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.

this was such an enjoyable read! it was fast-paced, the world building was amazing and the characters were so complex. i couldn’t put this down. also, i didn’t see that ending coming and i can not wait for the next book!

I was really excited to get my hands on The Book of Azrael after a favorite book-stagramer of mine raved on and on about this book! This book was fantastic with rich world-building and chemistry between the main characters and I cannot believe this Amber Nicole's debut book!

The slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romance was so well done and I loved how powerful both Dianna and Liam are. I am so invested in their story and can't wait to get my hands on book 2 after that cliffhanger ending! Thank you NetGalley and Rose and Star Publishing for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Sometimes world-building can be a bit much for me, I get lost and confused about the rules/laws of a universe but this story did it quite well. Diana was incredible. Fierce, strong, and terrifying. I loved the bond between Gabriella and Diana, there's just something so wholesome and pure between the sisters amidst chaos and terror.
I love a goof enemies-to-lovers trope, and moreover, I absolutely love the "enemies to reluctantly working together to lover" trope!!!!!!! seeing two people start off venomous, slowly building reluctant rapport, to trusting each other with their lives. Nothing like forced proximity and having to rely on someone who isn't quite as bad as you thought.
I loved that Liam was so heartbreakingly human in his struggles with his past. It made him incredibly likable and made you connect with him in such a powerful way.

The ending was insane (cliffhanger) and I cannot wait for the next book!!

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Whoa there. Oh my god. That cliff hanger. My heart. My anger right now. Oh my god.

This book had a slow build for me, I struggled at first to get used to the world, powers, and Magic system but once it all clicked together I was sold. The characters and emotions are so raw. Don’t even get me started on the banter, that is top tier and glorious and I need *more*.

I adore Dianna and her spirit and resilience for her family. Her strength is amazing and we all love a badass woman who can take down the most powerful of foes.

Liams character development is astonishing. Being able to see him grow and soften is incredible and his wit and humor with his come backs is hilarious.

The slow burn is incredibly slow burn but oh so worth it. The mouth on Liam is just pure sin and I need lots more of that please.

I am dying for book 2, I need answers.

Thank you Amber Nicole, Rose & Star Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to ARC read this book.

First off how is this Amber's first book? If this is the start I cannot wait to see what she brings next, I love her story telling and how she brings the scenes to life.

Starting off with violence is always an excellent start, right from the off we saw how powerful Dianna was, she was no damsel in distress she was a warrior, a fighter and absolutely ruthless.

I adored Dianna and Gabriella's relationship, they were perfect sisters who just loved each other and wanted to protect each other, they reminded me of the Winchester brothers from Supernatural in a way, Dianna wanting to protect her younger sister and Gabrielle not needing her hand holding always and just wanting her sister to know she loved her.
Remember, I love you.

Liam and Dianna's relationship is the actual definition of enemies to lovers, they have been literal mortal enemies for eons and yet they fall into situation where they not only have to work together but they have to trust each other. They spend so much time in denial about how they felt, barely accepting that they were friends and once they'd finally been honest they were both the true embodiment of touch them and you die.

I loved finding out about Liam's past, how he became the god he is, a real representation of PTSD and trauma which isn't always seen in fantasy books but it's so well written it does pull at the heartstrings.

There's so many twists and turns, it really fits in with the usual fantasy vibe of Kingdoms and alliances and how you can trust absolutely nobody even if they've been your friend for tears, trust nobody.

But it was not this world.
No, it was mine.
It was Dianna

Ahhh! That ending, holy smokes I was NOT expecting that!! I need the next book now, like right now I need to know how horrendously Dianna hurts Kaden for everything he has done, I want to know what's next for Dianna and Liam, will she blame him? Will they remain as allies or will she go rouge? Is there some miracle that maybe what's happened can be undone? So many questions I need answers!

I enjoyed this story! The premise was interesting and twists kept me turning pages. The fact that this book is chunky is a bonus, though it did take a while to get into the story, once there it held my attention..
The issue was that my attention was constantly being ripped away from the story by the changing font sizes in the ebook and the issues with editing.

𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗯.
Dianna gave up herself to save her sister and is now a dangerous weapon who does not hesitate to use her powers even if they are used for wrong deeds. She meets Samkiel (Liam), a king who has isolated himself because of his past actions and their consequences. Being mortal enemies, they must now fight side-by-side to save the world...

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗼𝘁.
An incredible debut book by Amber Nicole🤩. It follows both the protagonists as their stories entwine in dual POVs which connected the story in a totally graceful way.

A fast-paced story of love and hurt, betrayal and revenge, power and war in the world of Gods and Monsters. I rarely skipped any part, even the beautifully written descriptions of different places in this unique world were superb👏🏼

The plot was very engaging and kept me hooked on the story of Dianna and Liam...the emotional and profound relationship development between the MCs was just🤌🏼. I have never seen such mature protagonists and even more mature relationship development...they have my heart💓 Their profound conversations to understand each other gave a whole lot of depth to their relationship, which was remarkably written.

"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."

Plus, the representation of trauma and grief, and their healing journey were wonderful. Liam's past traumas were beautifully handled and carried forward in such an incredible manner that I have never read before. We could feel his hurt and pain and empathize with him as he struggles to heal his traumas. It was so refreshing to read such a well-written journey of the MCs.

And oh! the action was outstanding and super exciting...such badass protagonists!🥲

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.
I. Love. The. MCs. So. Much. Just. 🤌🏼🤌🏼💕. They were broken to the core yet were super strong, and both equally BADASS...

Dianna is a smart and sassy, fierce and strong female MC who is also a VILLIAN, the most feared creature and a dangerous weapon. But she is not all lost, a little humanity is there inside her because of her sister, Gaby, for whom Dianna lives. Her character grows immensely as she breaks her restraints and focuses on herself as she tries to save the world👏🏼

Liam, on the other hand, is a broken god struggling with his past and the nightmares of his actions. He was so damaged and hid until the bells of war starts ringing around him. And then, the powerful and brave Liam stood strong to save his people and the world. We get to see his beautiful healing journey and the coconut🥥 character (hard on the outside, sweet on the inside). Oh, did I mention, he is hot as hell🔥

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆.
Please...I'm telling you there's no other couple as mature as these two🥺

Being mortal enemies-to-lovers, the romance was a slow-burn and do I love it? I do!! The profound relationship development between these two was totally worth reading. This is the first time I have come across such a rational, deep and sincere connection between the protagonist in a book, and I love it. Their conversations were worth reading!

Moreover, it is a forbidden-love-trope which made things more exciting and the smut🥵, not much but so worth it. I love how there's no damsel in distress or the man has to put more effort into the relationship. It was an equal effort...they both stood strong for each other, be it emotionally or physically... just😘🤌🏼

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻.
Overall, it is enchanting fantasy fiction with incredible world-building with gods, angels and demons, vampires and witches, and every supernatural creature there is. With extraordinary relationship developments, and exciting actions and fights, this was a journey of grief and loss, betrayal and power. Filled with many twists and turns, this book gives us a mind-blowing cliffhanger😩🤯 and I can't wait to read the next book in the series...

Thanks to Amber Nicole, Rose and Star Publishing, LLC. for providing the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: PTSD, Grief, Death, Violence, War, Blood, Trauma, Kidnapping, Manipulation.

This was a great fantasy that just punched me out of the rom com genre I’ve been sticking to lately. It was action packed, suspenseful, and unique!

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the ARC of this book.

This book was a really good and solid debut. It lived up to my expectations and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I fell in love with Dianna and Liam, their relationship and their banter which was extremely funny. Plot and world building were really great. The only disadvantage is the way this novel was written, the writing style really didn't live up to my expectations and i thought it would be much better. Nevertheless, I definitely will recommend this book to my friends.

Thank you so much to netgalley, Amber Nicole, and Rose and Star publishing for an eCopy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a little difficult to get into and I really struggled through the first half. This book is really great with world building but it is a complex world. I really liked the second half of the book. I definitely will be giving the sequel a try when it comes out.