wondering what was going to happen next and wanting to continuously pick this book up.

I would say that the main reason that this isn’t a full five star for me is the fact that there was times when I was pulled out of the story. At some points, I felt like one of the characters did something really out of the normal for them and it made me pause. It doesn’t happen often, but enough for me to drop half a star.

I’ve seen a bit of hype for this and I honestly believe it lives up to the hype. Yes, the beginning can be slow, but after you get past the first couple chapters, I found myself wondering how I got as far as I was.

The world and lore was phenomenal. I really enjoyed learning about the past and most of the flash backs. I will admit that there were times when I got annoyed with them, but it was something I could easily look over, I think there was possibly too many.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and I highly recommend. I am definitely excited for the next books to come! The author did an amazing job writing this!

This was one of the first books that I have ever chosen to review. I am a huge fan of The Dresden Files and have now started reading a lot of LitRPG but this was totally different than that. The characters in this book are so relatable. It is heartbreaking to see the choices they have been made to take, and how the relationships fall apart.

The book keeps you on the edge of your seat as you try and figure out exactly who all is involved. You watch as people die, that you hoped to get to know. The entire thing is layered well. I think Ms. Nicole did a fantastic job for this book. Dianna was a pleasure to read from the standpoint of wanting a strong female character. If you want to feel empowered as a woman right now, she is one of the champs.

I think this is a fantastic read! I can't wait to see what comes next!

Pretty much from the start I was hooked on this book. I saw a bunch of ppl talking about it and figured I’d check it out even though it’s not my usual type of read. I have to admit I really liked it. The premise was compelling and the world building was interesting and creative. Gotta admit the grammatical error were definitely distracting. It looked like some things were cut and pasted. Hopefully they clean it up for the release because it’s actually an awesome story. I thought it was pretty awesome and would suggest others give it a try.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

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

Do you love,
A badass heroine?
A grumpy but romantic love interest who is not afraid to express his feelings?
Slow burn and REAL enemies to lovers??
Do you need more? If so, but let’s be honest here you should have already been interested, continue reading.

A thousand years ago, Dianna gave up her life in the deserts of Erioa to save her dying sister. Now, reborn with dangerous powers, she serves as the right hand to the king of monsters.⁠
⁠
Samkiel, the World Ender, is a myth to many. After the Gods War, he locked himself away, denying his crown and responsibilities. But when old threats resurface, Samkiel realizes he can no longer hide. ⁠
⁠
Dianna and Samkiel are enemies older than time, but they must put aside their differences and work together in the hopes of saving both their world and every realm in between.⁠

The plot unravels at a very smooth pace which makes me love this book even more!

The characters are both so easy to love. I adore them. Their chemistry is evident from the very first moment. Be assured that I’m rooting for them. At this point I HAVE to say that the secondary characters deserve an applause of their own. They were AMAZING.

And that cliffhanger? I need more NOW! And to think this is a debut novel. Are you kidding me?! Just imagine what’s in the works. I CANNOT WAIT!

Do yourself a favour and give this book a chance. It deserves it.

P.S: The only reason I’m giving 4 stars is because I’m waiting to give all 5 of them to the next book. Again, I can’t wait.

I expected to really like this book, and to be fair I did love a few parts, but as an overall package, this book was a disappointment for me. The premise was so intriguing and full of potential. I started this book after getting excited by the blurb. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to that excitement. The chapters were lengthy, but my main problem was the lack of editing. The writing was clunky and awkward. There were punctuation and grammatical errors throughout. This was very distracting and stopped me from immersing in the world fully.

The main character was also interesting and a total badass. I did not buy the romance, however. There was still something lacking. The characters felt flat and underdeveloped, despite the book being so long and each having their own pov. The world-building was rich and fascinating, but way too much exposition and info-dumping. It was a struggle to keep reading, honestly. There were so many pages that I skipped. It was just paragraph upon paragraph of purple-prose description. The book would have benefited a lot from proper editing. But nevertheless, good work from a debut.

The Book of Azrael is definitely one of my favourite reads for 2022. It has everything that I could wish for. A bad**s female main character who loves so deeply and is willing to sacrifice herself over and over again for her sister, and a broken hero who doesn't know yet he needs someone to fix him.

Dianna belongs to the bad guys. For centuries she has served Kaden, the king of the Otherworld, as her lap dog just so she could protect her sister's life. She knows she's evil and a monster, but there is nothing she can do to change the situation. Until Kaden starts tracking the Book of Azrael said to be able to open the doors to other realms that were closed millennia ago. Dianna doesn't believe in this book, but she still has to follow Kaden's orders. However, when she crosses path with Liam, the last living god who came to her planet to find out what is going one and who killed one of his men, the two starts to butt head, obviously. It doesn't help that their two species are also mortal enemies, and they have been for eons. But when her sister's life is in danger again, Dianna needs to change her alliance, and hopefully she can realise that she's not the monster she thought.

Dianna is such a strong woman, and no matter how much Kaden tries to break her, she always stands back up. Liam is broken too, but his way to fight back his to secludes himself from the people who loves him. The two don't know how much they need each other, and let me tell you, their chemistry is sizzling hot. I didn't want this book to end at all. I don't know if I have the patience to wait for book 2. That cliffhanger destroyed me.

I am absolutely in love with this book, characters, worlds and author at this moment. I stayed up reading until 4 AM this morning, so please forgive me if my thoughts and words are not that clear at the moment.

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


The sheer number of tropes (all my favourite) covered in this 1st book alone is enough to make a girl scream- enemies to friends to lovers, slow burn, female lead portrayed as Villain, epic world building (and breaking!), some forced proximity, a lot of forbidden romance (well duh! These 2 species have been enemies for centuries now), and what about heart-stopping cliffhangers with the Female Lead screaming her heart out? Yes, yes, yes to all of that and more.




I think it's suffice to say that this book deserves for you to go in without spoilers, I mean I barely read the blurb- It's not my fault that the cover has a skull. At this point, I would gladly stay up for nights on a stretch if I could just get the rest of the books in this trilogy.




Thank you NetGalley, Amber Nicole and Rose and Star Publishing, LLC for letting me read this Advanced Reader's Copy.

Dianna and Liam's story is told from both POVs, what a brilliant ride this was, I absolutely enjoyed every page. It has everything I love and this new author to me hit it just right for me to impatiently wait for the next installment. This started in a fast pacing way, I love Dianna's character, so refreshing and the turnaround this story had. The world-building is fantastic, I would love to see this turn into an audiobook, it's worth experiencing it that way again. I need the next one, please!!

The night sky cloaked her as she stalked around his last known hiding place. Her scales shimmered in the starlight and her claws dug into the frosted ground. Her eyes glowed amber with the hatred that burned inside her. She would find him and kill him. She would not allow him to get his hands on his prized possession. Her existence in this realm was to destroy. Smoke hid her as she returned to her human form… he had no idea what was coming.

A book filled with otherworldly gods and creatures, an ancient text that tells the world’s end, and a love that knows no bounds. The Book of Azrael will take you on a wild journey as you get to know Dianna and Liam. Told from both of their perspectives as they both try to prevent the unspeakable from happening.

This book started off with a bang and had my mind racing as I tried to piece things together. A lot of information came all at once. The dialogue was a little awkward in areas and I wanted the characters interactions to flow a little smoother, but overall this story was a crazy entertaining ride! The ending though… it ended so abruptly… I NEED MORE!

For fantasy fans that love a variety of creatures and battle scenes… get your hands on this one!

𝗧𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀: enemies to lovers, slow burn, damaged hero, morally grey heroine, forbidden, forced proximity, one bed, touch her or I will kill you

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK!!

This book hooked me from the first pages and I barely let it down. I mean, I lost a lot of hours of sleep just reading. 😩😩

This is the first book written by Amber Nicole and I didn't expect it to be so good.

Liam is a man who has been through a lot, with a very painful past and who is having a hard time opening up to Dianna. What moved me the most was when he had nightmares, he was so lonely and broken, my heart really broke to pieces.

Dianna is a very strong, smart character who gave her life for her sister. Her relationship with Gaby is very close and she keeps nothing hidden from her, especially about Liam. 👀👀

The relationship between Dianna and Liam starts with them as enemies, then as partners and finally being together, risking their lives for each other. And here I am referring to the last part of the book, which almost caused me to have a panic attack.

If you like enemies to lovers (she really tried to kill him 😏), slow burn, a crazy, strong heroine who would do anything for her sister, a hero with a painful past, a plot full of twists and fantasy, then this book is for you.

Thank you NetGalley, Rose & Star Publishing, and Amber Nicole for the opportunity to read amazing book in exchange for an honest review ☺️🤍

(I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review)

DNF at chapter 3.

This book is chunky and I praise the author for writing so much and being able to make it into a book, that takes a lot and I appreciate all of their hard work.

However, this book wasn't for me. It is a personal preference, as I can handle some 1st person books, but others I struggle to get through which isn't the author's fault at all, like I said it is a personal preference.

I feel like we got too much of an info dump at the start, with all the people, which made the second chapter a little bit of a chore to get through. But I think my main issue is with the descriptions. The author describes well and in detail, but about things that the character should already know, and the author focuses a lot on detail of appearances and repeats those descriptions, which is just something I have never been a big fan of so it isn't a fault of the author.

I really wanted to LOVE this book. The concept is great, and I will read any subsequent books in the series. However, I took issue with a few things in this book. First, it did not need to be this long. I found the first half of this book so slow, and the world building was excessive and at points just a bit too much - but also not enough in some instances. Secondly, I had a really hard time getting over typos, grammatical errors and just overall poor sentence structure throughout the book.
I did like the dual POV to give us more depth of characters and I did find the majority of the characters were fairly well developed. I do wish we had a bit more out of Dianna's character though as she fell a bit flat for me.
Overall this was a great debut novel, I just wish it had some more fine tuning.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rose and Star Publishing LLC and Amber Nicole for this ARC eBook in exchange for my honest review.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I'll be reading the next one in the series and buying a physical copy. I enjoyed the unique world building and the amazing main characters. Did it really need to be that long? Probably not.

i read the first chapter of this, but it just...wasn't for me. the writing was clunky and weird, and it just didn't grab my attention. thanks netgalley for the free copy, though.

I couldn't finish the book. Made it about 25% of the way through it before giving up. Seemed a bit poorly written and despite info dumps I was confused about the world building and how everything worked. The book has some interesting concepts but I guess just not well executed. With the mix of modern world, demon/angel types, and fantasy characters it gave me Crescent City vibes just not as well done.

The Book of Azraeal was an exciting and fun urban fantasy full of action and morally grey characters . I did not realize the length of this story but that did not matter, I still looked forward each chapter.

If you enjoy the writing style and character of Sarah J Maas you will likely enjoy Amber Nicole's work. Dianna, the lead lady, reminds me of The Hind from Crescent City and I adore that . While it is similar The Book of Azraeal is a bit darker and more gritty.

This fantasy novel includes vampires, celestials, witches, and a huge variety of other world creatures.

What was interesting about this particular story is that our lead lady Diana is the dark, morally grey one while Liam was the opposite . The top two best touches to this story for me was the undying love Diana has with her sister, and her helping Liam with his PSTD.

For this particular book I really appreciate that this was a slow burn romance considering everything both of them have experienced .

My favorite scenes between Dianna and Liam are when they begin to attempt to let their guards down around each other. The scenes in particular weren't sexy but they were special in a quiet , intimate way.

Tropes for this would be :
* It's complicated
*enemies to lovers
*morally grey characters
*unintentionally protective and brooding

There IS a cliff hanger and it's ... complicated .

While I sincerely hope that the next book in the series is much shorter, I really look forward to it's release.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I'll be reading the next one in the series.

There are many things that I liked about The Book of Azrael:
- The premise is excellent.
- The pacing feels a bit odd at times, but it's full of action from start to finish. I liked that everything wasn't crammed into the last few pages.
- Dual POV. I love seeing the emotions, motives, and growth from both of the main characters.
- The second half. The flow was better, and the characters felt more established and authentic.

But there were some things that weren't my favorite:
- The book needed another round of editing. Since this is an arc, I'm hoping that the published version has been revised (even though my arc didn't list it as an uncorrected proof). Because there were a lot of spelling, grammar, and structure errors. Many were so big and confusing that they completely took me out of the story and I had to backtrack to try and figure out what it was trying to say.
- It was difficult to get into at the beginning. This book is thick. And the first 300 pages or so were slow going. There was a lot happening, but very little was explained. I didn't understand the magic or the sides.
- The world is confusing. It is listed as fantasy romance, but it seems to be more of an urban/paranormal mix with a lot of fantasy elements and some romance added in.
- Some details and plotlines felt unbelievable because they conflicted with what we were told regarding the powers, mindset, or motivations of the characters.
- The progression of the enemies to lovers romance was too fast. Getting both POVs helped a bit, but the switch still didn't really make sense to me.
- For something listed as fantasy romance, I was expecting more romance. There were a couple of spicy scenes, and I thought the tension was good at times, but it was mostly tension and angst.