Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Book of Azrael

The opening pages have a bizarrely dense infodump between two enemies which seems entirely performed for the sake of giving info to the reader, not because the characters actually need to say these lines to each other.

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overflowingshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

CW: Violence; torture; murder; death; depression/PTSD; suicide; war

I came to this book for the hero but stayed for the villain. Or villainess, I should say.

Don’t be scared of the length of The Book of Azrael – once you start reading it, you’ll fly through it and not want to put it down! But be warned – there is a killer cliffhanger at the end!

Dianna gave up her life a thousand years ago to save her sister. She called on anyone who would listen, not expecting a monster far worse than her nightmares to answer. Now she does what Kaden wants, even if it means securing an ancient relic from the creatures that hunt her crime. After the Gods War, Liam, formerly known as Samkiel and more commonly referred to as the World Ender, shut himself away, hiding from the world. But an attack on those he holds dear sends him back to the one realm he never wished to visit again and into the sights of an enemy he thought he imprisoned years ago. Now enemies of old must work together to save their world and all the realms in between.

I love me a good, complicated villainess, and Dianna is exactly that. She delivers the sass, the snark, and the stabbing I want from my morally grey heroines. She’s a badass, complicated woman, and I immediately loved her.

Despite being on what I’d call team evil, Dianna has a softer side that we see through her relationship with her sister Gabby. Dianna would do ANYTHING for her sister, including giving up her own life in service of the bad guy. That kind of devotion is really striking. Dianna’s relationship with her sister grounds hers, humanizes her. That relationship is central to the story and is a main driver behind much of Dianna’s actions and the plot of the story. I still have questions and theories about her powers, but I’m excited to see what happens to Dianna in book 2, as the ending of this book will have some SERIOUS implications for her character development.

And then we have Liam, also known as Samkiel and the World Ender, and boy, could he not be more different personality-wise, but they both are broken in their own way. When we met him, he is in a very dark mental state. He’s suffering from PTSD and depression, with the literal weight of the worlds on his shoulder and massive expectations placed on him. While he may be viewed as a god, he considers himself a monster. Slowly and reluctantly, he works to confront his issues, opening himself up more emotionally. But he’s still got a long way to go to get back to the man he was before. I enjoyed all the layers to his character as we see different versions of him in flashbacks, as it helped drive home just how much his actions impacted him mentally and emotionally.

Now if you want a TRUE enemies-to-lovers book, that is EXACTLY what you get with The Book of Azrael. By nature of who they are, Dianna and Liam are technically mortal enemies – their kinds of have been fighting each other for centuries. Both Dianna and Liam try to kill the other and their companions at various points in this book. But watching their relationship develop, albeit a bit slowly, was sweet. You get fantastic flirty banter and fighting, but also some real emotions and deep feelings between them. I’m excited to see where the relationship goes in book 2 as I feel like some significant obstacles are still coming their way.

The world-building in this book was decent, but it does take a while for all the pieces to start to fit together. It’s a bit confusing sorting out the world, the creatures, the religion, and the magic in the beginning. I am not sure I 100% understand all the nuances of the world yet, and I feel there is still a lot more to play with and explore in future books, but I didn’t find this hampering my enjoyment of the story by any means.

This book is a bit of a beast in terms of length, as it clocks in at nearly 500 pages. But the book never felt like it was that long. I flew through this book as the story immediately hooked me. The pacing is perfect. Amber Nicole seamlessly weaves the action, exposition, world-building, and romance together. It feels balanced – for every big action scene, we get an equal amount of quiet, softer scenes focusing on the characters, their relationships, and their emotions. There are some fun twists and turns in the plot along the way and a killer ending, making me even more excited for book two.

I picked this book up on a whim after seeing some fantastic fan art, and I am SO glad I did. This delivered exactly what I wanted, with a feisty, morally grey heroine, a complex and troubled hero with lots of action and romance to boot. I’m so glad I don’t have to wait long for book 2, The Throne of Broken Gods, because the ending is a cliffhanger, and I cannot wait to see what happens next!

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one_more_chapter96's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny sad 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

4.0

I loved that the FMC was the villain in the story rather than the hero we typically see in fantasy. She was funny, strong, bad ass and was a good balance of feminine and cutthroat which I liked! It was great seeing the development of Liam’s character and their banter progress. The beginning and ending were really good, I feel Dianna’s character for a little lost/watered down in the middle but I think she will come back with a vengeance in book 2 which I can’t wait for. Loved the side characters and world building. Only a 2/5 for spice and towards the end of the book but some good tension!

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koistyfishy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

3.5

This book has me at a literal FEELINGS crossroads as it took me 50% before I was into it. This wouldn't normally be a problem as it can be expected in some books there could be a need to build up the plot and characters before that hook drives itself completely in! The only problem is 50% of this book was OVER 400 PAGES!

The story follows the dual POV of Dianna and (Samkiel) Liam. Dianna is what the world thinks is a villain. One thousand years ago she sacrificed her life to save her dying sister Gaby. Dianna is turned into an Ig'Morruthen (evil monster basically) after making a deal with basically the Devil, Kaden. Kaden is awful and continuously threatens the safety of Gaby if Dianna doesn't do his atrocious bidding. Now Kaden is after the Book of Azrael and he has tasked Dianna with finding it.

The world-building in this super, it is really good for a debut novel and is pretty fleshed out and complex whilst still being easy to wrap your head around. There were unique aspects I had not seen done before and I have read quite a bit of fantasy recently. I was intrigued by the power system possessed by the Gods and Monsters. I loved how the different worlds were spun together and the history of the universe carried a weight that actually added to aspects that had brought our characters to this point in history. There were a few info dumps (often disguised as "blood dreams") but it didn't feel over-saturated with these, so they were manageable.

Dianna was an interesting character. She is morally grey and Amber Nicole does not shy away from aspects that would make her a villain in this story, but she doesn't fully encompass true darkness. Dianna has brutally killed and harmed people before and has anger issues very similar to the Hulk. She is also very badass, sassy and powerful but is not unbreakable. The one thing that makes her extremely likable though is she has not fully lost sight of her moral compass. She is only bad and evil because Kaden makes her so, but through actions is VERY self-sacrificing - (this almost becomes nauseatingly repetitive how often it happens though since IT HAPPENS A LOT IN THE BOOK).

Liam is emo, suffering pretty badly from PTSD and depression, and is very cold at the start. His POV does feel a little lacking and bland but these seem to evolve over time as he learns about the customs of the world and starts spending more and more time with Dianna. In the end he did change into a real wholesome person, and it is understandable why he is as broken and almost void of emotion at the start given everything he has gone through to earn his name World Ender.

I did like the Banter between the two, and the slow burn mortal enemies-to-lovers was done really well! This relationship took time to develop and didn't feel rushed or forced. There were things they each had to work through as both Dianna and Liam are a little bit broken but both ended up helping one another battle their internal demons. They really do encompass "stronger together than alone."

The one bad thing about this book however is its writing. It is very sloppy at times and could have really used another round of editing. There are typos and missing words. The spacing on the ebook also drove me INSANE at the start as everything was paragraphed with spacing, which made the flow of the book really difficult as I had to deal with unnecessary pauses the whole time. There were also words and terms thrown in that the reader was just expected to understand and know what they meant without a clear explanation. Often Action scenes or descriptions of places felt muddled and weren't fully clear what was going on so there were numerous times I had to reread sentences or go back a few lines to understand what was happening. I also felt a few plot holes slipped in and aspects were not always explained clearly. I am hoping these holes are plugged and explained in book two and not forgotten. I also started growing increasingly annoyed at the word iridescent, as this seems to be the only way colour was described. IT APPEARS 9 TIMES IN TOTAL PEOPLE!

The other aspect of the writing that bothered me was the characterization in general. This is meant to be a NEW ADULT. These characters are all WAY WAY over 1000 years old. BUT THEN why does it feel like every one of these characters is still a teenager? The characters' actions and behavior at times were extremely immature and childish and for beings who have lived as long as they have, this shouldn't be the case. This immaturity is mostly seen in Dianna, but it also slips in with the way Logan acts and Gaby speaks, and how Liam interprets situations.

Overall I did like the concept and if I miraculously knew the first 50% of the book and only rated this on the last half, then this would have been 5 Stars. Based on this I cannot wait for the second book to come out so that I can see where this story and the world go.

Overall I would recommend this book if you like the following:
▹Mortal Enemies to Lovers
▹Captor/Captive Romances (slightly)
▹Slow Burn
▹Only one bed
▹Morally Grey Characters

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xta_07's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny 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

Over all I really enjoyed this book. I appreciated the exploration of grief, and over all I liked Liam/Samkiel's chapters much more than Dianna's. The over all plot and story were very satisfying, even if sometimes the bravado that Dianna displayed was incredibly unbelievable.

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