This book was coming in at such a disadvantage with two of the best rom coms I have read back to back just before it. And DAMN DID IT DELIVERE!! I absolutely loved it. From the sass, tension, grumpy and repressed, trope after trope done in THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE!!!
I am at a loss for words.
The world is amazing, the characters feel real and you understand everyone's intentions and motivations.
Main characters have a chemistry many wish they had in the books we read and booooooyyyy that chemistry is EVERYTHING!
The friendships and relationships are just as complex as in real life just as the struggles that the characters go trough are.
I will now go sit in my room and cry because that ending I didn't see coming and well I need some comfort epic music that this book evoked for me.

ALLLLLL of the stars in alllll of the worlds.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with a digital copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

A desperate sister once made a deal to save the one she loves most, and that leaves her with a new life as a monster that is feared by anyone around her. She remains indebted to the one whom she bargained with and she is forced to do his every command, especially dangerous ones that consist of stealing an ancient relic. A hidden God who abandoned his title and his duty years ago has been the slayer of monsters for many years and has never felt differently towards this task, until now. When God and Monster have to force themselves to work together in order to find the relic to restore balance, worlds collide and they both have to support each other and protect the fate of the world as they both know it.

I personally loved this book. It's been an extremely long time since I've read such phenomenal world-building that leaves me captivated from beginning to end. At some points, the fantastical development appeared confusing, but the plot seemed extremely well-thought-out and that propelled the story elements even further forward. The characters and their morally-challenged values were developed at an adequate pace, and their pasts tied in wonderfully with the aspects of fantasy that were included. Not only was the romance done well, but it was also done at a slower pace, which I genuinely believe makes a fantasy even better, and it really paid off in the end because this book has actually become one of my favorite fantasy books that I've ever read and I can't wait for more to be released.

Overall, this book sets the premise for a series that has the potential to become a major bestseller in the fantasy genre, and I am extremely eager to continue reading, after that beautifully written cliffhanger. I hope many people get to read and appreciate this novel and I am so grateful to Netgalley for providing me with an opportunity to read such a great novel.

OMG Pick up this book IMMEDIATELY!!

If you love a complex and interesting world, dual POV, and romance GAHH It was amazing!

I cannot form articulated sentences at the moment because I honestly was blown away by this book. I was very skeptical going in because I was worried that I would end up DNF'ing this book but it grabbed a hold of me and it did not let go.

The MC's are very likeable and good with each other but also the supporting characters were quite enjoyable also.

I am so so glad I stumbled upon this book.

Really liked this book. Writing was good, story was good, characters were good. This book gave me strong Immortals After Dark Kresley Cole vibes. If those books are your jam, I think you'll love this one. I really love the dichotomy of the MC's light and dark. One of "evil", one of "purity/good" but you will wonder if those things are true by the end of the book. I felt this book really shows that we are not who we were born as or the things we did wrong in the past but how we change from then on. The choices me make are what make us ultimately. The only critique I have is how powerful the author portrayed the mains in the beginning, wanes as the book continues. Not badly but I thought it strange that nearly indestructible Immortals whom were almost untouchable were all of sudden struggling, with no real explanation.

I really love the fast-pacing, constant troubles coming to them, and the tension between these two vulnerable characters. Plot twist upon plot twist, how can I not like it? I had a great time reading this book.

The characters are greatly written, including the villains. I enjoyed the roller-coaster rides of Liam and Dianna trying to work together but failed miserably 😂 and yet, they are more like each other than they thought. The side characters are also entertaining and hilarious, and the villains makes me so furious! Can't wait to see more om the sequel.

The world-building was a bit confusing at first, but as the story goes along the pages it became more understandable. It was unique, mortals (humans) live alongside with the myths like gods and goddesses, the monsters and stuff, and the humans are aware of it! It was interesting and never made me boring cause it has no info-dump.

And the cliffhanger? I didnt realized I was at the end and screamed when I turned to the next page and saw the acknowledgement 😭 bruh the author is not kidding with this book!!

I’m in desperate need of book 2. I’ll not know peace until I read it. That was, without exaggeration, one of the best fantasy books I’ve ever read. Do you know how fantasy books can be complicated and hard to follow because of the big new words? Well, this book, even with the new terminology, was still easy! I loved that it was in first POV.

This book was one of my top 2022 releases and it did not disappoint!! Amber didn’t come to play! She knew what the readers wanted and just gave it all to us. What a woman.

Here’s what to expect:
- enemies to lovers
- A powerful morally grey female MC
- Troubled, "strong alpha" male MC who is deep down a Simp and a cinnamon role
- Incredible world building.
- Slow burnnn baby slow burn
- Flawless pacing

All the characters are so well written. It was interesting to learn about how different creatures survive and how they communicate with each other. The hate, the love, making deals, all of it. I absolutely adored Dianna and Liam. Dianna is a very powerful woman who would do anything for her sister. Their sisterly bond was so beautiful and pure. She is brave, sassy, and fierce. I don’t know where to start with Liam, because what a MAN! strong, extremely sexy , companionate, and sweet. Both characters are a force to be reckoned with. Their chemistry was off the charts! It got me squealing and giggling.

The story kept me on my toes the whole time. Amber asked herself "how many plot twists?" and she also replied to herself, "yes". The Book of Azrael is a sensational , captivating debut novel!

Thank you NetGalley and Rose and Star Publishing for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks netgalley + Rose and Star Publishing, LLC!

what do we want? more 500 year old women in fantasy!

I didn't know what to expect going into this bc let's be real, you don't have to twist my arm to read anything that has even an inkling of enemies to lovers. But the way this book left me hanging, i'm going to be thinking about it for toooo long.

When the gods ended their monster war, they landed on a mortal planet and learned to coexist with humans to create a futuristic world of magic and tech where we meet all the key players, sassy mc, softy sister, and demons looking for a way to rule the world while an assortment of god hotties try to save it, classic.

You really get everything, monsters, gods, humans, vampires, and CELL PHONES-- Diana is the broody, morally grey, immortal MC who's never felt love and Liam is a sad, lost, muscly world ending god looking for a reason to live. And if that isn't enough, they are forced to work together... and eat cotton candy once (it was cute I swear).

I genuinely can't wait for this to release, I'm going to force all of you to read it so we can squeal about the accidental leg brushes while also complaining about how little they use teleportation!!!

I do wish they would have done one more read through to catch the typos-- there were times where the writing was a bit repetitive, but once you push past that you'll get lost in the blooddreams too.

5/5, would end a world for the next book

This one just wasn’t for me. I did find the intricate world building really interesting, but I felt like I had been dropped into the middle of a story with no context or history. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and I found the dialogue a little awkward at times. I really wanted to push on, but I found myself not wanting to pick it back up at all. I just might not be the right reader for this one.


Thank you to NetGalley and Rose and Star Publishing for sharing this advanced digital reader’s copy with me in exchange for an honest review!

This is a unique fantasy/romance perfect for New Adult Fantasy/Romance readers - especially fans of ACOTAR or From Blood and Ash.

Dianna was made into the creature she is thousands of years ago by Kaden, forced to do his bidding/be his weapon ever since in order to protect her sister. When she meets Liam (also know as Samkiel) the King of Gods who was thought to be dead, she realizes he may be the ticket to her sisters freedom and her way out of Kaden's grasps.

This book is incredibly addictive to read, I had trouble putting it down (and died the next day at work after accidentally staying up till 3am). I really enjoyed the plot and found it different from other popular fantasy/romance books while still capturing the essence of what makes them popular.

The book refers to Dianna and Liam as enemies which to me implied the novel could be a enemies to lovers, but its definitely more of a grumpy/sunshine slow-burn trope and its wonderful.

The book has really unique world building, but unfortunately a lot of it is info dumped on you at the beginning which makes the start of the book slow and slightly confusing to get through. I'm still not 100% sure I understand all of the world building / political dynamics but after the first 15% of the book you can semi push it to the back of your brain. The world seems like an interesting combination of the typical fantasy world but combined with modern things like cellphones, tv and cars. It's nice that they can just call each other for help or text to check in on each other to be honest.

I received a digital ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review which is slightly a bummer because I'll have to wait even longer for the next book considering this book hasn't even been released yet!

Summary - Dianna gave up her life to save her dying sister. Now she's been reborn with dangerous powers and is the right hand to the king of monsters.
Samkiel,, the World Ender, locked himself away after the God's War until old threats resurface.
Dianna and Samkiel are enemies in every way but realize they must team up to save the world and defeat Kaden, the king of monsters.

Review- I could not put this book down! The storyline was amazing. The character development was amazing. The cliff hanger was perfect. This was the most unique fantasy series I've read this year. And I can't wait for the next book.
Go ahead and add this to your TBR NOW!

Spice - 🌶
Tropes - Enemies to lovers, one bed trope

LOVED. While this started off a little slow for me I have to say I truly did enjoy the world building. The romance was slow burn and worth the wait and that ending??? I need a second one NOW PLEASE.

I am finding it difficult to formulate a review for this one. It's 431 pages (in the hardcover, 841 Kindle), and and it's over 100 pages too long for starters. So much of it dragged. SO MUCH. I bookmarked the area where I started to really enjoy it, and that was at ~33% Up until that point it was a fucking slog. After that it was still a bit of a slog at some points, but it wasn't solely a slog.

This is an ARC review, so I am going to be forgiving of the formatting/editing issues, but there were many. The dialogue was a bit clunky at times with an aversion to contractions for some reason. There were wrong words used and weird/missing punctuation.

A significant portion of this book is simply building up the characters. The author seems to have been attempting to firmly establish their personalities and backstories, but it was excessive and unnecessary and repetitive. There is a lot of attention paid to making the reader think that Dianna is a bad person so that later on it can be revealed that she isn't really. A lot of time is spent showing relationships and positive aspects of characters so that later deaths will have more oomph. A lot of care is put into showing that Liam is traumatized and depressed, cold hearted and numb, just so that there will be more weight behind Dianna breaking through his hard shell. Again, this was excessive and repetitive and not necessary to this degree.

Somehow, with all this effort put in to creating the backdrop, there is very limited worldbuilding. We know that they are on a planet that isn't Earth. We know there are humans but also supernaturals. But we don't really know much else about them or their powers.

Dianna absorbs memories through the blood she consumes, but this is a bit inconsistent. Sometimes she is in the body of the person whose memories she is reliving, seeing the world as they saw it at the time, which makes sense, but a lot of the time she is just walking around like an observer. In one blood dream that I can recall, she hears someone arguing from a distance and walks through walls and so forth to get to them, witnessing the building and the people in it as they were at the time, which makes no sense at all. She is reliving someone's memories so she should not be privy to what is happening in the house next door, for example. How would their memory reconstruct that? Obviously this is a fantasy and it could have been written in such a way that this would make sense, but it wasn't.

Dianna is entirely motivated by her love for her sister. It's really her only reason for existing. For hundreds of years she has done terrible things, all to keep her sister safe and to get to see her once in a while. It's not really super realistic considering how powerful she is. It's also not super realistic that her sister Gabby allows it to continue for hundreds of fucking years. Gabby complains frequently to Dianna, giving her shit for the things she does, telling her to fight back, find a way to escape, etc. She sees her sister suffering, and she hates it. Gabby isn't a wet blanket. So why wouldn't she have tried to do anything at all to help her sister? Gabby spends her days attending school, working, and living a normal life pretty much.

She also seems a bit butt-hurt that Liam and his people wiped out "her kind" when she admittedly looks at them as monsters herself. They don't have any redeeming qualities. There's absolutely no reason for her to give a single shit that someone is killing Ig'Morruthens, which she describes as animated gargoyles, powerful and vicious, craving blood and flesh. She doesn't seem terribly fond of them, and she counts herself, Tobias and Alistair as other, like them but not really. Plus, she hates Tobias and Alistair and Kaden anyways.

And why is it that after 1000 years, this is when she decides to rebel? I don't think that enough effort went into showing how she came to this conclusion and why she made that choice, considering her history and the weight of it all.

As for the sexy bits, they exist but are incredibly sparse (2 scenes) and no one actually bangs. The scenes we do get were done moderately well at least.

My final kvetch is the ending. This book ends on a really significant cliffhanger without even a whisper of the next book let alone a projected release date. It was highly unsatisfying and highly irritating.

At any rate, I actually did enjoy the majority of this book. For a first book, this is excellent. As the author learns and grows, I suspect the following books will be fantastic, and this could be a really stellar series. I definitely want to read the next one. If the author reads this: Give me more sexy bits and more exposition in terms of the other races and the magic system but not so long-winded and repetitive, and please expand on the stories of the side characters. Also, more sexy bits.

So first off I'd like to give a shout out to Amber Nicole, Rose and Star Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me an e-arc of The Book of Azrael in exchange for an honest review.

So let's get into it!(Possible Spoilers Ahead)

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).

When we meet Dianna we find out that a thousand years ago she made a deal with Kaden to save the life of her sister after a plague swept the planet caused by the collapse of the God's original planet and it colliding with hers.

Dianna now lives to do Kaden's bidding which is currently trying to locate the book of Azreal by any means possible.

She is driven to do this in hopes of keeping her sister Gabby safe and with somewhat of a normal life. (Even if they are both 1000 years old).

Liam the World Enders thought to be a myth but is the last remaining god, has isolated himself on the remnants of his home planet since the end of the God's War 1000 years ago and has allowed the celestials to rule in his place.

In a turn of events which leaves one of the celestials dead Liam and Dianna's worlds collide and they have to work together to save the planet.

I really enjoyed this book, I love a slow burn enemies to lovers and if this is a trope you enjoy you'll like this book.

The world was really interesting I loved all of the different types of 'monsters' and how they fit in to the book, the world seems diverse and well rounded there was a lot in this book in terms of world building.

I really hope Amber can build and use that in the next instalment. I will defiantly be keeping my eyes peeled for the next in the series. If you like ACOTAR this will be right up your street.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. The book needs some editing there are some formatting issues typo's and sections where words/sentences are repeated but this didn't take away my enjoyment of the storyline - Also I would have like to see the magic system fleshed out a bit more especially Dianna's powers - maybe we will get this in the second book

I honestly couldn't get into this book so I put it down around 25%. I hate DNF'ing books but this was not it for me. I understand that people are saying that it gets better later on in the book but I just couldn't hold out for that. I was really interested in reading this book and sadly it fell really flat for me. I don't think I will be recommending this to anyone when it comes out in ~10 days. Maybe I will try another of Ambers books in the future!

Characters: 2.5/5
Setting: 3/5
Writing: 2.5/5
Steam: 🔥/5
Plot: 3.5/5
Overall: 2/5

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite non-spoilery quote: “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 Book of Azrael is an adult romance following Dianna and Liam, mortal enemies who must work together in order to find the titular book and save the realm from destruction. It’s tropalicious to the extreme: true enemies to lovers, only one bed, and forbidden romance. It features a bisexual woman of color as the main character, which we love.
As you can see from my rating, I did not enjoy this book. However, it was not completely horrible. The romance was angsty and well-written, and the plot was intriguing enough to get me through this book’s 840 pages.
One of the things that really bothered me was the writing. There were so many grammar and syntax issues, including the author writing “barley” instead of “barely.” TWICE. The writing was clearly unedited, which I usually let slide with ARCs, but this book has already been released in other formats so I’m really confused as to whether this is the unedited version or if the book just wasn’t edited at all. The writing issues I had could be preference issues. However, they were everywhere. For me, this made it very difficult to connect to the characters or visualize the setting, making almost every aspect of this book feel flat.
There are multiple sentences in this book that don’t sit right with me because of how they portray asexuality. Keep in mind: the character in question is not asexual, but they go centuries without any sort of sexual encounter, which is what brings up this language. I forgot to highlight all the phrases that bothered me, and I wish I had, but the one I did highlight went as follows: “[character] showed so little interest in physical pleasure that I would have sworn he was made of stone if I had not borne witness to his past.” Asexual people are not “made of stone” or heartless because they have no interest in sex, and this view is ignorant and harmful.
This is one of the worst books I read this year. I’m truly shocked at how much I disliked it. I have seen so many people raving about it, and after reading the synopsis, I was very excited for it. After reading, I’m very glad I got a free review copy because I don’t want to have spent a single dollar on this book.

DNF’d around 30%. This book is bad, plain and simple. It is painfully slow at times, unnecessary scenes thrown in all the time that go on forever with no end in sight. The female lead is annoying as hell, along with literally every other character I’ve read so far. The writing is juvenile and lacking - repetitive, bad grammar, typos and misspellings galore. I’m pretty sure this book never saw an editor or a beta reader. The worldbuilding is terrible, the pacing is all over the place, and it’s just so painfully boring. I had to force myself to get to 30% and finally had enough.

If you love yourself, you won’t read this

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4777858227

Did I choose this book for a casual read? Yes. Did I keep telling myself “one more chapter” while I stayed up into the night? Also yes.

This book was fantastic. The characters, the world-building, the plot, and of course I can’t forget to mention the romance. “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.” -Liam. oh, c’mon, HOW do I not fall in love with that??? As fast-paced the plot was, the romance was still a slow-burn and it was amazing.

Can’t forget to talk about Dianna. I love me a strong female heroine and she’s everything I could have asked for in one. Every time she had some sort of fight scene (which were amazingly written by the way), I found myself falling in love with her character more and more. I do wish she felt as though she had more to fight for other than her sister but at the same time I understand why the love for family, specifically siblings is everything.

Some of the many tropes:
- Enemies-to-lovers
- Forced proximity
- One-bed
- Slowburn
- Forbidden romance
- Villain-ish FMC
And many more~

Overall, this is a great first book of a fantasy romance series. I'd say it took me about a quarter of the book to REALLY get into it and once I was there, the pages (and time) just flew by. I cannot wait to read more of Dianna and Liam’s journey.

Rated a 4.5/5, rounded down (as I normally do) to a 4:)

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-arc~

*I got a free copy through Netgalley, this in no way affected this review*

It took me 10 days to read the first 40% of this book and less than 24 hours to read the next 60% of this book, so I guess that says a lot about the first half of this book…

I really wasn’t feeling the beginning of this book at all. We get a load of information dumped on us and I don’t feel like everything was explained that well. It also took a very long time for the story to get going.

I did enjoy the second half of this book more, once the story started going, I really was sucked into this book. But I can’t help but feeling that this book could have been way shorter if it weren’t for all the filler scenes.

The ending was a bit weird and I understand things are left unresolved for the sequel, but I found it a very weird place to end the book.

I have to DNF this one at 20% .

After seeing a lot of people rave about this book on bookstagram and booktok I decided to request the book on Netgalley and give it a go.


Sad to say this was not a book for me. I was insanely bored throughout the 20% and felt myself dreading to pick it up and try reading again. There were multiple lines and quotes throughout just the first 20% that made me roll my eye or cringe. For some reason the opening line was just so fanfiction feeling to me. In fact I think that was my issue with it. The main character, Dianna, felt very much like your typical fanfiction / wattpad girl. The writing style itself also gave me the same feeling.

There were also a lot of moments were the humor was just feeling to forced. The names also really bugged me ( which I honestly do not think this is a big deal it just was ruining the vibe for me) . Its this fantasy world with complex country names like Eoria, but the character names are just your generic everyday names like Peter and Liam who are 1000's of years old.

Overall I think that there were just a bunch of little issues that made me grind my teeth together, and while usually I would just deal with it and carry on with the story this is a 800+ page book and I could barely make it through 20%. That all said I don't think this book is necessarily bad I just don't think it is a book for me. If it sounds interesting to you pick it up. Who knows maybe someday I will try this one again.

Starting this book I was unsure whether I was going to like it but I ended really into it. Some of the things I really liked was the overall story and characters. I liked Diana and Gabby's relationship and could really feel how much they cared about each other. Samkiel was a very interesting character but I didn't like that his name was Liam. It Felt very dropped in there as it wasn't explained that he wanted his name changed until chapters after he had been introduced. I love the magic and the different worlds and species. But there definitely needs to be more explanation of the different groups and kind of what their issues with each other were. I was pretty confused what the celestial's were and how they differed from others for a bit. There definitely need to be more explanation as to why the events in the story were happening and why we need to care about them. Once you got farther into the book there was a little bit more explanation which made the story more entertaining and easier to understand but I felt there should've been more in the beginning as well. There were also a few lines that had errors in grammar but we're overall minor stuff I noticed. I think this book has a lot of potential and I am really enjoying the story overall. I just think it needs a bit more explanation of what the characters are and how it interacts with the world and others. I loved the book especially the ending.
Spoliers
One part that also stuck out of it was when Diana decided to defy Kaden. It felt very dropped in there as the chapter beforehand Diana told her sister she would not defy him. Especially when she defied Kayden for a man she did not know and had treated her terribly. While it does make sense she would relate to the love he had for his wife I think there needed to be a friendship or kinship with him and Dianna. I think having a friendship between Diana and Logan would've been amazing.