Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Throne of Broken Gods

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The Throne of Broken Gods by Amber V. Nicole

13 reviews

toastyness's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I love this book. I loved the character flaws, the varied depictions of grief, and the small moments of joy.

I can’t get over the betrayal though! I saw it coming but at the same time not to that extent so I was still shocked. How dare they! And my heart, Dianna and Samkiel deserve all the happiness. Waiting for that mark to come back like Gathrriel’s and Vvive’s.

May can’t come soon enough.

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bea__reads's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Almost nothing happened for the majority of this book. It could be a lot better, given that the world is interesting and the characters have a lot of potential. But the pacing is so off and it got boring, which really made it hard for me to connect with the characters or to care about their relationships.

While it was slightly gratifying (but also rather boring) to be right about so many of the plot twists, I honestly just don't see the point in reading 600+ pages or listening to 28+ hours just to get 10 good chapters in at the end. This also has the unfortunate effect of making some plot twists seem really obvious while others come out of left field.

Plus, I can't stand the (pretty major spoiler)

soulmates

trope and the way it's handled here really rubbed me the wrong way. (Again, I think this is a pretty big spoiler to know what the trope is)

I usually avoid the soulmates trope because it's often based heavily in amatonormativity and pretty much by definition excludes asexual and/or aromantic identities, as well as polyamory and other non-monogamous relationships (unless intentional efforts are made to expand the soulmate concept, which did not happen in this book). Unfortunately, I didn't realize that this trope was going to be a thing before recommending this series to my book club 🥲

This series is not for me. My book club loves it, but I think I'll be skipping book 3 when they read it later this year. 🙃

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howboutjane's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Fire 🔥😩

What can I say, I have a kink for books that shatter me and leave me unable to function for the next 3-5 business days and THIS BOOK does that.

Alot of the world building and context is laid out in the first book, so this book was able to start with a bang and keep going. It was an emotional roller coaster from start to finish.

Morally grey everywhere, everybody, everything. Twists on twists on twists. Beautiful f'kin chaos 😭. I cannot wait for the next book!

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jaedee09's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

As much as I couldn’t put this one away, it felt very, very long. The story and characters are so rich, but there was a LOT to get through. The depiction of grief and love felt very real, and I loved getting to know more of The Hand. Very curious where the third book will take us, and

confirming what it price Dianna had to pay to bring Samkiel back.

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nloprest6318's review

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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brooketreads's review

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challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was conflicted on the first book, but this one I just felt mad a lot of the time.

I know others loved Dianna’s bad/villain streak in this book, but not me. She did so much work on herself in the last book, and to just show up with her emotions “turned off” and threaten Liam… no. I just wasn’t here for it. I’ve seen characters turn their emotions off in other things and I just hate that. For me, it also felt cliché. Like of course instead of facing her emotions she explodes and goes on a self-destructive path. Liam was being really strong and level headed through it all though. I wouldn’t have expected any less from him. Still, I didn’t feel Liam was as strong of a character in this book for some reason.

I thought the first book was too long, and this one was even longer… unnecessarily so. And again, just as book one, this one was doing too much too.

When Dianna saves Liam though. And yes, I’m going to keep calling him Liam still because I loved the reason for his chosen name in book one. It was everything. “…I want you to remember that I love you.”

Other things I hated besides the length and Dianna’s resurgence:

Azrael being alive because of course he is…
Azrael being Dianna’s dad because of course he is…
The nickname Sami.
The rename to Reggie… like why do people have to have multiple names.
Vincent.
Kaden obviously.
The reveal of the actual villain… 🙄

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one_more_chapter96's review

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challenging emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot but got a bit bored toward the 60/70% mark. It picked up again near the very end which was good though. Loved Dianna and Samkiels journey together, heartbroken about Gabby. Excited to see where they all end up in the final book.

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bangiebangs's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

- ends in cliffhanger

- spice 4/5 (very good spice!!)

I immediately jumped into this from Book 1, and I was not disappointed. The cliffhanger in Book 1 is less easy to predict than the one here, and I went in already mad about Book 3 not being out because I knew what was coming. Beware this book if you don’t like unfinished series, this will leave you hurting.

Spoiler for cliffhanger

I thought it was pretty obvious that the price for resurrecting Samkiel would be something to do with their finally-admitted love. I’m expecting him to have lost feeling for her maybe in the next one, since she still seems to have feelings for him? Unsure, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m excited to see how that gets resolved, though, since I fully expect everyone to live and love again.

The world-building continues in this book, and at this length it gets pretty detailed. I’d argue it is close to being a bit too much in terms of characters to remember, side stories to follow, who feels or felt what and why. So many gods, so many celestials! Getting more info about Logan and Neverra made sense, but while I really really want Cameron and Xavier to also get a happy ending, I think their unadmitted love doesnt hit enough (yet?) to make the actions towards the end of the book make sense.

In general, this whole “suddenly everyone’s the enemy” reminded me of the Hydra-takes-over storyline in the MCU which also felt like it came out of nowhere...

I did also like the banter a LOT and had some laugh out loud or big grin moments while reading it. It might be one I pick up again, though that also depends on Book 3… no release date yet afaict, so that’s super sad. But I heard that the author got a series deal, so hope springs eternal!

Recommend this book if you like big epic stories (some parts had a whiff of LOTR for me), deliciously spicy spice, lovely banter, hot flirting… and a journey out of depression and grief. It’s such a good book.

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radiantgeode's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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overflowingshelf's review

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

*Note – this review is spoiler free for both The Book of Azrael and The Throne of Broken Gods

CW: Death; grief; murder; confinement; violence; war; blood; fire; torture; injury

“‘This is how the world ends,’ the fate had whispered, and I was going to show them just how right fate was.”

Dianna has entered her villain era, and I am here for it!

The Throne of Broken Gods picks up immediately after The Book of Azrael and takes you for a wild ride. I expected lots of twists, turns, and emotional devastation, and Amber V. Nicole DELIVERED.

This book is a beast (it clocks in at over 700 pages in paperback), but it is well worth it as it’s a beautiful exploration of grief, love, family, and friends. Plus, it delivers a hot romance, unforgettable characters, fun action scenes, and some shocking twists.

“When I burn this world to embers, and you paint me as the villain, remember, I really did try to be good… once.”

Dianna is in her full-blown villain era and has some fun power upgrades to match. She’s out for revenge, out for blood for all those who betrayed her, and you best not stand in her way. As much as I fully loved her embracing her villainess side (and I truly LOVED it), my heart also ached for her. She is hurting so, so, so badly after what happened at the end of The Book of Azrael. All I wanted to do was reach out and hug her. The grief she felt was tangible, and I cried along with her at times. The softer, quieter moments with Dianna and her feelings stood out to me and were some of the most impactful. Dianna’s character arc was genuinely awe-inspiring in this book as we see her go through all the stages of grief. It’s a hard journey to join her on, but I love where she ended up. I truly think Nicole’s exploration of grief through Dianna’s character is fascinating, and one of the things I loved the most about this book

“I never once said that I was good…but sometimes a king has to be a monster.”

Logan is no more as he’s ready to own being Samkiel again, and I think that’s for the better. I feel we see a different Samkiel in this book as he’s really embracing his role as a God, as a leader. And just cause he’s a God doesn’t mean he’s all good. He’ll do anything to bring Dianna back to herself. He’s very much in his “touch her, and you die” era, and he would do anything for her. I liked this Samkiel more, as he had an air of confidence and strength. He’s juggling a lot as he’s cleaning up after Dianna, trying to bring her back to herself and stopping chaos from being unleashed on all the realms. I also truly adored seeing him spend time with the Hand and getting to know them better as a group and individuals.

“Yet he looked at me as if he would rip the world to pieces for me, and I knew I would do so much worse for him.”

We continue the enemies-to-lovers vibes from The Book of Azrael though it is much more layered and complex now. The flirty, snarky banter in the scenes of them fighting each other had me living. But their relationship is so much deeper than that. They have this deep connection – they both can see behind the monster/god to the individual and accept each other for their flaws, fears, hopes, dreams, and all. Their relationship continues to develop slowly over this book, but the payoff is worth it. We get some very rewarding sexy scenes in this, but also so much love. God, the love. Along with the exploration of grief, the exploration of the power of love and all the many forms it can take is another standout from this book.

“Let chaos reign.”

This book did feel a little long at times – there were a lot of flashbacks and a lot of points of view that I’m not sure were all necessary – but I honestly didn’t mind in the end as I was so engrossed in the story, in the drama. Boy, does this book go there in terms of the plot! I was a big old jumble of nerves and so stressed the whole last quarter of the book. I was literally gasping out loud and having to put the book down at times to process EVERYTHING that was HAPPENING. And oh my god, that ending! While I correctly predicted some plot points, others completed shook me to my core. I still am in shock thinking about some of them! I don’t know which character I hate more after everything. I cannot wait to see where Nicole takes this story and these characters in the last book as THAT ENDING.

“Remember that I love you.”

If you want to be emotionally devastated, this series is perfect for you. And I mean that in the best way possible. I cried, I laughed, I gasped, I loved – I felt it all while reading. If you love dark romance or are in your romantasy era, you will eat these stories up! You do have to read this series in order, so now is the perfect time to start, as The Book of Azrael and The Throne of Broken Gods are on KU.

I am now anxiously awaiting an update on book 3 and look forward to all the heartache and pain that Amber V. Nicole will bring us with that book!

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