My review
My book review of The Book of Azrael
- Author
- Amber V. Nicole
- Series
- Gods & Monsters #1
- Release date
- March 29, 2022
- Read from
- 13.07.2026 – 23.08.2026
Book facts
Archetype
- Primary: Dark Romantic (enemies to lovers, morally grey characters, dangerous attraction, immortal beings, dark romance)
- Secondary: Power Seeker (powerful gods and monsters, supernatural abilities, power struggles, survival)
Tropes
Spice level
Low to Medium. There is a lot of buildup between Dianna and Liam, but the romance takes a long time to become physical. Most of the book focuses on their growing relationship and attraction rather than actual spicy scenes.
POV
Dual POV, following Dianna and Liam.
Vibe
Dark · Chaotic · Immortal · Romantic · High stakes. A dark romantasy about gods, monsters, ancient enemies, insanely powerful characters, and a search for the Book of Azrael.
What I loved
- The concept is interesting, and the world feels original.
- The writing feels more mature than a lot of romantasy I've read.
- There were moments where you could tell certain parts of the story were actually really well thought out.
- The tension between Liam and Dianna was good for the first 300 or so pages when they still hated each other.
- Dianna has so much potential as a character, and she was honestly the reason I kept reading.
- The ending caught me off guard, but in the best way. After hearing over and over again how much Dianna loved her sister and how she would sacrifice everything for her, I finally understood why it had been repeated so much. The ending made it pay off, and I liked that.
The highlights
- The unique, original concept and world.
- Dianna's sassy personality makes the dialogue fun.
- The early tension between Dianna and Liam.
- The more mature writing style.
Characters
Dianna was honestly the reason I kept reading because I think she has so much potential.
Though I did get VERY tired of constantly hearing that everything was for her sister, that her sister meant more than her own life, and that she would sacrifice everything for her sister. I GET IT.
But after finishing the book, I understand why it was repeated so much.
And Liam... I'm sorry, but I cannot.
For this legendary God King with incredibly loyal followers, he is so whiny, self centred, and honestly kind of stupid sometimes. I kept wondering how this man even got followers. He talks about saving the world, but half the time it feels like he doesn't really care about anyone outside himself.
And Kaden??? Why was this man absent for basically the entire book when he's supposed to be THE main threat?
Everyone is talking about him, everything somehow comes back to him, and we're constantly being told how dangerous he is... WHERE IS HE?
I wanted his presence to actually be felt throughout the story, not just at the end.
What didn't work
The magic system and power scaling
These characters are supposed to be insanely powerful, but there are barely any clear limitations to what they can actually do. They can teleport, open portals, fly, shapeshift, destroy worlds... until the plot needs them not to.
If you can open portals, why are we driving?
If Liam, or Samkiel, is literally the World Ender and possesses enough power to destroy a realm, why does he struggle so much against the third Hand of Kaden??? And he can barely even conjure up clothes if he hasn't slept. What?!!
You CAN make characters this powerful, but then make the execution make sense. Establish clear limits. Otherwise, I was constantly thinking they could have skipped 50% of what they went through to find the Book of Azrael by just... using the powers they already have.
Sometimes they also seemed to develop another ability whenever it was convenient for the story. Dianna has vampire like abilities too now? Okay??
The whole magic system just felt unreliable.
The romance
Slow burn? Right, it's slow, but where was the burn? I didn't feel it.
The tension was actually good for the first 300 or so pages when Liam and Dianna hated each other. But then suddenly they're friends? It felt like they went from enemies to suddenly caring deeply about each other almost overnight.
Liam suddenly felt comfortable enough to open up and have these deep conversations with Dianna when he could barely open up to friends he'd known for centuries.
I kept thinking: wait... we're here already???
You've both lived for THOUSANDS OF YEARS and this is how we're handling jealousy, attraction, and love?? Sometimes their romance felt weirdly juvenile considering how ancient these characters supposedly are.
Pacing and length
And this book is SOOO long.
There is so much detail about things that no one cares about. Every movement, every interaction, walking, driving, rooms, conversations... everything gets described.
I’m not against long books at all, but with what we got, this could’ve easily been 400 pages instead of 600.
Inconsistency
And then, after all that, Tobias suddenly being the King of the Yejedin? What?!!
This is what I mean by the inconsistency. Sometimes it feels like the story forgets its own rules, and I'm just sitting there thinking, how does any of this make sense?
That inconsistency made the whole book feel unreliable to me. I never knew whether the next chapter was going to make me think, "Okay, THIS is why I kept reading," or "Wtf was that?"
My final thoughts
Ughhh, I'm so conflicted about The Book of Azrael because I genuinely wanted to love it.
In the beginning, I honestly thought this could be a four star read. The concept is interesting, the world feels original, the writing feels more mature than a lot of romantasy I've read, and sometimes you can tell certain parts of the story were actually really well thought out.
But then other parts just... make absolutely no sense.
And I think that's my biggest problem with this book. The quality is SO inconsistent that it's jarring. One moment I'm invested and thinking, okay, this is actually good, and then something happens that makes me go ????
I wanted to DNF so many times, which is crazy because there were also parts I genuinely enjoyed.
I was also surprised by how positive the Goodreads reviews are.
I'm giving it 2.5 stars because I still think the concept, world, and actual writing deserve some credit. But there was so much potential for a more complex, interesting story here, and instead I kept getting frustrated by how little sense the characters' decisions made.
And despite the good parts, there is absolutely not enough here to convince me to go through all of this again for book two.
Would I recommend it?
No, not if you're looking for the same things I am in a romantasy.
If you're the kind of romantasy reader who can overlook plot holes, inconsistent character decisions, and a romance that doesn't necessarily need to feel earned as long as the chemistry and romantic moments work for you, you might enjoy this much more than I did.
But if inconsistent magic systems, unclear power limitations, very slow pacing, and character decisions that don't always make sense bother you, this one might be frustrating.
