This was an incredible read. It was so well written with a fantastic storyline and well developed characters.It was such an intense read and the world bulding was really good.
I loved Liam and Dianna and I cannot wait for the rest of this series.

** Thanks to NetGalley, Amber Nicole, and Rose and Star Publishing, LLC for this ARC **

The Book of Azrael is the first book in a new series by Amber Nicole and her debut novel, out June 26th, 2022. I cannot BELIEVE that this was the author's first book!

The Book of Azrael tells the story of Dianna, a woman who sold her life and her humanity to a monster a thousand years ago to save the life of her sister. Dianna has been functioning as his semi-human weapon ever since, and has been tasked with finding The Book of Azrael, a book said to contain the secrets to opening up the doors between realms.

Liam, formerly Samkiel, is a king of the gods, known as The World Ender. Traumatized by the long-ago Gods War, he has been living in depressed isolation. When one of his soldiers dies unexpectedly, he is ripped back into the land of the living and forced to confront his worse nightmare - the beings he fought centuries ago are coming back, and they're more powerful than ever.

When Liam and Dianna meet, the two must question their loyalties, their prejudices, and their ideas of who the bad guys really are.

This was really fantastic! Romance, magic, betrayal, plotting, soul mates, ancient beings learning about cars!! My only complaint is that I wish the next book had a release date! I already know that I will be reading it :)

What an amazing start. This book is everything. Intense storyline, enemies to lovers, all the angst, and so much more. Liam and Dianna have such heartbreaking stories, but are both so strong in their own ways. Dianna may be a villain in some eyes, but her strength, loyalty, and overall badassery totally overrides that. Liam may have been naive in his younger years, but tragedy and love are making him into so much more than anyone expected. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

This book was really good! I would give it more stars if it wasn't for the fact that i couldn't get through the first 100 pages. Worldbuilding in this book was really good and characters and plot were interesting, I really recommend it!

I was super excited for this book. It had some of my favorite fantasy elements, and the opening of the book was so strong.

I struggled to get past the 10% point, though. I couldn’t truly connect with the characters and while the story had a strong opening, the writing itself wasn’t good.

The book was a lot longer than it needed to be, which I think is partly due to the weak writing. The story is great, it just needs work to be a finished product.

I had seen this book making its rounds on TikTok and thought that the premise was very interesting. It has a lot of the traits and tropes I love in a fantasy, especially enemies to lovers. While reading, I still thought that the plot was super interesting but it was a very difficult read, and not for good reasons.

The characters make a really strong first impression, but there isn’t much character development. Dianna is a very hard main character to relate to – the fact that she’s overpowered, snarky and loves her sister are really her only personality traits. There is not much to her character beneath the surface.

It was really difficult to actually read as well. The writing was very juvenile. It told me everything instead of showing me what was going on and it definitely needed a few rounds of editing. There were missing or extra punctuation, sentences that didn’t make sense and repeated phrases consistently through the entire book. The length of the book was questionable and I feel as though several parts could be taken out to streamline the experience.

This is more of a 2.5 stars for the plot only. I probably wouldn’t pick up the sequel unless it is vastly different to this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing a free copy of this book.

Oh. My. God. This book is amazing! The world building is well done. This is a perfect mix of sci-fi and fantasy. If you liked Crescent City, you will love this book. The characters are complex and interesting and develop so much throughout the book. Dianna and Liam are both very morally grey characters, especially Dianna. She is strong and fierce and would do anything for those she loves. Liam is the definition of a cinnamon roll who could also absolutely kill you if he wanted to. There is the tiniest bit of spice in this book, but it’s done in a way that’s not overwhelming and doesn’t distract from the actual story. I’m really excited to read the next one and it cannot come soon enough!

A dark and twisty novel with so many unexpected findings! I am so thankful for the publishers and Netgalley so I could read The Book of Azreal by Amber Nicole. I will be reading more of her books soon!

Soooo i finished this book in about 2 days and absolutely loved it. The world building was so intractly done at times so you understood the fantasy world you were reading and to become invested in.

Liam and Diana's development were slowly developed as the book goes on. I would definitely say the book is a slow burn and the firsr part of the book focuses on the world building and the foundation of the story before the characters come together and we see their journey together towards their goals

The ending made me physically gasp and makes me want the 2nd book already because i need to know how the story ends and how the characters end.

Overall i would give it 4/5 stars and 2/5 for spice currently

That was a rollercoaster. I enjoyed it a lot! It was gritty, dark, and intriguing.
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.
THAT ENDING THO. It broke my heart to pieces and I need book 2 ASAP

Rating: 5 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

I am at a loss for words. I don’t even know what to say. This might be one of my favourite reads of the year so far. It was so fucking good.

I don’t even know where to start. The world building: Beautifully done. The plot: Greatly executed. Character Development: Beautifully done. Slow burn romance: Burned so fucking good, the tension was immaculate, the romance was fucking beautiful. I loved it so so so so much.

The world building was out of this world. Though it jumped from different worlds at time, they were beautifully distinct and painted so clearly. The different creatures were distinct and well developed. Each character was also extremely well developed.

At first when I received the ARC I was like “WTF 2000 pages??” But fuck I WANT MORE. I finished the book not even realizing how quickly I just finished 2000+ pages. I could not stop reading no matter how hard I tried. This book was a perfect balance of an intricate fantasy world that had a plot of a war uprising and a beautifully executed slow burn romance that was enemies-friends- to lovers. As much as I love Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, Liam and Dianna’s relationship development is what SJM wished Aelin and Rowan’s relationship development was.

The ending had my dropping for the last 10 or so pages. I will be thinking of this book a lot for the next few days.

IT WAS SO GOOD SO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL. I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY. EVERYONE PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR AND GO READ!!! I NEED BOOK 2 NOWWW

It enjoyed this book and read it as quickly as I could. It's about a god, called World Ender who meets one of his arch enemies and falls in love. It's a fast paced novel with a intricate plot. I look forward to Nicole's next novel.

A very promising introduction to a world of gods, demons, and Otherworld creatures.
This story follows Dianna, a transformed Ig’Morruthen, feared creatures known for cruelty and worldly devastation. However there is goodness in Dianna. She is tethered to kindness through her sister Gabby, whom she sacrificed herself to save. When Dianna gets involved in the death of a God’s Hand. She summons the Legend himself back.

The Book of Azrael is an explosive start to an amazing tale. If you love:

✔️ Morally gray villians
✔️Enemies to Lovers
✔️Smart-mouth powerful heroine
✔️Witty bantering
✔️Family love

This books is definitely for you. However be warned! Amber Nicole doesn’t go for a soft cliffhanger she’s goes for the throat! A life-altering cliffhanger. I cannot wait to see what will happen next!

So this book had many elements I like - Enemies to lovers, morally grey FMC, magic, gods vs monsters. However, it was maybe 200 pages longer than it needed to be, there was a lot of added fluff - and the book could have used another round of edits.

The transition between enemies to lovers was abrupt, like immediate truce, gush my heart and soul out, and that was totally unbelievable. -- Also, the angry tension between them was SO good throughout the book until the actual moment the author chose to let it happen... and it was very lackluster.. (and I'm not talking spice level) it's just.. there was no tension.. that anger didn't culminate into what you love out of EtoL..

This was set on Onuna, which I think is supposed to be like Earth.. there were a lot of urban idioms and items, it felt strange that Gods who could communicate telepathically and portal places and manipulate matter were relying on tablets and whatnot.

It was a slow start, but once the story picked up it was fairly enjoyable, I did laugh at some of the banter, I was shocked in some areas, but unsurprised in others. I could probably be convinced to read the sequel out of curiosity alone, the book did end on a mild cliffhanger; but I won't seek it out.

Thank you to NetGalley, Amber Nicole and the Publisher for providing an eARC copy of this amazing novel!

I was intrigued by the blurb for this book and was excited to get started. Right from the beginning, I was pulled into the original world building and mythos that the author crafted for these characters and their realms.

The main female character, Dianna, is a complex being, who was at one time mortal, but who, in a moment of desperation, made a deal with the powerful Kaden to save her sisters life. In exchange, he made her into what she considers to be a Monster. Dianna is extremely powerful, can wield fire, shape shift, etc. Kaden has also continued to use Dianna as his personal weapon in his search for the mythical Book of Azrael. When one the warrior Celestial's known as the Hand, is killed in protection of the Book. This action summons back the all powerful God, Samkiel (aka Liam).

Once Liam enters the picture, the adventure really starts. These two begin as enemies, but quickly find. common ground given the trauma they've both experienced over their long lives and its residual effects. Dianna calms Liam and helps with his recurring nightmares. Liam helps Dianna see that she is not the monsters she believes herself to be. The evolution of their relationship to friendship and then eventually more, is lovely to feel a part of and their back and forth banter is hilarious as times.

There are some great supporting characters as well. I especially enjoyed the platonic relationship Dianna has with Drake, the vampire prince and her sister, Gabby. And after that crazy cliff hanger, I am definitely excited to read what happens next!.

I don't what to say really.
I guess I just lost interest halfway through.
However I have to say the characters were interesting and had good development. My main issue was with the story and it's pacing.

OMG! OMG! OMG!
Where do I begin? Wait!
All I can say is HOLY CRAP! This book was so fricking AMAZING! What has Amber Nicole done to us?
Where's book 2? Please tell me she's already half way through with it. That it's going to be released no later than December of this year. That's how darn good this book was.
That ENDING..................... OMG!!!!
YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK... LIKE YOU MUST, NO KIDDING.

2.5, possibly 3 star, I received this from NetGalley. I have to say there was a lot of book to not get much into the story. The potential in the plot is there, however, it did not get there in this book. The characters were okay, but very repetitive. The ending intrigued me enough to want to attempt the next book. Hopefully there will be less filler pages and more plot.

I am absolutely obsessed with this book. It has been a long time since I fell in love with a new author, with new characters, and new worlds. A long time since I remembered why I love to read so much, and the power words can have. The Book of Azrael by Amber Nicole was the reminder I needed. I loved every minute spent reading this book. I loved it so much that I went out and purchased my own copy after finishing the e-ARC (which is the first time that has happened, in case you were wondering). Simply put, The Book of Azrael has every element of a perfect fantasy romance and executes each component with care and consideration. If you enjoy a single one of the above elements (and who are we kidding, you probably like most of them), then you will adore this book. Reading it truly feels like stepping into another world, and I promise, you won’t want to come back

A long, hard job

This was a very hard slog. 795 pages, and such an effort to make myself read the whole thing! The style is florid and difficult to read. The plot doesn't become discernable until one has read a third of the book. Main characters Dianna and Liam are difficult to empathize with. Dianna lacks a personality -- she is more of a weapons platform than a person. (By that I mean that her personality consists of being dangerous -- she can launch fire at things, turn into a hellbeast, etc. Like a main battle tank or a nuclear submarine, her personality largely consists of her offensive capabilities.) Liam has a personality, but unfortunately it is the personality of a spoiled fourteen-year-old boy with Daddy issues. The only believable person in the book is Dianna's sister Gabby. Unfortunately she is a minor character, barely more than a prop to motivate Dianna.

There is so much more I could say, but I don't want to be unnecessarily cruel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rose & Star publishing for an advance review copy.