A young witch makes a deal with a devil to avenge her twin’s death: this is the premise which had me hooked. From the minute I heard the synopsis of this book I knew I had to read it, so I preordered it right away. I was then super lucky to be granted a copy via Netgalley to read in advance!

I loved the themes of sisterhood and family that ran through this book; the bonds were so strong and I enjoyed seeing this when in so many fantasy books family seems almost non existent.

Kerri showcased a fantastic talent for world building. From describing the streets of Sicily to the family’s cooking, it all felt almost tangible. And made me super hungry! This descriptive way of writing also provided the perfect atmosphere for the story, which I found more and more immersive and chilling.

Our main characters felt fleshed out and in true Amy fashion, I fell for the devil right away. Tall, dark haired and super grumpy??? Sign me up! I enjoyed Emilia and Wrath’s relationship, and how they had to come together to try and defeat the evil.

Full of witchy magic vibes and mystery, the fast paced plot kept me hooked and I already can’t wait for book two! AND THAT CLIFFHANGER!

Full review to come on my blog and to be added here too!

📖Book Review: Kingdom of the Wicked By Kerri Maniscalco
Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫4.8
Genre: YA Fantasy, Romance, Supernatural

Sultry darkness and deadly secrets...A thrilling quest for vengeance, filled with devilry, trickery and an earth shattering romance. Kingdom of the wicked will leave you ravenous for more, beware it will intoxicate the mind and senses!

Emilia and Vittoria are twin witches living in 19th century Sicily, brought up on tales of the Wicked- 'demon prince's - midnight creatures born of darkness and moonlight that only seek to destroy'.

They spend their days working on enchantments, hiding in plain sight and helping at their family's sicilian restraunt 'Sea and Vine'. Until Emilia finds Vittoria's body desecrated by the most violent of acts. Emilia sets out to seek Vittorias killer and exact her revenge, but temptation and recklessness leads to a deeper descent into evil, dark arts and forbidden magic. The dark arts always come with a price, is Emilia willing to pay it?

Wow, where to start? Kingdom of the wicked is an epic new fantasy series from the best selling author Kerri Maniscalco! Kingdom of the wicked has all the plot twists, darkly gothic lyrical prose and forbidden magic that you want in a YA Fantasy! I have no doubt this book will fly off the shelves with its seductive prince's of hell, feisty young witches and solicitous grandmother. It reminded me of Holly Black's :The Folk of the Air Series' and Roshani Chokshi 'The Gilded Wolves'.
A luscious world of evocative and witty characters and a magical, diverse plot. I highly recommend snatching a copy.

Thank you to @netgalley , @hodderbooks @jimmypattersonbooks and of course @kerrimaniscalco for such a magical read! 😊❤️

Kingdom of the wicked by @kerrimaniscalco is coming out later this month, and I was lucky enough to get a review copy from the publisher @hodderbooks through @netgalley, for which I’m very thankful.

I don't read many YA fantasy novels but I’ll constantly try one now and then, especially if I see them suggested by some of my favourite readers around Bookstagram, hence this review and my love for the author’s words because let me tell you something, I’m in love and never seen it coming! 

Rome, one of the most fascinating places in the world even from thousands of years ago , with its hidden passages and mysterious habitants, it’s one of my to-visit places yet to tick off from my list, even more now after reading this charmingly written story. 

I admired how our heroine is illustrated as a strong inexperienced girl, assertive and loving of her family, how underneath her warrior shield, she is compassionate and her love doesn’t have limits for her sister. Thus, her heart is driven by a revenge mission where twists and turns that kept me on the edge throughout the story won’t stop her from finding the truth. She is willing to make a deal with the devil, and something wicked comes out of it.

If you love enemies to lovers, suspenseful and mystical world build, you need to read this book.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of this book.

This is a very difficult review for me to write because I cannot actually tell whether or not I liked this book. It was my first Kerri Maniscalco book and I absolutely loved the look and sound of it.

I thought Emilia was an interesting character to follow around and I found myself being sucked into the story and being on the edge of my seat to see what happens next, how book one will end. And I just love a really good whodunit plot.

I am also not mad at hot demon princes from hell. Absolutely not. However, as charming as Wrath is, I couldn't help but feel a little squeamish and uncomfortable at the relationship between Wrath and Emilia. He gets her consent to save her at one point, which results in a kiss and a naked bath, which left me utterly confused. I also felt like Emilia was constantly a damsel in distress and in need of rescuing. The fact that Wrath laid out dresses for her and followed her around... all of that just gave me a bit of a weird vibe and it isn't a relationship I am invested in. Rather on the contrary. However, I know that a lot of readers like this exact brand of fantasy so if you are not at all mad at anything I just described this is going to be the book for you!

In the end, I did like it but I didn't love it. However, I liked it enough and am intrigued enough to be excited for the next book in the series to see where the story goes!

Emilia and Vittoria have been raised on stories. Stories of of witchcraft and stories of the Wicked, Princes from hell who their Nonna has told them to stay well away from, and instructions to never let their 'Cornicello's' off, special protective charms they wear around their necks. They spend their days cooking at their parents restaurant, but its their nights where their activities differ. Vittoria tends towards the brighter parts of life, parties, romance, danger. Whereas Emilia is more than content to stay at home trying out new recipe's. One night Emilia is forced back to the monastery to recover a basket she had left the night before when she feels a pull she can't explain, a pull that leads her deeper into the monastery, to a room with a man leaning over a dead girl, a dead girl who, when Emilia gets a closer look turns out to be her sister Vittoria. Buried with grief Emilia knows she has to find out what happened to her sister, but the more she looks the more she realises that Vittoria was keeping secrets from her, big secrets, secrets that could effect the whole world. It will take Emilia working with that that she has been forbidden to go near if she is to find out the truth behind her sisters death. That is if she can survive the pull of the Wicked.

Emilia is such a strong character. She has always been the quieter twin, the one who preferred the shadows over the spotlight. But when it comes to avenging her sisters death, she will do whatever it takes to make sure the killer pays. It did take me a while to get into the book and to bond with her as a character as Maniscalco gives us a lot of introspection. The benefit of this is we get to work out the clues right along side Emilia, coming to the conclusions at the same time as the MC whilst she still manages to give us some spectacular plot twists.

Kingdom of the Wicked completely draws you into 19th Century Sicily with it's gothic setting and mouth watering descriptions of food it is easy to find yourself swept away into the magical setting she creates. Filled with witches and demons as well as the Wicked, the seven princes of hell, each of which coincides with a deadly sin. We are introduced to four in this book, and each of their personalities screams the sin they are named for. Maniscalco wrote them brilliantly, each able to manipulate the emotions of those around them for pleasure, or more nefarious reasons.

If there's one thing Maniscalco can do well it is writing a swoon worthy and heart tingling romance. I can see this one being a major slow burn and I am here for it. Wrath is a character that, as much as I didn't want to trust him, I easily found myself falling for him ( I know, I'm a sucker for what is sure to be a torturous romance.) He isn't a good guy, we see this from the start but it's the little moments with Emilia where we see his softer side come out.

Anyone who was a fan of her Stalking Jack the Ripper series will be easily swept away on this fast paced fantasy, filled with adventure, romance and brilliantly described characters and setting. Though a little slow at the start Maniscalco clearly used this book to give us the rules of the magic she created as well as the world, and after the shock of an ending I am eagerly anticipating getting my hands on book two.

I feel like how much people enjoy this depends entirely on how much they liked Caraval. Or more precisely how much tolerance they have for fast-paced YA with little to no substance. I gave to this the same three stars that I gave to Caraval, and my feeling is exactly the same: It was a fun and addictive read. But I don't buy the supposedly deep sibling relationship, I'm not invested in the character, and I don't find the world building anything especial.

This is the first time I read anything by this author. From what I've seen so far she seems like a competent writer, but not a very original one. Okay so let me first cover the 'competent' side. On a sentence by sentence basis, this book is well-written. The prose is strong and sometimes flowery, without falling into purple category. The dialogues were very good. Actually, they were my favourite part of the story. Especially the ones between the heroine and the love interest. This book is very readable and I honestly couldn't put it down from the moment I started it.

Now to the 'not original' part. I love demon lore and I was expecting the author to use it to create something refreshing and original. But sadly I've already seen almost everything here in other stories. For instance, the fact that the seven deadly sins are manifested in 7 demons was very interesting, except that I already saw that in Supernatural. Same goes for the 'kiss' after the deal. The ideas about demons making deal and being summoned by humans has always been around. So basically, this book didn't do any new contribution to the whole demon lore. I wish it had because the whole lore is not overused like that of the vampires or shifters. There's still much more room for creativity and a part of me wishes that this book could be more inventive.

My other problem with this was that I wasn't really invested in the whole sibling relationship that was the basis for this plot. Using the death of a loved one to start the plot is a very common plot device, especially in fantasy. But it has to be very well-written for me to buy it. I was actually surprised about how soon the 'accident' happened and how little time was dedicated to the sisters. This is where the Caraval comparison comes on. I couldn't buy the whole 'sisterly love' in any of these books.

My third problem with this was that I just didn't care that much for the main character. I feel like I didn't get any sense of who she is. It's kinda ironic since Wrath was the love interest ( and not the POV character ) but I feel like I know him way more than I know her. It seems to me that she just acted the way the author wanted her to act, so that the plot could be moved forward. I think most of the readers who read primarily YA tend to be okay with this style of characterisation ( since it's more common in YA ). But If you're a character-first type of reader like me, then it might just annoy you.

Okay now that I'm done with the negatives, let's go for the positives. Apart from being very readable, it also has a very nice enemies-to-lovers act. Despite my problems with the other aspects of this story, I think this part was very well done. The combination of tension and the clear mistrust between them was very interesting. The humour helped as well.
So basically, this was enjoyable but nothing memorable or exceptional.

One last thing, this ends on a massive cliff-hanger so if you can't stand them, then maybe wait for the series to be completed.

<I>3 stars, I think?</I>

I honestly do not know how to rate or review this book. This was one of my most anticipated reads for this year, and for some reason, it did not deliver in all the ways I expected it to. Sometimes, even within the same chapter, I didn’t feel like I was reading the same book. Maybe it’s because I expected a plot as intricate but coherent as the one we saw in Stalking Jack the Ripper. Maybe it’s because I expected this book to have the same chemistry that Thomas and Audrey shared in Maniscalco’s other series. Maybe it’s wrong to go into a book expecting a lot, but that’s what happens when the author is an established writer.

I genuinely do not know how to proceed with this review, but I’m going to make a valiant effort. I’m going to break this book down into the individual criteria that act as a story’s pillars, and discuss each section in detail.

But before I proceed, I should tell you this — I’m already invested in this story and am looking forward to the sequel. As I said, there were parts I really <I>really<I> liked, and though not all the characters have endeared themselves to me, I’m invested in the storyline.

…

Now, the break down:

<b><u>The word building</u></b>

This is one of the most important pillars when it comes to a fantasy novel. This novel is set in 1700s Sicily, and features a protagonist whose family owns a lovely restaurant. And oh, btw, they’re witches. We encounter three factions of the supernatural here — the witches, like the protagonist and her family (who live amongst ordinary human beings), the witch/demon hunters from the church from whom Emilia and her family hide their powers, and the “Wicked”, who are underworldly demons and their ruling princes, who are the embodiment of the seven deadly sins.

I loved how this book borrowed the concept of circles of hell from Dante’s works, and applied it to the seven sins — we have the Wicked princes, and each prince is for one of the seven ‘houses’, so we have Pride, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Envy and Sloth. The underworld has seven main regions (you can see this in the map which comes with the book), and each prince rules over a region. They also have powers over the sin they control — for example, Envy can influence a mere mortal and make them feel jealous of everyone they see.

This was a very cool concept, and this combined with the run of the mill witchcraft elements we see (the power passes down only to women; you have chalk, candles, circles and herbs to summon/release spirits and demons, and cleanse souls; the church is persecuting witches), along with the fact that Emilia’s parents run a lovely ‘ordinary’ Italian restaurant (I was hungry half the time while reading this book) makes for a very interesting juxtaposition of multiple worlds, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

<b><u>The characters</u></b>

As the blurb promises, Emilia’s twin Vittoria is found brutally murdered, and when the cursory evidence points to underworldly beings being involved, Emilia decides to launch an investigation of her own, and to unleash pain upon her sister’s killer.

This definitely made for an interesting premise, but unfortunately, Emilia did not live up to the badass expectations I was hoping for. The way her character was written made her fall a little flat, and though she does use a few clever ploys to get out of terrible situations, and though we’re supposed to feel bad and root for her because she’s dealing with her sister’s murder, she still didn’t endear herself to me. One of the main issues I had with Maniscalco’s other series was that that one’s MC, Audrey, came off as a Mary Sue as the series progressed. Emilia is the exact opposite, she doesn’t have a personality which strikes you in any way, either positively or negatively.

There were times when Emilia was supposed to be strong and steely, but then she caves and tries not to inflict much pain, and honestly, it was exasperating. I suppose we were supposed to commend Emilia for being strong enough to forgive her enemies, but realistically, no one would forgive people who’ve brought their family great pain without first undergoing some sort of personal/spiritual transformation, which would take months, if not years. It was inconsistencies in how her character behaved that truly cheesed me off.

The other main character we have is Wrath, one of the seven princes of hell. I completely enjoyed his personality, and how he seemed to have an agenda of his own. He was also hella (lol) nice to Emilia, but it was apparent from the get go that there was only one person he’d ever truly be nice to, viz., himself. I like it when characters are decisively self serving that way; he made for a great distraction from Emilia’s general cluelessness.

We have quite a few supplementary characters as well, such as the other princes, Emilia’s friends, other witches, etc., but the two which stood out were Vittoria (Emilia’s twin), and their Nonna. Vittoria seemed a much more interesting and colourful character than her sister, dabbling in the dark arts secretly, and I can’t help but wish she’ll be miraculously alive in the second book, just because she came across as someone who’s cheeky, but <I>fun</I>.

Their Nonna — well, at first she seems a bit off her rocker, paranoid and always telling everyone to be careful, but later on, once the Wicked are out, all her paranoia makes sense. Something which has never made sense to me is why characters in fantasy novels have to speak in riddles when information needs to be passed on immediately, such as when their lives are in danger. I’m on the fence about whether I liked Nonna, but I certainly wish her character didn’t have to exist just to give Emilia mysterious advice. It felt a bit contrived.

<b><u>The romantic dynamics</u></b>

I feel this should be a subsection under the previous section, but since this book is marketed as an ‘epic romance’ in the blurb, it deserves a section all of its own. Maybe it’s wrong of me to compare the ‘romance’ that Emilia and Wrath share with Audrey and Thomas of SJTR, but I can’t help it.

Emilia and Wrath didn’t hold a candle to the CressWorth romance, with hardly any chemistry between the two. Granted, Emilia and Wrath didn’t have time to bond the way Thomas and Audrey did, but even then, I couldn’t feel any spark between them. I only knew that they kinda fancied each other because the story told me so, in plain text. That feeling of a constantly burning ember of desire and interest between the two wasn’t present here. And attraction shouldn’t have to be spelled out to the reader; one must feel it between the two.

And despite liking Wrath and everything about him, I just couldn’t bring myself to ship the two characters, the way I shipped CressWorth. I read SJTR with bated breath, anticipating their first kiss. Here, their first kiss happened, and I couldn’t even bring myself to react. It could have been a description of a brick wall for all that it made me feel.

I honestly think if there had been zero forced romance between the two MCs, I would have enjoyed the book a lot more. A book where two people (summoner and summonee) become reluctant friends would work well too, like in the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathon Stroud. I just think the romance was superfluous to the plot, and being allies/friends would have worked better.

<b><u>The plot and the pacing</u></b>

The plot in itself is decent. We have Emilia narrowing down a pool of fantastical suspects, trying to determine who killed her sister (and is killing the other witches in town) while also trying to figure out what exactly her sister had been up to before she died. She’s navigating a new world, all while ensuring her friends at the church don’t burn her at the stake. And then there’s the grief itself, which incapacitates her every now and then. Things, especially towards the end, get a lot more sinister, and I enjoyed the planning which went behind the various elements of this book.

Unfortunately, a good plot means nothing, if the pace the book sets itself at is just not correct. And that’s what happened here.

There are some serious time jumps (of about three weeks) between two chapters, and then we have about thirty chapters which span sixty hours. At times, so much happened that I wasn’t sure if it was the same day, let alone the same week. Being forced to keep track of how much time had passed between various events lessened my enjoyment of the plot.

<b><u>The writing and the pacing (again)</u></b>

The writing was a little too prosaic for my liking, with Emilia often describing conversations rather than us getting to read the dialogues. (Usually, novels need to have an ideal mix of both styles.) This happened a bit inconsistently in the book, especially a lot in the middle, and at times it felt like the book was written by two different people — one person who wrote the beginning and the end (both of which I loved) and someone else with a conflicting writing style who wrote the middle portion of the book.

Again, maybe I shouldn’t compare this book to SJTR, but I can’t help it. I loved the writing style there, but the style here seems to be a vague shadow of that. The initial and final chapters of this books really felt like Maniscalco, but the middle really middled, and the change was more than a bit jarring. It wasn’t just the style; the pacing in the middle (about 40% of the book) was slow as well. There was a lot of description about what Emilia ate and wore, and not much else for quite a few parts of this book.

But coming to the descriptions of said food and clothes — I did enjoy it… initially. I soon grew tired of reading the positively delicious descriptions of Italian food (even though Italian cuisine is my comfort food) and the descriptions of the clothes as well. These factors definitely add to the setting, but when the pacing gets slow, having only these descriptions to pique the reader’s interest is not exactly great writing.

Maybe, just maybe, the issue was with the length of the book? Maybe the portions in the middle could have shortened a lot more, so that the pace we set up initially doesn’t get lost, and doesn’t need to be <I>recovered</I> at the end?

…

Maniscalco’s foray into YA fantasy is definitely a commendable effort. It has a unique plot line and interesting world building, and though I’m not as invested in the characters, I am invested in knowing how the events that occur in the climax of this book affect the world as such. <I>What’ll change? What new curve balls will we encounter</I>

That being said, I genuinely wish a lot of the other aspects of this book had been as good as the world building, especially having a protagonist who makes some sort of a mark on the reader, because I think that would have elevated the reading experience.

As I mentioned right at the beginning, I will definitely be reading the sequel, but I really hope a lot of things change — maybe Vittoria will secretly be alive somewhere and she’ll be the narrator, instead of Emilia. Or maybe Wrath will be the narrator, and we’ll see what political gambit he’s up to. Or maybe, just maybe, Emilia will develop a personality, and the book will be super fast paced to make up for this first book.

Yup, I have a lot of hopes for the sequel! :)

I received an ARC from Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, and I’m super grateful that they gave me this opportunity. Grazie mille!

Kingdom of the Wicked has an incredibly compelling opening. It is a story that gets you stuck in from the start, and by the time things slow down you’re so invested that you don’t really want to stop reading. The concept is pretty amazing, combining a murder mystery with witches and demons together with telling the story closely from Emilia’s point of view. I can honestly say that I ended up being pretty surprised by some of the twists! However, the pacing throughout is not always consistent and the story does drag at some points.

There were moments when I felt like I was reading two different books, one that lived up to the concept, and one that fell victim to the clichés of YA, focusing more on the will-they-won’t-they aspect of the relationship between Emilia and Wrath than anything else – which felt more like a trope than something organic. Tension yes, but actually giving in to and making it into something properly romantic it felt like ticking a box required for YA fantasy. Other parts I loved – apart from the world of the streghe I really enjoyed the prevalence of food in the novel. Maniscalco’s descriptions of Emilia’s cooking are mouthwatering and I’m very tempted to try to recreate some of them for myself!

Thank you to Netgalley, Hodder and Stoughton, and Kerri Maniscalco for providing me with the e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Kerri Maniscalco has been one of my favourite authors ever since I read the Stalking Jack the Ripper series so I was ecstatic when I found out I would be able to read Kingdom of the Wicked before its release.

One of the things I loved about Kerri Maniscalco’s previous books were the characters and Kingdom of the Wicked was no different. When we are introduced to Emilia and Vittoria you could immediately see the close relationship they had, a relationship which meant they would do anything to protect each other. They were polar opposites, with Emilia preferring to stay in and read a book and Vittoria wanting to be in the middle of the adventure. I love the different personalities Kerri is immediately able to display from the beginning of the story. Characters are the key to this story and the character development of Emilia was so fun to read about. She went from a quiet and rule-abiding daughter to someone who would do anything to get her revenge. We are later introduced to Wrath, a demon prince with a devil’s tongue. Their banter from their first introduction really carried the story and made you want to keep turning the page.

The setting of the story in 19th century Italy was also so intriguing and the descriptions of food will constantly have your mouth watering. I love the fact that the story was interwoven with tales of witches and demons which had been passed down through the generations. This added an element of mystery while you were trying to figure out which tales were true, and which tales would play a role in figuring out the murder that happened at the start of the book. The introduction of seven deadly demon princes based around the seven deadly sins was everything I hoped it would be. They were gorgeous, witty and equally as wicked (that won’t stop you falling for them though).

Overall, this book was so fun, and you won’t want to put it down. With the ending I am so excited to see where the story will go in the next book (I really don’t know how I am going to wait a whole year!!). This was definitely a five-star read and you should pick this up as soon as you can.

“Man had a fully way of blaming the devil for things he didn’t like. It was strange that we were called evil when humans were the ones who enjoyed watching us burn”

In a small town in Italy twin girls were born on a stormy night, eighteen years later a tragic event leaves one questioning everything.
Emelia is a witch born cook, who loves to help her family at their restaurant called Sea & Vine but when other witches turn up dead with their hearts ripped out, she is determined to find out why. Even if it means summoning a demon and raising hell … literally!

This was perfect for Halloween/ October time and was suspenseful throughout. I found myself rooting for Emilia within her adventure, even when I got a little frustrated that she would not listen. It felt slightly trope focused with a headstrong woman, love to hate romance, shirtless guy (of course he doesn’t like wearing a shirt…) and parents are basically useless….
However, this did not distract from the great writing and imagination within the novel, especially as I found myself craving Italian food throughout. I enjoyed the mystery aspect and meeting the different houses of hell. These houses were very reminiscent of the courts from Sarah J Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses series. In fact, this book would be perfect for readers of Sarah J Maas with the romance aspect woven, but not centre stage, of this novel.
Finally, there was a clear feminist message throughout which really struck a chord with me and allowed me to enjoy the romance more without falling into the trap of a damsel in distress.
Overall, I highly recommend Kingdom of the Wicked and NEED the second book as, like most of the chapters, it was left of a cliff-hanger.


Four stars.

Rating: 2 1/2 stars

Kingdom of the Wicked had every box ticked ready for me to in love with it - a family of Italian witches, demon bargains, revenge plots and beautiful atmospheric writing.
However, I think the plot and the setting got lost in the fast paced story line and in the end left me feeling less attached to the main character and because of it to the book as a whole.

The beginning of the book started off strong, filling me with witchy vibes, food descriptions that pratically leaped off the page, and a close knit family full of its own secrets, but also full of love.
I adored the Grandmother, though the trope of keeping something so essential to the twins survival A secret felt a little bit like a plot devise, but the sheer amount of love in those first pages had me ready to shout about this book from the rooftops.

Then the big bad happened, and I think I lost sense of who Emilia was.
She had such a strong voice and presence in the beginning and with the loss and the grief she changed, something which made complete sense, however along side that change it was like she morphed into a completely different character, one which I didnt particularly cared for.
I feel like the entire atmosphere of the book shifted from being dark and broody and perfect for fall, to being a weaker imitation of a dark romance - I also felt like Emilia’s drive kept switching focus which just left me confused. .

The fact that the revenge plot is what drives Emilia to Wrath doesnt bother me, but the lack of actual relationship building between them left me feeling bereft.
That paired with the sudden appearance of shape shifters and the very odd twist at the end of the novel left me with more questions then answers. And not enough of a connection to the story for me to seek out those unanswered.

I was ready to be wowed, but in the end I dont think this plot was fleshed out enough for me, so instead of a whirlwind dark romance I think I got more of a tepid beginning to a possible love story.

✨“I am focused, you steaming sack of horse manure.”✨
— Kerri Maniscalco, Kingdom of the Wicked.

🌸 Mentally fanning myself while I sit and dream about Kingdom of the Wicked.

Let me just give you guys a quote from the book:

✨“This was not the kind of prince written about in fairy tales. There was no golden crown sitting atop his dark head, or promises of safety waiting in his sculpted, tattooed arms. He was death and rage and fire and anyone stupid enough to forget that would be consumed by his inferno.”✨

Has this novel just secured a spot on your TBR?

Dark Princes, Badass female WITCHS, Seven Deadly Sins, a thirst for vengeance and SO MUCH BANTER THAT YOU’LL JUST SPLIT YOUR FACE FROM SMIRKING SO MUCH!

I need Wrath in my life. I just do. He is such an amazing, dark yet dreamy character. Honestly I don’t think I’ve fallen this hard for a male character since Will Herondale!

Do yourself a favour and read this book.

🌷So, Kingdom of the Wicked features Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria who are WITCHES (streghe). But when Vittoria doesn’t come home one night, Emilia goes out searching. Only to find a grim and unexpected scene: her twin is dead, her still corpse lies there with her heart cut out. And over Vittoria’s body awaits a demon, licking her blood.

Emilia must uncover her twins secrets and seek out the princes of hell to piece together the connection between Vittoria’s death and the other female bodies popping up. To find the killer, Emilia must face hell.

Thank you so much netgalley, Hodder & Stoughton, and Kerri Maniscalco for this early readers copy! I have honestly no idea what I was doing before Wrath came into my life!

And my goodness, this plot was just excellent. There truly was never a dull moment, and in response, my heart was just hammering all the way through! I didn’t leave my bed until I finished this book! Kerri Maniscalco truly is a master, and I now feel very much obliged to read her other series, Stalking Jack the Ripper!

Read. Be happy. Stay safe.

Thus far I have survived 2020, however this cliffhanger may well be the death of me.

(No but really pick up this book)

‘There are seven demon princes, but only four di Carlos should fear’

Kerri Maniscalco has a way of bringing the life to a story as if you were a child again, you know, that all encompassing picture that’s truly encapsulating to read, allowing you to momentarily be trapped in an entirely different universe.

‘Fear reached icy tendrils out to me’

This haunted, witching world kind of gave me Sabrina vibes? But then threw a (hell) of a lot more fantasy, tricks and twists into its line.

The angle of the ruling princes of hell bestowed with their own uniquely (good of evil?) talents is truly an intriguing read, and allows for many twists (and attractive guys) along the way. Even I, a queer gal, was somehow attracted to male hell rulers. Quite a feat.

A beautifully haunting read for lovers of fantasy, horror and magical worlds alike.

The only thing I really wasn’t sure on was the ending, I personally just prefer something more concrete so the waiting time doesn’t eat away at my soul quite as much .

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with an ARC of this novel.

This was an intoxicating, atmospheric and dark story that kept me reading, eager to see what happened next. It had its faults yet I continued to read, page after page to unravel the mystery and see how everything came together.

I felt fully immersed in the world, in the 19th century Italian setting. The setting of a quaint Italian village was the strongest point of the book for me. The winding, cobbled streets and bustling market came alive and transported me to a historical, fantastical Italy. And also the main thing this book made me? Hungry. Wow, was this book a ride for the senses. Whilst reading I could smell the garlic, the aroma of freshly baked bread, taste the sweet lemony pancakes, and hear the hiss of pancetta cooking. From bruchetta, to ricotta, to mozzeralla, this book was a food lover's delight. The combination of the enchanting setting and the dark atmosphere truly made this a fun and thrilling read. Plus it had me salivating and eager to fill my face full of Italian food.

I also enjoyed the mystery. This book was a dark and witchy murder mystery story. A mystery surrounding several gory, brutal murders. I did have this nagging feeling who the culprit was but I enjoyed the twisted ride nonetheless. Emilia and Wrath were like a witchy demonic detective duo, working together to unravel the mystery and reveal the sadistic murderer, with a whole lot of banter and tension.

Now the romance. I feel like it was more of a dark, simmering pot of water, boiling slowly but not quite ready to boil over the top. It had me intrigued and the love interest is the perfect brooding character (that we a love to see). I really hope to see more of the couple in question in the next book and hope the pot boils over like crazy as I'm here for it.

While I liked Emilia's character and loved her headstrong, fearless attitude and fierce loyalty to her sister, she was also infuriatingly reckless. I lost count of the amount of times I rolled my eyes at her complete disregard for her safety (and others) after several warnings. I understand that she was willing to do anything to get to the root of the murder mystery, but she just seemed so reckless and naive really. Also, everything she did seemed to just work out perfectly as if the stakes weren't 100% high for her atleast. A little too lucky really. However, I did love her close bond with her twin sister and her vengeful quest for answers and justice. It's just that she annoyed me at times.

At times I also felt like the 'magic system' and the whole demon world felt a little loose and not fully fleshed out. I felt a little confused by what exactly was going on with the whole demon side of things and what exactly fuelled certain individual's actions. Hopefully more will be explained in the next book about the magic and the whole lore behind it all. It intrigued me so I'm eager to understand it on a deeper level.

Overall I truly felt immersed in this intricately dark tale. Witches, demons, family, loss, romance and betrayal; this book has it all. I'm hopeful that the next book helps to flesh out elements of the story that I found lacking but I was invested in this story and this delightfully dark world. I'll definitely be picking up the sequel.

I loved the murder mystery of this book and that it was set in Italy. Some great descriptions and imagery in this book. It was easy to picture the locations and feel of the places. Loved that.

I found the pacing a bit off for me, it’s a slow paced book. I usually prefer something with a bit more going on as it felt some parts were going in circles.

I also struggled to feel connected & invested to the characters for a long while. So some parts in the first half, I had to motivate myself to read. However I was definitely invested by the 2nd half.

The story itself is very intriguing and I think it’ll be a great series.

I’ll be reading the sequel, as I feel this book has set up really well for future books of this series. I’m sure the action will also pick up in the sequel.

This is a great autumnal read and really gives off the spooky vibes!

THE KINGDOM OF THE WICKED is one of those books I've seen around <em>a lot</em>. At least in my sphere of bookish knowledge, it's the biggest YA fantasy release this autumn. It is certainly an enjoyable book, and I can see exactly where the hype is going - also the timings is perfect as it is an autumnal book.

The UK publicity campaign has contained a lot of food, which I didn't understand from the synopsis. However, the start of the book is <em>very</em> food heavy - and I wanted Italian food despite reading it having just had lunch. The food descriptions are just so yummy and indulgent. That tails off as the book focuses on the princes, assisting with the shift towards a much darker tone.<

The story itself is a lot of fun. It's a mystery romp complicated with princes of hell who have their own tangled motives. There's a lot of chemistry between Emilia and Wrath, in a dark-vibe this-is-a-bad-idea sort of way that Kerri Maniscalco did so well in STALKING JACK THE RIPPER.

I wasn't entirely sure when this book was set (19th century Italy) until I checked the publicity. Only the lack of phones (etc) ruled out the modern day, but otherwise it didn't feel like there were any clues as to the exact time period. For the first few chapters, I thought it might be modern day and was waiting for a character to get a phone out as the language felt very modern.

I think this is a duology, certainly it ends on quite the cliffhanger. The lead up felt a little unsettled, as there was a lot happening and keeping track wasn't the easiest. I was glad that there was a thematic ending with Vittoria's death, but the stuff with Pride and Envy (and the princes generally) was a bit confusing.

I wasn't sure by Emilia took Envy (or was it Greed?) at his word. Something about the ending itself and her decision was missing something for me, some emotional step to make sense of her choices. The book probably would have been 4.5 stars if it wasn't for that, as it just undercut the ending so it didn't feel as satisfying as it could be. However, I am eager to see where it goes next, and what the princes' deals are.

This was an amazing first book of a series, I love the setting, I love the mystery and the little bit of romance. I’m kinda disappointed I can’t just continue reading and find out everything right now, the wait will not be fun. Overall, Kingdom of the Wicked is the perfect dark tale with traces of magic, witches, other supernatural creatures and a dark curse, prophecy and a tint of romance

Kingdom of the Wicked follows Emilia after her twin is murdered, she tries to pierce together clues on who the killer is and her twin’s actions leading up to her death all whilst being introduced to the world of the Wicked princes.

This book was an entertaining read, I really enjoyed the writing style and the plot of the book. The plot focuses on Emilia trying to solve her sisters’ murder by following the clues she left behind which lead her to various dangerous places and people. It was interesting to learn about both witches and the Wicked/their creatures at the same time as Emilia followed the mystery and I never got bored reading the book. In general, I did like the world building and setting of the book. The book is quite slow paced which I liked and thought it suited the book especially so because of the focus on Emilia and her character development which I thought was written really well. The book really shows off her growth as a character and I really liked her, I liked how she did not switch from being naïve/shy girl to this badass character automatically but that there was a lot of inner conflict, doubt and just the general fact that she admits that she is way out of her league with who she is facing.

I liked the side characters in the book and they were interesting to read about especially the grandma and the other princes – I liked how they were written and they made the story exciting. I would not really say there was any romance in the book, she has an obvious connection with Wrath but it is very much a slow burn which will probably be developed more in the next book. Personally, I liked it because the focus was very much on Emilia’s character and their interactions were more for gaining information from each other and following clues rather than romantic. I did like their interactions because I enjoyed the dialogue in the book – there is a lot of back and forth and a power struggle as Emilia tries to get information whilst other character’s hold on to their secrets.

Emilia is very clearly out of depth as she plays against these powerful enemies so I expected there to be a lot of dead ends to the things that she investigated but I felt like there were too many dead ends and unanswered questions especially during the second half of the book when I expected to get more answers. There is very little information about what is actually going on that Emilia gets and what information is given is not fully given, I just wanted/expected more answers in the book. The main reveal/answer in the book is who the murderer is and honestly I was disappointed with it because I knew who it was really early on and why they did it. But I liked how there was more to figure out beyond who the murderer is regarding what was happening to the witches.

The ending of the book did feel slightly rushed just because a lot started happening all at once but I liked the direction the ending took although I knew it would happen from the start and I am interested in reading on.

4/5

Kingdom of the Wicked // by Kerri Maniscalco

I have been on a huge fantasy trip lately so when I received this ARC, I was over the moon. The blurb sounded incredible and I saw several people absolutely rave about it as well. Sadly, my excitement for the book did not last very long. While I very much enjoyed the premise and plot overall, the world-building and character development was lacking. There was so much opportunity to learn about the magic, the characters, and their relationships but it mostly felt rushed and like we jumped from one activity to the next too quickly without understanding the motivations and consequences of each. While I liked the relationship of the two main characters and found myself rooting for them, I struggled to relate to Emilia on a personal level because her decisions just did not seem to make sense many times and I wish she would've been portrayed as a stronger, smarter character. It also seemed a bit inconsistent for the princes of hell to be spoken of as these extremely dangerous creatures when she seemed to escape numerous supposedly dangerous and potentially deadly situations rather easily. I think overall the writing reminded me of a middle-grade novel with its simplistic and predictable situations. There is nothing wrong with middle-grade books obviously but it just was not what I expected from such a praised book.

Despite these things that bothered me though, Kerri Maniscalco still managed to create a world and characters that I want to see more of. I read this book quickly because I loved the setting in Italy as well as the way she described the royal courts of the princes of hell. I know that as soon as the next book in the series comes out, I will be in line to get it because I am ready to see what Emilia will do next!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

★★★★.5/5

This book was a lot more addictive to read than I thought it would be. I ended up managing to read it within 2 days despite its length and I still felt like it was so short when I finished it. Like it was only 20 chapters long. I could not put it down at all. All the mentions of the different herbs reminded me of when I was little back home in italy and of all the plants and herbs my grandma grew in our garden. It felt very nostalgic. Also, the detailed descriptions of the food was no joke and I seriously was feeling so hungry for Italian when reading them. I do have to admit that at times I found Emilia quite frustrating, like when it came to having a lot of the clues and they were so obvious to look into but she didn’t until a while after. I do have to say I was quite suspicious of a certain character throughout the book and I’m so glad I wasn’t imagining it/ just being paranoid. I loved Wrath so much and i’m not surprised at all. Even though a lot was revealed throughout the book, I still feel as though i’m missing something, like we still haven’t been shown the bigger picture (not including the prophecy which we still haven’t had completely explained) and the suspense is killing me. I now get why everyone else was saying they can’t wait for the next book, especially since we don’t get to see what Emilia does at the end. As well as an explanation to what on earth was going on with Wrath. I seriously can’t wait for the next book and this was such a perfect read for october!!