Book Review

Title: Kingdom of the Wicked (Kingdom of the Wicked #1)

Author: Kerri Maniscalco

Genre: YA/Dark Fantasy/Romance

Rating: ***

Review: I didn’t know much about Kingdom of the Wicked going into it, but Kerri Maniscalco is one of my favourite authors, so I had really high expectations for this book given how much I adore the Stalking Jack the Ripper series. We are introduced to Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria at eight years old and we soon learn the twin are streghe or witches and their grandmother, Nonna Maria is trying to protect them from the Princes of Hell (Malvagi or The Wicked) and the Devil but we don’t understand why other than a brief comment about power stolen from the Devil himself. The twins are eager and curious often wanting to learn more about the Wicked but one night they bring their amulets together which they aren’t supposed to do, and the result effect gives Vittoria the power to see people’s auras, but her twin says nothing. This prologue wasn’t as interesting as the opening chapter to Stalking Jack the Ripper, but we do jump forward 10 years when the twins are 18. As young women, Vittoria is the more outgoing of the twins often disappearing for most of the day, while Emilia is content to work in the restaurant and dream of running her own one day. I wasn’t overly impressed with the opening section of Kingdom of the Wicked but I am eager to see what comes next as Nonna Maria is once again spouting things about the Princes of Hell coming for their souls but the twins don’t really believe in them anymore or they don’t appear too but they need did tell anyone about what happened the night Emilia held Vittoria’s amulet.

As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, the twins are just enjoying their day to day lives, apart from the fact that two witches have been murdered in less than a week. That night Emilia is heading to the monastery to retrieve the items she left behind on her last visit when she comes across a man, hovering over the body of a young woman which isn’t uncommon but all of Emilia’s senses are telling her that there is something wrong with this situation. When the man attempts to consume the blood of the girl she stops him and he flees into the night leaving only his dagger behind but when Emilia draws back the sheet, it is Vittoria lying there her amulet and heart missing and she knows this isn’t anything to do with humans but at the same time she refuses to believe it was anything or anyone else. Emilia does swear to get revenge on whoever or whatever was responsible for the death of her sister, even though Nonna Maria begs her not to as she will be inviting the darkness into her heart, but Emilia can’t let it go. Things are starting to get interesting, but Emilia wasn’t my favourite of the twins, so I am not sure how I feel about following her. For the next three weeks, Emilia mourns her sister until she remembers the space under the floorboards where Vittoria hid things and there, she finds her sister’s diary and pages from a grimoire. As the diary is bound with magic, she takes it to a friend who uses the dark arts and Emilia is informed that the grimoire pages are to summon a demon and only demon can break the enchantment on Vittoria’s diary. While Emilia thinks it over there is no doubt that she is going to summon a demon to help her, she is planning to summon a lesser demon as the only way to summon a higher demon like the Princes of Hell is to have an object of theirs in your possession at the time of the summoning. The summoning works but Emilia ends up summoning Wrath, one of the Princes of Hell as the dagger belonged to him and he is now bound to her until she releases him. Emilia believes that Wrath killed Vittoria, but he tells her that he was planning to meet Vittoria that night but had only been killed by the time he arrived and while Emilia doesn’t trust Wrath, she is stuck with him now.

As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, not much has happened aside from Vittoria’s death and Wrath’s summoning so I am hoping things will start picking up soon. Upon summoning Wrath, it is clear that these two aren’t going to get along if the vicious barbs are anything to go by but Wrath also knows that Emilia knows little to nothing about what she is and her value to the demon Princes so he offers to make a blood trade with her. This means he will help her track down Vittoria’s killer and in return she will align herself with House Wrath, but she declines, more than once. Despite learning that Wrath and Pride, were working together with Vittoria for her to marry Pride and break the curse binding him although he doesn’t mention what Vittoria asked for in return or the exact details of the bargain. However, Emilia soon meets Envy, meaning there are at least 3 of the 7 demon Princes in her realm and Envy tells her that she is a shadow witch something she has never heard of before and offers her a position with House Envy which she also declines, but Envy warns her to pick a House soon or the decision will be made for her. Things become even more complicated when Emilia learns of the Devil’s curse which means he can’t leave Hell unless there is a witch on the throne beside his wearing the Horn of Hades in order to keep the peace between the two worlds and the girls including Vittoria are given the option to marry Pride in this case, and if they refuse they have 24 hours to reconsider before they apparently die but neither the Princes or witches know what is killing them. However, among Vittoria’s things Emilia finds a gambling coin marked with a frog and the word Greed so she uses her tracking gift to find the gambling house and she just hopes that she isn’t following too closely in her sister’s step but she has less than a day now until the containment spell of Wrath wears off.

As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, I have to say that the murder mystery element and the spreading out of the clues was smoother in Stalking Jack the Ripper than it is here, but I do find the Princes of Hell intriguing and want to see more of them, also I want to know what a shadow witch is and why Vittoria and Emilia are so desired by the Princes of Hell. Emilia meets a 4th Prince of Hell in Greed and he explains to her that Vittoria willing gave him her amulet which was stolen by a creature that will guard it until it decides to leave its nest but while it is in the nest nothing from the underworld can enter there, meaning it is safe. Emilia immediately doubts that Vittoria gave him the amulet when she knew that their amulets were actually the Horn of Hades, the keys to the gates of Hell and needed for summoning the Devil himself and leaves refusing his offer to align with his House. That night an umbra demon steals her amulet and tries to slit her grandmother’s throat as she is explaining the truth to Emilia which prompts her to enter the creature’s lair in order to retrieve her sister’s amulet. She does this but gets bitten in the process and despite saying he would rescue her, Wrath does come to her aid and he is the only reason Emilia is still alive but he has had to bind them together, giving her some of his power to do it. In the aftermath, the pair come to a tentative alliance for the time being, but the pieces are starting to come together for Emilia, but she hasn’t worked out yet which of the Princes her sister was trying to summon. All the evidence points to Greed but there isn’t any evidence of him being in the room where Vittoria’s body was found and Wrath found no evidence in her blood that she had aligned herself with a House, so they have to start working a different angle if they are going to find out who killed Vittoria and why.

As we cross into the second half of the novel, Emilia has also seemingly figured out a way to kill the Princes of Hell, but I don’t think it is as simple as she is making out. It turns out it isn’t that simple but not even Emilia is willing to find out what it would take to kill Wrath or one of the other Princes. We see the relationship between Wrath and Emilia build slowly into a friendship of sorts as they work together to try and find out who is killing the potential brides of Pride before the offers can even be made to them. They manage to track down one of the messengers that Wrath has been using who has been selling the information to an unknown third party and they don’t know if the person is human or not. Together Emilia and Wrath make a formidable pair when interrogating people and honestly, they even frightened me a little bit, but it was nice to see Wrath give Emilia some approval which is a massive deal coming from someone who feeds of power and the thrill of battle. However, when they meet Arin, another messenger, who lives in Hell but is still human, he lets slip that the next potential bride is also someone Emilia knows so they race to try and save her only to find it is too late. Arin also lets slip that the bond anchoring Emilia and Wrath to one another is a marriage bond and that Wrath needs to complete it before the war breaks out in earnest but Emilia feels betrayed and hurt that Wrath didn’t tell her these things and she leaves, releasing him from the bond they had and vowing that she will find her sister’s killer on her own. At this point in the book I was also expecting a little bit more from the relationship between Wrath and Emilia other than the childish bickering and the longing stares, but I am working with it.

As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, I was waiting for something big to happen which Kerri seems to be good at doing towards the end of her books. We are getting to the part in the book now, where the pace and tension should be picking up to head towards the climax of the novel and I am eager to see what Kerri has in store for me (please say it’s a love confession – I’m a sucker for them especially in enemies to lovers). We do see some development in the relationship between Emilia and Wrath but not in the way I wanted, and Emilia seems to be constantly changing her mind on how she feels about Wrath which at times felt like it was giving me whiplash. However, she meets brother number 5 in Lust and has to deal with the aftermath of his influence and she loses two whole weeks to despair while other girls are dying. It turns out that Envy was the one working against Pride and Wrath and he wants the Horn on Hades for himself, so he takes Emilia’s family and friends hostage and gives her 24 hours to find the other amulet and turn them over to him or he will kill them all. During this conversation he also lets slip that Wrath has been lying to her and he only needs one more soul to break free from the confines of Hell without breaking the curse and while Emilia doesn’t want to believe this and wants to give in to her growing feelings for the demon she can’t bring herself to do it but she knows she is going to give Envy exactly what he wants because she can’t bear to lose anyone else who is dear to her.

As we cross into the final section of the novel, we finally see all the pieces of the puzzle come together as Emilia unravels not only her family history, but the history of her line of witches and does what needs to be done. While Kingdom of the Wicked as a good entry to a new series, it didn’t grip me as much as stalker Jack the Ripper did and I didn’t quite connect with the characters until the end of the novel. The romance that was also teased throughout this novel didn’t really come to anything but that does have the potential to change in future entries in this series. Overall, I felt Kingdom of the Wicked was good, not amazing, but good and I will be reading the next instalment just with see where things go from here but right now I am on the fence about whether I genuinely liked this book or whether it was just a little meh compared to the other books Kerri has written.

Well, well, well, this was not what I expected. I felt like this book was a little bipolar. It didn't quite know if it wanted to be historical fiction, magical realism, fantasy, or mystery. Emilia drove me bonkers sometimes, but Wrath made more than up for that. I think I will add him to my list of book boyfriends :-p
Overall, this was a fantastic book! Maybe I shouldn't have, but I did compare it to Stalking Jack the Ripper. I saw many similarities, but this book went down a different ally with all the fantasy elements. The plot itself was awesome and the writing as great as in Stalking Jack the Ripper. Overall, I did like the characters, even though Emilia made me roll my eyes many times with her lack of critical thinking. Without Wrath by her side, this case would have been a disaster!

Thank you, Netgalley, for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion!

Ugh, why did this book have to end the way it did? I need more of this story ASAP! Witches, Princes of Hell, death, a hint of romance, manipulation and deceit all in one book! I really enjoy the ride that Kerri Maniscalco takes the reader on and I can't wait for more! Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Kingdom of the Wicked is amazing. Absolutely stunning. I could gush forever about what I loved, but I think a short list of why Kingdom of the Wicked is going to be an epic series is best for keeping me focused.

1. The world building is great. It may have been a bit ambiguous as to exactly what time period this would be set in, but you got the impression that it was "the old world." I loved this dark Sicily as a setting.

2. The characters are also wonderful. Our MC is strong, heroic, quick thinking and witty, but she's also a bit reckless and short sighted. (Or is she??) Even with the elements of magic and supernatural on every page, she's relatable and believable. Her desire to find her sister's killer and unravel the mystery was easily felt by the reader. Then we have the princes. Boy oh boy. Wrath was delightful. Seriously. He was the perfect combination of cold fury, sarcasm, and something else. I cannot wait to unravel more of that mystery. The other princes we meet were interesting as well, even if they did not get a lot of page time. I also look forward to seeing how they develop more as the series continues.

3. Kerri Maniscalco is a great story teller. Her descriptions were so vivid that you found yourself sucked into the cobblestone streets or exploring damp monestaries right along with the characters. The book's pacing was also consistent and it helped develop a page turner. I won't say there were many surprises along the way, however. In fact, the major "surprises" were pretty easy to figure out early on but that didn't make the journey to the end any less enjoyable.

I cannot wait to continue this series.

I was intrigued. It was good. I need more.

I’m not sure what I expected, since I read this before I read her SJTR series. While it was quite enjoyable, and 4 star worthy, it felt lacking in something. I think I went in expecting romance, and there really wasn’t any. Not that I base all my books on that, but even in YA I expect a little more than what we got in this one.

I will definitely be reading the next book and I look forward to my reread of this one. Now that I know Kerri’s writing style, I’m willing to bet I’ll like this more the second time around.

And that ending‽‽ Dude. That’s all I’m saying about it.

I'm still holding out hope for more kissing in the next book.

This book was so good! I can't wait for the second. I loved Emilia, she was such a good character and I really want to know more about Wrath. The plot definitely got me invested and I liked the concept of the seven deadly sins as deamon. As someone who has read Stalking Jake the Ripper (Kerri Maniscalco's other serie), I enjoyed this book more.

emilia & her twin sister vittoria are from a family of witches. after discovering vittoria's dead body, emilia turns to dark magic to try to solve the murder.

witchcraft and demon princes chef's kiss! i liked the romance a lot more than i thought i would lol i got way invested. & the pacing was really good, i loved the quick chapters & there weren't any parts that felt dragged out or boring. i didn't expect the book to have that much of a cliffhanger at the end though so rip but overall this was really fun & i'm excited for the sequel

*thank you to netgalley & the publisher for an advanced copy of this book

Italian witchcraft, princes of Hell, ancient prophecies and curses, and an unlikely partnership brought about by some accidental magic. Kerri Maniscalco lends her talents to a delectable new series.

Emilia is from a long line of Sicilian streghe (witches) who hide their powers from the world. One night, her twin sister, Vittoria, goes missing and Emilia stumbles across her mutilated body. Devastated, Emilia turns to dark magic to track her sister's killer. Summoning Wrath, one of the seven Princes of Hell, she binds his will to hers, only the spell doesn't go quite as planned. It turns out that Emilia's quest for vengeance may tempt her down a darker path than she ever imagined.

I love Maniscalco's Stalking Jack the Ripper series so I knew that this new one would be good too, but I'm doubly loving the fact that it features streghe. Most folks may know tales of Italian witches such as Strega Nona from the children's books. I also grew up with La Befana, the Italian Christmas Witch, but other than that I don't know that streghe are well known. I'm delighted to see them get their own story.

I love Kerri Maniscalco's writing and I was highly anticipating this book and I was not let down. This was a brilliant read, I loved Emilia her character development was very strong and I enjoyed the setting too, it felt quite unique and while it wasn't heavy on world building it gave me enough to get a pretty good idea of the world it was set in.

I cannot believe the ending though! I need book 2 right now!

A solid 4.5 stars

I loved the atmosphere that Kerri set for this book. I also really enjoyed the weaving of her family history into it. Kerri has a knack for writing strong female characters and she didn't disappoint with Emilia. Like everyone I fell in love with Wrath. I look forward to seeing what's next for him and Emilia. One of my favorite characters was Nonna, she just added that little bit. The history she injected into the story was also a highlight.

When one twin dies, what lengths will the other go to find out who killed her, even if it means risking her own? I liked how this included the fantasy aspect into the storyline. Witches, magic, Wicked princes named after the 7 deadly sins. Great start to a new series (loved the Jack the Ripper series).

Huge thank you to Netgalley for providing the arc in exchange for an honest review.

"One didn't steal from the devil and go unpunished."

Kerri Maniscalco does an absolutely amazing job of setting the story. She describes the food in such exquisite detail that I’ll be craving authentic Italian food for weeks. She also describes the buildings, cobblestone streets, vendors, and scents in a way that makes you feel as if you were there with the characters. But it never feels like the story is bogged down with information, if anything her writing left me craving more. Which might be this author’s specialty because I was left wanting more a l o t. I wanted more information, I wanted more interactions between Wrath and Emilia, and I wanted to meet more of these capricious demons. More.

“One day you’ll call me Death. For now, Wrath will do.”

When Emilia and Wrath meet it’s a clash of wills. I loved the banter (aka murderous dialogue) between them. I have a feeling Wrath is softer than he portrays but we’ll have to wait and see what happens in book two, which can’t come soon enough.

“Enjoying what you see, witch?”
“Only if I had a death wish.”
“Do you?”
“Not even a little bit.”

I highly recommend this book if your looking for a ya enemies to not lovers (yet? Maybe? Who knows?) type of book. It’s a quick but captivating read.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I have no words, just... wow.

When I first heard about Kingdom of the Wicked I never imagined it would be about the Princes of Hell or the seven deadly sins. I never even knew that I needed that sort of book in my life until it came in the form of a brand new Kerri Maniscalco duology. Honestly, this book came at the most perfect time in my life with my binge-reading of lots of fantasy and mythology. In the midst of all that I have recently read, this book did not disappoint me at all.

Kingdom of the Wicked follows Emilia, a coveted witch who one day discovers her sister's mutilated corpse. Vowing to discover her sister's murderer no matter the cost or dark magic used, Emilia goes on a quest to uncover Vittoria's final moments and the grim secrets she has been hiding from her. Along the way, she meets Wrath, a Wicked and one of the seven princes of Hell who claims to be on her side. As they uncover more about Vittoria, the more Emilia realises that nothing is as it seems.

I really think a lot of fantasy fans will enjoy this book. I think readers who in particular read Maniscalco's debut series, Stalking Jack the Ripper would enjoy this one. I find that with her books, she tends to focus on subjects that always bring about a sense of intrigue, it's kind of her superpower. This book from start to finish was a goodie with a strong plot and equally strong characters and romance.

Although tipping on the stereotypical side of things, Wrath was a very complex character not in terms of his characterisation per say but rather in the way that as a reader, you never knew whether or not to trust him. He was a very unreliable character because every time you believed he earned trust and lots of respect, a certain situation would arise that would make you believe the contrary. That being said, he did perpetuate the stereotypical brooding bad boy cliche. However, it was forgiven considering I genuinely enjoyed the scenes he popped up in and his clever banter with Emilia. Emilia was also very complex and I liked seeing her develop over the course of the novel. She seemed to be very cautious to begin with but as the book continued, she took so many risks and became a badass main character.

My only real criticism was with the ending. And what an ending it was! I literally went back and had a look to see if I missed out on anything. It was so good but at the same time it felt kind of rushed? It felt like a million things were happening at once that I needed to take a minute for everything to sink in. Even now as I contemplate, I'm still in the process of processing and really wish I had a sequel just sitting there already on my bookshelf so I could see just how much Emilia would enact her ultimate revenge and manipulation through Hell.

ACTUAL RATING: 4.3 STARS

Kingdom of the Wicked is the first book by Kerri Maniscalco that I’ve read, and I’m currently kicking myself for not discovering her beautiful work sooner. Her prose is stunning, loaded with vivid descriptions and imagery that make it so easy for the story to come to life in the reader’s mind. Her descriptions of delicious foods and gorgeous clothing were amazing. I can’t wait to see artist depictions of the characters in this book. Luckily, they’ll have a lot of source material to base their creations on! (I am 100% hoping that Faecrate eventually makes Emilia and Wrath plushies – and maybe the other princes of Hell as well.)

This book is perfect for the month of October. I’m very lucky that I got to read the ARC early, but it will officially release in bookstores in late October, just in time for a perfect Halloween read, especially considering that a lot of people will be staying home for the spooky holiday this year. I personally didn’t find it to be gory, but people who are a bit more squeamish than me might find a few scenes to be difficult to read.

For a book touted as having “an intoxicating romance” it really wasn’t there for me. There’s attraction, banter, and clearly some sort of connection between Wrath and Emilia, but we don’t really get much romance, which was disappointing. I wasn’t expecting anything too steamy, but we barely got anything! Hopefully the next books will explore this potential relationship more.

My biggest complaint (and the reason why this book, as gripping and fantastic as it was, only gets 4.5 stars in my eyes) is the ending. I felt like it was way too rushed, and left me confused with all of the loose ends. I obviously won’t spoil things, but a lot of things were introduced and revealed in the final chapters of the book without being resolved. The book ends on a fairly abrupt cliffhanger ending. I wish that there had been more falling action so that I could process everything that went on. Even hours after finishing it, I’m still trying to process things.

All-in-all, I really enjoyed this book, and I’m glad that I have a few special editions pre-ordered from various places! It’s definitely a new favorite, and I’m hoping to collect as much merch inspired by the series as I can. (I’ve already started making my own!) I’m hoping that a lot of my questions and confusion will be answered in the next book, or that my fellow readers will be able to clear things up for me once it releases later this month.

4.5 star read!

I have been in a fantasy slump for a while. But i read a lot about this book and wanted to give it a try and whole fuck did it pull me out off my slump. This book was everything i never know i needed. It was a goos story with an amazing plot and i can't wait to read more. I fell so in love with Emilia. When she started to investigate the murders i had a suspition about who i was. And turns out i was right. Wow. I really want to read what Emilia gets up to next!

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco is absolutely amazing. Anything Maniscalco writes you can send it my way. She is such a great writer. I love her work so much. In Kingdom of the Wicked, we have two sisters who are witches that secretly live among humans. I fell in love with Emilia right away. I really enjoyed her character. When Emilia finds her sisters body, she doesn't now what to do. She soon decides that she is going to find out what happened. I found Emilia's journey to be great and I really loved her meeting with Wrath. Wrath and Emilia's interactions were the best. I loved the snarkiness between the two. This was a great enemies to lovers story and I am so excited to get so much more of this world.

I was intrigued. It was good. I need more.

I’m not sure what I expected, since I read this before I read her SJTR series. While it was quite enjoyable, and 4 star worthy, it felt lacking in something. I think I went in expecting romance, and there really wasn’t any. Not that I base all my books on that, but even in YA I expect a little more than what we got in this one.

I will definitely be reading the next book and I look forward to my reread of this one. Now that I know Kerri’s writing style, I’m willing to bet I’ll like this more the second time around.

And that ending‽‽ Dude. That’s all I’m saying about it.

I'm still holding out hope for more kissing in the next book.

I requested this book because I loved, loved, loved Stalking Jack the Ripper, and I was excited for more from Kerri Maniscalco. However, I just really...thought it fell flat next to Stalking. I found the main character to be a bit too flat, and the plot seemed to be primarily a vehicle for portraying the paranormal elements rather than a compelling force to drive me through the novel. With the Stalking series, I eagerly devoured all 4 of the books. With this one, I think I'll be content to just read the first and move on.

I went into this book expecting some fun witchy magic and dark spells. Instead what I got was half a story where not a lot happened. Sure, the books kicks off with a gruesome murder and there’s some nice sexual tension going on when our heroine summons a sexy demon to help her, but I felt that the story just didn’t have much pace. There are parts when days or weeks passed with nothing happening, and this lack of urgency to solve her sister’s murder and find out what is going on down in hell was just frustrating. I was terribly confused by all the demons and their Houses and at times honestly couldn’t figure out what was going on.
I thought the MC was poorly sketched and could have done with some more character exploration so the reader could actually root for her. I definitely wanted more sizzle with the demon prince Wrath as he was about the only interesting thing about the story, and yet we discover next to nothing about him.
I suspect this is because the entire novel was simply a set-up for the sequel or series. I was very annoyed by the ending as it answered no questions and resolved nothing.

This book truly felt like what it was, the beginning of a series. Characters were half baked, but there is extreme potential for the future and I plan to keep reading.