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.

I did not know what to expect from this book. I simply fell in love with the cover. Saw some people with it on IG and figured why not. It does feature a trope we all (mostly) love - enemies to lovers and by definition, it comes with some slow burn. The writing is alright, but I feel like there was a lot of filler - this is a long book! On another note, I actually liked the villain, the world-building, quotes, and most of the dialogue. There were some plot twists I actually didn't think of and great friendships/romance with stakes and a good level of understanding between people. Side note, the spice is not to over the top for those looking to find an entry point in fantasy romance or for those like me who simply like to take breaks from erotica from time to time. Overall, it does need some editing, or a second "go-through", but I still think you can enjoy the story. Definitely give this a shot.

I wanted to like this because it ticks all my boxes. Fantasy/enemies to lovers/bantering/morally gray characters.

But it wasn't working for me. Aside from the lack of editing, I didn't feel a connection to Dianna or Liam or anything between them. For someone who was the ultimate god and known to everyone as the World Ender, Liam sure seemed powerless compared to Kaden. I felt like it was a never ending road trip where Dianna's connections backstabbed them, one after the other. Seems to me like Kaden is the one to fear, not the World Ender. And I'm not sure why Kaden needed Dianna at all, since it seems like he can do everything without her.

I did like the love and relationship between Dianna and Gabby, though.

Thankyou netgalley for ARC of this book.
What a book. Omg I am lost for words I loved it, such a slow burner but it was so worth it. I love Liam he is magnificent and Dianna such a strong FMC, I loved the hate relationship between them at first and the banter between them. The action in this book was on point it was just perfect it has me hooked and wanting to read on to see what happens next. It just flowed smoothly. Yes it seemed long but it didn't disappoint.

That cliff hanger though I need more I need to know what happens next addicted definitely need this on my shelf

Enemies to Lovers just got hotter!

First, thank you to Rose and Star Publishing and NetGalley for an early copy of this book!

I loved every moment of this book. It has a strong female main character who is still lovable in her own right. The main characters had so much depth to them. It was lovely, but I did feel a lack of background on some essential side characters and it is something I hope to see as the series continues.

This is a long book. Do not underestimate it. It is a slow-paced book, but that does not mean the action scenes won't blow you away. However, it has plenty of tension and mystery while the plot builds on every chapter.

I rate the spice in this book a 3/5. The scenes are explicit but do not overwhelm the book.

The book had some editing errors, but as long as a book can draw me in to somewhere other than the real world, it does not matter. It hit all of my mark as a reader and I won't let that be a reason to not enjoy the book. I was so sad when it was over and I can't wait for the next book to come out!

This was such an incredible fantasy book set in a unique world with a swoon worthy romance. It had all my favourite tropes and was an overall joy to read. I initially thought that it would drag on a bit due to how long the book is but I ended up loving every single page!

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

Wow what an ending! Dianna is an amazing lead! She is strong and capable, no damsel in distress. I love Liam, obviously. And I know Kaden is not a good guy but am I still intrigued by him? Of course. Love the fast pacing and nice flow between POVs and events. I also love how the characters grow.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I'm sorry, but the book is way too long and slow, and the editing is completely lacking, because there are constantly repeated sentences and errors that even I - a non native speaker - notice.
I probably stopped too early, but there is a big confusion in the worldbuilding and this heroine is not a character I like. IToo bad because the plot seemed interesting enough, but I have neither the desire nor the time to trudge through a series of books without editing that could take half the pages away.

Mi dispiace, ma il libro é decisamente troppo lungo e lento e l'editing é completamente assente, perché ci sono frasi costantemente ripetute ed errori di cui mi accorgo anche io che non sono madrelingua.
Probabilmente ho smesso troppo presto, ma c'é una grossa confusione nel worldbuilding e questa eroina non é un personaggio che mi piace.
Peccato perché la trama sembrava abbastanza interessante, ma non ho né la voglia né il tempo di arrancare attraverso una serie di libri senza editing che potrebbero durare la metá delle pagine.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

I was really excited for this one based on the cover and the synopsis. I loved the sisters relationship and how Dianna gave up everything for her sister's happiness. The concept was intriguing but this was a chore to get through. It wasn't at all what I was expecting. All the different names were just thrown at me and I couldn't keep them all straight. I liked the morally grey characters and the tension but it was too slow for my tastes. I think it could have been edited down a bit and not have been as long as it was.

Amazing story, I bsolutely loved it
The plot of the story is great but the characters are amazing. Strong Main Character energy!
Can't wait till the next book. Looking forward to see where it goes ♥️

#TheBookofAzrael #NetGalley.

Definitely was a bumpy start for me, slow burner book personally. I did enjoy it for the most part but did feel a bit lacking at times. Overall was a good book to read.