Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Book of Azrael

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Book of Azrael by Amber V. Nicole

15 reviews

xta_07's review against another edition

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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steffandbooks'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? Yes

4.5

Amber, what have you done 😭 THE ENDING!! I can’t 😭😭 when is book two coming out?
I can’t even imagine how this story is supposed to entail five books overall, Dianna and Liam already went through so much in this book, what else are they supposed to endure? I can’t, I literally can’t…
I love how Liam is such a big teddybear and open with his feelings and so on and I really liked how he and Dianna went from enemies to more. They were literally enemies in the beginning. Both are not heroes in this story. Both already committed atrocities to save those they loved. I liked how Amber was portraying them as not being “good” guys.
The story and world as such is really complex, which took me a moment to get into, but I like reading a book where not everything is explained in the beginning. Gives me that tense feeling, you know.
I need more of Dianna and Liam, like right now.

Please don’t keep them apart for long in the second book, okay.

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ambenicole418's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

3.0

I’d given Vincent the title because, out of all the members of the Hand, I’d known he wanted it. It was one of many reasons I’d selected him, another being that I did not want it.

Now I don’t know if I just got a bad copy or if all the books are like this, but I paid $33 for a hardcover edition of this book from Barnes & Noble, and the printing and editing of this book was just TERRIBLE. Some of the larger font words was very pixelated (especially on the title page in the book), the map of the world was off center with the page and half of it was missing in between the binding, and the grammar was horrendous at times. I’m not usually one to gripe about grammar, as long as it doesn’t happen often and it’s minor mistakes that my brain can easily fill in I’m good. But there was a handful of times where the grammar was so bad that I almost had a stroke just trying to guess what the author was trying to say. Overall, this book read like the test copy of the first draft and for that reason I’ll probably be returning it. I just can’t justify paying that high a price for a book that heavily needs another round of editing and printing.

Plot
I really wanted to like this book, but I almost DNF’d it a few times. Almost the entire first half of this book is just world building, and the way it’s written is very monotone and info dumpy. And the constant long and drawn out flashbacks in Liam’s chapters in the first half of the book was getting on my nerves. When it came to Liam’s POV chapters about half the pages in each of his chapters were flashbacks, and most of them were way longer than necessary. It got to a point where I was wondering if the author would’ve just been better off writing a prequel novel or at least a prologue about the gods and the God’s War. The plot of the book doesn’t actually take off until ~200 pages in where we finally get to see Liam and Diana’s dynamic and see them go on this road trip to find the book. And once the plot finally kicked off I did get really invested in the story, specifically I was invested in Liam and Diana’s dynamic and budding romance. One of my gripes with the book is that the side characters just weren’t interesting. The only side character I cared about was Gabby, and it wasn’t even that I cared about her I was just concerned for her safety cause of how much she meant to Diana. I also hated how under developed Kaden was as a villain. He’s about to be responsible for the end of the world and yet he still didn’t feel like a threat to me, mostly because we’re told virtually nothing about him and his motivations. He didn’t feel like this world ending, evil villainous threat. He just felt like a narcissistic, abusive, asshole. I just wish the author actually took the time to develop him and make him feel like he actually is the all powerful threat that we’re supposed too just believe he is because Diana said so. Also why is it that every time Diana is frustrated or annoyed (which is like all the time) it is always prefaced by “She threw her hands up in the air”. It’s almost as if the author doesn’t know any other way to physically show that a woman is upset. Which is odd considering the author is a woman. I swear that line was repeated almost as often as the phrase “My inner goddess” was used in Fifty Shades lol.

Final Thoughts
Overall, this book wasn’t bad. After another round of editing and printing, I could see myself maybe bumping this book up a star. I also think that this series has a lot of potential, especially with the way it ended. My only concern is that the author failed to make me care about anything besides the romance between Liam and Diana, and considering the ending I imagine they’re gonna be apart or at odds with each other for most of the sequel. So I’m afraid there isn’t going to be much that holds my interest in book two, especially if Kaden and the side characters remain bland and uninteresting.

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wordwilderness's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.0

The Book of Azriel has an interesting plot and worldbuilding, but unfortunately, the characters and their relationships fell flat for me. From the beginning, it was obvious that the reader was supposed to perceive the main character as a villain, but at the same time, the book was constantly reminding me that she only committed evil acts to save her sister. It was like the story didn't trust me to interpret the character for myself, which was also reflected in how the other characters were developed. I was told how to feel about their personalities and relationships instead of getting to see them develop through their actions. As a result, I didn't really care what happened to the characters by the end of the book.

Other than the characters, the story was pretty interesting though. I loved all the legendary monsters, and there were plenty of plot twists I never saw coming. I definitely think there's an audience for this book, even if it wasn't me.

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imogen_reads_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

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