The Book of Azrael

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Starting from the blurb only, I went into this book with expectations, that weren't met but it's not entirely the book's fault. Is it a good book, that's very entertaining if you head into it with different expectations than the ones I had? Probably, it is. Was I a little bit disappointed nonetheless? Unfortunately. To prevent anyone heading into this with the same expectations as I did: if you expect a book set in anything else than modern times, think again. This is set in a timeframe where cellphones exist, modern technology exists and part of the plot includes the struggle of a being getting to know these times and gadgets and means of transportation/communication/you get where I'm heading. My wish would have been for this to be clear by reading the blurb only. I know I'm not the only one who expected this to be set in a different timeframe than it actually was and I'd like to know where I'm headed timewise when starting a book. Maybe choose a blurb next time that better represents the basics of the world and time it is in. Having said this, I probably would have enjoyed the struggles of coming to terms with modern technology more, if I had been in the mood for it and chose this book based on that. This way, it was a mildly entertaining subplot, that didn't add to the story for me so it, at times, even became little frustrating. Some parts of the dialogues felt pretty repetitive and I felt like 'I have read this exact dialogue before', which is okay once or twice but not for every banter-y situation between the two MCs. There also were a few unnecessary typos which stopped the flow of reading for me. The world building was a massive project and at times I would have wished for more insight into the different parties, deities and other creatures that made an appearance but weren't that thoroughly described for me to become truly involved in the plot. The two main characters were mildly annoying through parts of the book and I had a hard time connecting with both of them. I might just need to say I wasn't involved enough in their story to truly care about that massive cliffhanger at the end, which is a little disappointing. I will add that they absolutely had their moments, I loved some of the quotes of this book especially targeting the feeling of depression and helplessness toward it in Liam's POV, but it wasn't enough to truly "catch me". Read this if you are a fan of urban fantasy, the clash of the modern times and technologies with someone from a different timeframe, and adventurous plot that felt like a mashup of Indiana Jones and the later Supernatural episodes and a ton of beings across realms to be discovered - also, if you are fine with waiting for the next book in the series as this does end on a cliffhanger.