Although presented as separate novels, Amber Nicole’s Gods & Monsters series functions more like a single sweeping epic. The Throne of Broken Gods continues directly from The Book of Azrael without pause, relying on the reader’s familiarity with complex world-building and mythological detail. Across both novels, the series constructs a pantheon of flawed deities, fractured realms, and the dangerous intimacy of divine love.

In The Book of Azrael, the series establishes the cosmology of 12 realms—most notably Onuna, home to mortals, and Rashearim, the ruined world of gods and celestials. Celestials, beings created from divine blood, were forged into soldiers and stripped of emotion by the Words of Ezalan (a formula from the titular Book of Azrael), reduced to living weapons. Only Unir, the World Creator and King of the Gods, broke this tradition, treating celestials as people. His compassion led to tragedy when his amata (roughly, “soulmate”), the celestial Adelphia, died. In grief, gods are known to turn to stone, and Unir’s growing detachment ignited rebellion among his pantheon. His son, Samkiel (half celestial and half god), became both weapon and scapegoat as the gods objected to Unir making Samkiel next in line for the throne. Samkiel wielded the Oblivion Blade, a weapon capable of erasing souls and realms entirely, to win the divine war, but at the cost of destroying Rashearim. For the next 1,000 years, he lived consumed by guilt.

The first novel also introduces the Kings of Yejedin: four monstrous generals created by Kaden, Unir’s other son. Initially thought to be ancient rulers, they are revealed as Kaden’s creations—Gewyrnon, Ittshare, Haldnunen (Tobias), and Aphaeleon (Alistair)—embodying plagues, ice, necromancy, and mind control, respectively. Kaden manipulates the remnants of other supernatural races (vampires, witches, banshees, dream-eaters, and werewolves) to extend his influence in Onuna and create an army for Nismera, a daughter of Unir and the goddess of war and destruction, whose ambitions have pitted her against both Unir and Samkiel. He also creates the Ig’Morruthens, immortal predators who feed on blood and bear dragonlike forms. Dianna, the presumed mortal woman who became Ig’Morruthen and the protagonist of the series, is both Kaden’s greatest weapon and his downfall.

The Throne of Broken Gods deepens this mythos. It reveals that Kaden’s power stems from divine lineage: He, too, is a child of Unir, making him Samkiel’s brother. The siblings’ conflict becomes a cosmic struggle between creation and ruin. Samkiel’s dual powers—to destroy and to restore—contrast with Kaden’s unchecked corruption of life itself. Meanwhile, other deities influence events from afar. Kryella, the fierce witch goddess and Samkiel’s former lover, once used her blood to create the celestial Xavier. Her lingering presence, along with Athos (the goddess of wisdom and war who shaped the celestials Cameron and Imogen), ties mortal loyalties to divine history. It foreshadows their roles in Dawn of the Cursed Queen.

Throughout Throne of Broken Gods, Dianna embodies the series’s central paradox: love as both salvation and curse. In resurrecting Samkiel at the novel’s end, she sacrifices part of her soul, which splinters and hides within him. Should they ever be separated, that division threatens to unleash a destructive force unlike any the realms have seen, a danger that defines the next installment.