The Throne of Broken Gods Book Review | Amber V. Nicole

Genres: Fantasy, Romantasy, Romance, Fantasy Romance, Dark Romance, Magic, Gods
Pages: 728
Format: Physical & Kindle Unlimited
Rating:

Initial Thoughts

This Throne of Broken Gods review covers one of my most anticipated reads of 2026.  I was very hopeful going into this one and excited to see where the story would go after the way Dianna’s sister was killed at the end of The Book of Azrael.

The Plot (Spoiler-Free!)

Dianna is on a quest for revenge. After Kaden killed her sister, her last ties to her humanity, Dianna knows nothing but vengeance and death. She’s operating on pure rage and nothing else. Samkiel wants to bring Dianna back to the light, but is it too late? She resists him at every turn and is able to evade him, using his love for her against him. Samkiel won’t give up on Dianna, but Dianna seems to have already given up on him.

Dianna’s sole focus is to kill everyone involved with Gabriella’s death, ending with Kaden. Kaden evades Dianna the way she evades Samkiel, but in the end, Kaden needs Dianna for what he has planned, because this is how the world ends.

What I Liked (Some Spoilers)

Dianna’s revenge arc

I love when I am able to relate what I am reading back to a TV show or movie because it helps with visualization and being able to picture the events happening in my head. Case in point, Dianna is on a revenge quest and her humanity is essentially turned off (The Vampire Diaries reference). But she’s not acting like Elena or even Katherine. She’s giving Ripper Stefan or Klaus. She was also giving Arya Stark (Game of Thrones) because she had a list of people she wanted to kill and kept it in mind every step of the way as she took her revenge. I wish I had started a kill count for her because I know she was really going through these people. Literally no one was safe, including her ex-bff, Drake. I liked Dianna’s ruthlessness.

Multiple storylines

I’m always a fan of having multiple plots going on at the same time, especially when it’s done well. I liked that this story was all over the place but in a good way. At its core, the book is about Dianna grieving the loss of her sister, seeking revenge for her death, while engaging in a cat-and-mouse game with Samkiel by avoiding his attempts to save her. Outside of that main plot, there’s Logan trying to find his mate Neverra, who was kidnapped by Kaden; learning what Kaden’s ultimate goal is, who he’s working for, and his true feelings for Dianna; hidden prophecies; the council’s role; Dianna’s ancestry; and more woven in between. I did feel like this book was longer than it needed to be. Still, the extra storylines helped with the pacing for me.

The Hand and character dynamics

The additional cast of characters also helped with the pacing. The Hand creates a solid group of friends with their own dynamics. Imogen and Samkiel were intended to be married hundreds of years ago, but it did not happen, and their feelings for each other now are completely platonic, though that doesn’t stop Dianna’s jealousy. Vincent always seems to have a stick up his butt. Everyone wants to save Dianna and be there for her. Vincent can’t get over Dianna’s actions, and this causes lots of tension within the group. Everyone wants to see Samkiel happy, which means having Dianna in his life, but Vincent cannot let bygones be bygones. Cameron and Xavier are the comic relief of the book, two best friends who begin to have their own drama and rift with each other involving unrequited, or possibly requited, love.

Kaden’s perspective

As I mentioned before, Kaden’s motives are revealed, and there are a lot of flashbacks that provide insight into life when he changed Dianna. His chapters are few, but they are very important.

Favorite Quotes

“If you are truly gone, I refuse to live in a world without you, so you’ll have to angle it farther to the right. That’s where a god’s heart lies, and mine already belongs to you, so do with it what you will.”

“A thousand plus worlds he has seen, yet when he dreams, he dreams of you.”

His voice always reminded me of the ocean. It sounded beautiful but could create a storm so dark and violent that it would drown you in seconds if you allowed it.

What Didn’t Work for Me

I’m never opposed to reading a long book, but this one just seemed a wee bit too long. The same pattern seemed to be followed for the majority of the book: Dianna seeks revenge on those who betrayed her, she annihilates them, she denies Samkiel’s help or tries to do something horrid to turn him away from her, he still stands by her, Dianna evades him, and then the pattern continues for some 400 pages until the plot finally changes.

I understand it was important for us as readers to see all the stages of grief Dianna goes through and to understand that grief isn’t linear and has periods of ups and downs, but it just felt very repetitive to me. While it was impressive seeing all the ways Dianna manages to kill her enemies, I do think around 200 pages of the book could have been cut.

There were also many more POVs, and I didn’t find them all to be necessary. However, I can admit that some of them did help move the story along, even if I didn’t feel every chapter with a different POV was needed.

Like most fantasy books, the last 100 pages of this one was definitely a page-turner, but I do wish it wasn’t just the end of the book that felt this fast-paced.

Final Thoughts

This was a fine book. I think I’d rate it 3.5 deer-stars. The plot definitely went places I enjoyed and didn’t see coming at times. While I did feel like it was a little drawn out, I did enjoy seeing Dianna’s character development, her rage, her sadness, her emptiness, and then watching her slowly find love, joy, and happiness again was touching to read.

I don’t think any man, fictional or real, will ever top Samkiel. His love and adoration for Dianna, his persistence and unwillingness to give up on her, and how he shows up for her time after time despite Dianna doing everything in her power to push him away. To have a man love you like this, WOW.

TLDR: I think the series is worth continuing. While long-winded at times, it is a good read, and I will be picking up book three soon enough.

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