Thank you to JIMMY Patterson Books for sending me an ARC via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
5/5 stars.
I loved everything about this book. I loved the plot, the characters, the magic, the descriptions of food, and the atmosphere that hung over it all. It was dark and creepy, but it also had moments of light.
Emilia is such a strong character. I liked how the author gave us insight into her grieving process because it made it more realistic. Her emotions bouncing around, and the way that she would be feeling happy and then she would feel guilty because she didn’t think she should be happy were heartbreaking moments. I also loved Emilia’s relationship with Wrath (the banter!) and the way that it evolved.
Wrath is one of those characters that I absolutely love. From the first moment he was introduced, I knew he’d be one of my favourite characters of the book, and I was not wrong. Everything about him is exactly what I love in my dark not-hero characters. I liked seeing the different sides to his character throughout the story, and I’m eagerly awaiting the next book so that I can get more of Wrath.
The plot moved really well in this book. I thought the pacing was realistic and it kept everything moving forward at a good pace. The ending felt like it picked up because things started to happen and I couldn’t put the book down.
Overall, if you like dark mystery books with witches and demons, some wonderful banter with an enemies-to-lovers tension behind it, and a strong female character who is grieving and trying to solve a mystery at the same time, I’d recommend checking this one out.

Check out my review on my bookstagram page (alli_the_bookaholic13) next week! (Oct 18-24)

OH MY GOD



*Thank you to the author and NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

<b>4.5 stars</b>

Holy COW

I <b>loved</b> this

I mean it sounded good, but it seems to be a regular occurrence whereby I am thoroughly <b>SEDUCED</b> by a books blurb, only to then be left <b>REELING</b> in disappointment

but oh baby this book did NOT disappoint

I have yet to read Maniscalco's previous series, Stalking Jack the Ripper, which is on my tbr but I may just have to boost up to the top of my list because this.was.freaking.GOOD YALL.

I went into this with zero expectations and was left totally and pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. ALSO it was so much sexier and darker than I anticipated and I cannot WAIT for the sequel. It has been a long time since I've read the first book in a series that left me dying to get the next one which isn't even out yet. This is gonna be a loooong wait. What am I supposed to do now?

I loved this book. It took be like a day to read this book. It was that great. There is murder mystery and magic with demons so it was very interesting reading he story. Mostly the book follows Emilia who is the not the adventures twin, but her world is turn upside down when her twin is killed by something supernatural, so to find who murdered here sister se summons a demon or one of the prince of hell who has his own agenda for helping her. The end of the story was so good, that I can’t wait what will happens in next books, the story and the characters are very interesting. This book is a great read and one of my favourites of the year.

This was a perfectly creepy October read. Having read the author’s Stalking Jack the Ripper series, I knew I was in for a treat, but this story takes it to a new level. Witches, curses, demons and princes of hell - it all makes our old-school vampire love stories look like child’s play. This is the first book in a new series, so naturally our heroine doesn’t know who to trust or if she’s making the best choices, but she’s kick ass and I can’t wait to follow her on her journey.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

From the moment I saw the cover for A Kingdom So Wicked I knew it was something I needed to read. I was already a huge fan of the authors but with the alluring cover and amazing description, I knew it would be the perfect read for October and it's so gratifying to know, I was 100% right!

This is filled with all the good stuff. Curses, demons, angels, mystery, a tiny bit of romance, family bonds, magic and of course all things supernatural.

Truly a delightfully dark read perfect for this time of year, for fan's of the genre, fans of the authors and will surly make new readers for the author, instant fans as well.

This was the perfect October read. It has witches, demons, curses and so much more.

I really enjoyed Emilia and loved seeing her grow into her power and confidence.

I like that she is not perfect and makes mistakes and has moments of weakness, but always dusts of her dress and gets back up.

Wrath, well. He was a bit hard to judge, he seemed nice enough but we really don’t know much if him, other some of the thigs he does and we see from her eyes. But we really don’t know what he is up to and what he really does. But I enjoyed him for the most part.

I actually enjoyed all the princes of Hell, or least the ones we have met. Yes, they are not nice but hey, they are princes of Hell after all.

I also like the “who done it?” murder aspect gave it a bit more of a mystery feeling.

We get a little of everything in this book, mystery, romance, action and some twists and turn.

Some of the things I saw coming early on, but I still super enjoyed and it had my heart racing a few times.

The ending? I didn’t see that coming, well at least not that way but I’m super excited for the next book in the series and this series in general.

I rate it 4 ★ as some parts were a bit on the slower site in the beginning.

"Why do villains always wear black?"
"Better to hide the blood with, witch."

When Emilia's twin is murdered, she goes down the path of darkness to find her vengeance.

Really, that's the whole book. Some witty banter between enemies to lovers...just so.

Bottom line? The story is good. It's unpredictable in plot, though the enemies to lovers thing is glaringly obvious from the beginning. It truly is difficult for a person like me to NOT be able to predict exactly what will happen next. But I just did not buy the dynamic between Emilia and Wrath. I can’t put my finger on it, but their dialogue doesn’t always make sense. She beats him too easily in conversation and it seems too contrived. Like the author is desperately trying to sell the enemies to lovers trope. And she almost does...almost. Just not quite.

It occurred to me while reading this that just once I’d like to read about a witch human male that meets a badass female who knows SHE is the most lethal predator in the room. Just once. Maybe I’ll write that book. One day. But I digress.

I really think the book just needed a better edit. There seem to be scenes that have either been eviscerated, or were never properly hashed out. Things that happen so quick I had to go back and reread to make sure I didn’t miss something because it happened without enough description. Every action scene lacks enough detail to make me invested in it, to be captivated by it. If anyone ever wants me to edit a book, please! I will! It destroys me to see such potential that just doesn't quite make par.

And in the end it was terribly unsatisfactory. This book breaks my cardinal rule of a series book. I don’t mind ending on a cliffhanger, but no part of this story is complete. This book is short because it is not it’s own story. It cannot stand alone and should not be sold alone. Bleh.

3/5, massively overhyped and underedited. But with enormous potential. Someone please send me the next one to edit and not to review!!!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC! Wow, this ending! I have to read the next book as soon as possible! This is the perfect Halloween read. Maniscalco spins a tale about witches, demons (sexy demons!), even Vampires and werewolves. Join Emilia as she searches for her sister's murderer and finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into dark magic and her families secrets. This was a thrilling ride and, like I said, I can't wait for the next book!

Firstly let me just say thank you to Netgalley and James Patterson Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I requested a copy never believing I'd actually be granted access and I squealed like a pig when I received the email.

I'm a huge fan of the author's Stalking Jack the Ripper series so when I read the description of this book earlier this year it quickly shot to the top of my anticipated reads list.

Emilia and Vittoria are twin witches living and working with their family in historic Italy. They do their best to keep their witchy ancestry hidden from the locals.

Emilia visits the local church one night to retrieve a forgotten item when she finds her sister brutally murdered with a prince of hell standing over her sister's body. This sends her on a journey of forbidden dark magic.

The story was beautifully written. I was sucked in from the very first page to the very last. It's dark, it's wicked and it's even a little bit romantic. It's exactly what I look for in October.

The main characters were well developed and relatable. That being said, the supporting characters barely did just that, support. I would have enjoyed more interaction between Emilia and her family. How did her family account for her going from always around and very involved to frequently missing? Repercussions of her actions have an affect on members of her family and it's mentioned in passing.

I cannot wait to see where this story goes after that ending!

Also maybe don't read this book on an empty stomach? The descriptions of food are numerous and detailed.

Very enjoyable story with an atmosphere that kept me drawn in. I'm almost always a sucker for human/non-human pairings, so the tension between Wrath and Emilia was great.

There were a few times the wrong name, a misspelled word, or a confusing passage made me pause and reread a few times, but I expect/hope those errors will be corrected in the final copies. I did call a couple of the "big reveals" early on, so the story is a bit predictable in some ways. I also had a hard time trying to figure out when this story is set; there's mention of the Inquisition, but not much in terms of how recent/long ago it was in relation to events.

Overall, I did very much like the story. There are things I wish had had more prominence, especially when they're bombshells to Emilia as well as us readers, but given how this installment ended they'll hopefully be explored more in the next book.

Also, that dress scene was lifted straight out of Legend and we all know it 😂

Hot demon princes, tattoo magic, underworlds, witches in Italy, and a high stakes murder mystery. Need I say more?

Concept: ★★★★★
Characters: Besides the main character being more dumb than fully believable? ★★★★
Pacing: ★★★ 1/2
Enjoyment: ★★★★★

Kingdom of the Wicked comes out on October 27, 2020!

Emilia di Carlo grew up with her twin, Vittoria, on tales of witches and demons. Their grandmother raised them to learn about their witch bloodline and magical abilities and taught them to fear the devil and his seven Wicked princes—because there's nothing more dangerous to a witch and her kind than a demon. And there are no demons more powerful and deadly than the Wicked.

Emilia takes—what she thinks as metaphorical—cautions to heart, and she thinks her twin does too.

But then Vittoria is found brutally murdered. Turns out there have been a string of young female witch killings throughout Italy, and Vittoria is the latest victim. As Emilia reels from the loss of her other half, she starts to realize that maybe Vittoria didn't take their grandmother's warnings as seriously as she did—and maybe those "stories" of the Wicked demon princes have more than a grain of truth in them.

With vengeance and blind need for justice in her heart, Emilia decides to follow in the steps of her sister and deal with the devil in order to find out the truth.

But Emilia has never summoned a demon before. To put it bluntly, her summoning doesn't go exactly as planned. Instead of a random, everyday demon from Hell...Emilia finds herself face to face with her nightmares: it's one of the Wicked demons himself, Wrath. In all his gold-and-smoke tattooed glory.

And she may or may not have bound them together more permanently than she intended. Wrath is, to say the least, pissed.

Now bound together, Emilia and Wrath are about to discover the truth behind Vittoria's murder and get WAY more than either of them bargained for.

It's time to wreak havoc on the Kingdom of the Wicked.

My thoughts:
So, first off, WOW. As someone who's read and enjoyed this author's first (completely unrelated) series, I thought this book showed a massive leap in writing maturity and plot complexity. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Stalking Jack the Ripper series for its drama, medical stuff, and fun—but Kingdom of the Wicked is something else. It's clear that Maniscalco is honing her craft and exploring new storytelling in this, and I LIKE it.

The strengths: worldbuilding, concepts, push-pull relationship between Wrath and Emilia, unique magic system and take on the "underworld" trope, and the larger plot hinted at for future books to come.

The weaknesses: There's really only one major flaw from my perspective, and that's Emilia herself. This book fell into the trap of making the main character too dumb to be believed for the first half of the book in order to allow for the plot unfold in a very particular series of events—and it's too on the nose. Emilia makes extremely illogical, dumb, and borderline childish decisions for the sake of plot development, and that stung a bit to me as a reader. With such a beautiful concept, world, and plot, why did we need Emilia to stumble about like a bull in a china shop? She does get much better in the second half—so that makes me think this issue will be fixed in the second book—but still.

Overall, amazing book and one of my all-time favorites of the year. Definitely check this one out!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Huge thank you to JIMMY Patterson Books and Negalley for providing this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Kingdom of the Wicked is my first venture into Kerri Maniscalo’s writing. I have always been super intrigued by her Stalking Jack the Ripper series, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. Gotta love that never ending TBR! Now that I’ve read Kingdom of the Wicked I am definitely hooked on Kerri’s writing.

Kingdom of the Wicked tells the story of Emilia and Vittoria di Carlo, twin witches who live nineteenth century Sicily. The twins spend their days hiding in plain sight and cooking at the family restaurant . . . until Vittoria is brutally murdered. Emilia sets off on a journey full of dark magic and ends up teaming up with Wrath, one of the Wicked princes of Hell.

Kingdom of the Wicked is a solid 3.5 star read for me. It was an exciting story full of action, mystery, and magic. There are parts I loved and parts that I thought were just ok.

My favorite part of Kingdom of the Wicked is the setting. It is simply stunning. Seriously go google pictures of Palermo, Italy and your jaw will drop. Maniscalco did an excellent job with her descriptions and truly painting a picture of the scenery. I have been to Italy, but just Rome and up from there. This story made me want to visit Sicily and Southern Italy. Simply stunning!!

This is also true for the food! My mouth was literally watering with all of the amazing food descriptions. Everything sounded so delicious! I love how Maniscalco seamlessly wove in food and cooking to the story. I feel like I really understand how much cooking is a part of Emilia’s life!

One super random thing that I loved about Kingdom of the Wicked is the mention of the card game Scopa. My mom is 100% Italian so all of our family gatherings are VERY Italian. Members of my family have been playing Scopa at every single gathering since I can remember. I never actually learned to play, but I totally associate Scopa with my family. It was so fun for me to see the game mentioned!

Another thing that I really loved about Kingdom of the Wicked is the Wicked! I am fascinated by the Princes of Hell!!! I was hooked from the second Emilia meets Wrath. He is such a great “enemies to lovers” trope . . . dark, mysterious, and a bit evil! My only complaint is that I want more of him. I feel like we got very minimal actual interaction between Wrath and Emilia. I want more!!! I have a feeling that the sequel will have lots more! And the other demon princes were so sinister! They make great villains!!

And now for the not so great things . . . my primary complaint about Kingdom of the Wicked is the pacing. Everything happened very quickly and felt super rushed. To me, it feels like not a whole lot actually happened in this book. This goes along with wanting more of Wrath and Emilia interactions. I just wanted more, but everything seemed rushed. My other issue was that the plot was fairly predictable. I guessed who the murderer was almost immediately and I also could see Emilia’s journey coming from miles away. That being said, I still really enjoyed the plot. It was exciting, mysterious, and definitely captivating! This was a super fast read and I really enjoyed it!

Kingdom of the Wicked ends on a pretty big cliffhanger. I’m keeping this review spoiler free so all I’ll say is that I am excited to see what Emilia has up her sleeve in the next book! I’m definitely excited to explore more of the Kingdom of the Wicked.

KINGDOM OF THE WICKED WILL BE RELEASED OCTOBER 27TH BY JIMMY PATTERSON BOOKS!

Absolutely loved this book. It’s different her her previous series, a little more grown up and darker. I can’t wait to read the rest of this series.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an advanced reader's copy for review.

Kingdom of the Wicked was phenomenal. The prose was beautiful, the characters shined, and the magic felt as real as if it were happening right in front of me. The beginning set up the relationship between twin sisters Emilia and Vittoria and showed the readers how close they were. I felt as though I were experiencing loss right along with Emilia when she discovers her twin sister's body in a monastery. Her grief sends her on a quest for vengeance, which is ultimately how she finds herself summoning a demon, aka a Prince of Hell. Known as the Wicked, these seven brothers are the embodiment of sin. What she finds in her search for her sister's murderer is much more and she is quickly thrown deeper into the world of the Wicked, where her life and the lives of her family are soon put at risk. I would've devoured this book, but the middle portion dragged on, though I could not put my finger on exactly why. However, the beginning and ending had me gripped in the novel's talons and I could not pry myself away for anything. This is the perfect read for Halloween, and readers who enjoy the macabre, supernatural, witches, and beautiful writing will want to look no further because this book is sure to be a hit. Fans of young adult and the supernatural will devour Kingdom of the Wicked when it hits store shelves on October 27th.

How do I talk about this book without giving away spoilers? Kingdom of the Wicked is the quintessential read for autumn. It’s daring. It’s spooky. It’s dark and twisted. Kerri Maniscalco has created a masterpiece. The world comes to life on the page. It sinks it’s claws into you. Emilia and Wrath are two extraordinary characters who dance around each other with biting lines. This book stays with you long after you finished the last sentence. It leaves you hungering for the next installment.

I was excited for Kingdom of the Wicked once I learned about Kerri Maniscalco writing it. I enjoyed the Stalking Jack the Ripper series, so I was happy to learn she had a new book coming out. Kingdom of the Wicked is a murder mystery with drops of fantasy, witchcraft, and magic. The synopsis intrigued me. I love murder mysteries and I love YA fantasy so this seemed like the perfect read to start October off with.

Kerri Maniscalco writes a dark story following the main character Emilia as she searches for her twin’s murderer. KOTW started off slow for my taste, though it was easy to read, as with all of Maniscalco’s other books. I loved the setting, Sicily, Italy. The descriptions are wonderfully written, instantaneously transporting you across the seas. Even the mention and descriptions of the food were enough to make my mouth water. I was unsure of the time period that the story takes place. I did receive an unedited version of this book, so maybe the time period is explained in the final edit. After a few pages, I realized it must be set somewhere in the 1800s. The fantasy aspect of the story is dark and fascinating. But I wanted to know more about the witchcraft, the history of the witches, and the demonology that is part of the plot. There’s just enough explanation about old rituals and curses that help us along with what’s happening. But I think I needed more background to fully understand everything that was occurring. Then again, maybe this was done on purpose to leave more room in the next book.

There are two main characters in KOTW: Emilia and Wrath. At first, I found Emilia to be a typical timid teen. But once her sister Vittoria is murdered, she turns into someone set on vengeance. She decides to go above and beyond to find and put a stop to this murderer who not only killed Vittoria but is also killing other witches around town. When Emilia began to play detective, that’s when she started to annoy me. She was driven but made rash decisions which led to her biting off more than she could chew. Honestly, I would’ve liked to see more of her witch characteristics. And I would’ve liked for her to be smarter in her choices.

I liked Wrath more. I wish there was more of him throughout the book. He was likable and had great banter with Emilia. His arrogance was something to get used to, but then again, he is one of the seven princes of Hell so I guess his attitude was to be expected.

There was a lack of character development within both characters. I didn’t buy into the enemies-to-lovers trope between Wrath and Emilia; it was underwhelming. They spent so much time fighting and arguing, it was hard to see their underlying feelings for each other. It was hard to picture a romance brewing between them. I hope this is rectified in book two; I would like to see a budding relationship between the two of them.

I felt like not much happened plot-wise. There are so many questions needing to be answered. The answers we get just lead to more questions. Everything that was revealed was only partially revealed, maybe to come to full circle in the next installments. But it’s enough to keep a reader interested.

Overall, Kingdom of the Wicked was fine; I just wanted more. It’s a solid story that just needed a little more development. I’m still curious to see what may happen next. So I’ll be keeping a lookout for part two.

Wow Kerri has done it again! This was mysterious, beautiful, full of intrigue and dynamic characters. Its dark like her other series but with a. Much more supernatural presence. She has a way with storytelling that immerses you so deeply, I read this in one setting and can't wait to get a hardcopy. Thankyou so much to Netgalley for allowing me an ARC. Absolutely incredible!

What a fun, exciting read this was!
I didn't know what to expect when I started this book, but it blew me away completely. The writing was sharp and easy to get into and I couldn't stop reading until I finished the the whole story. Not just because of the writing, but because of the fast-paced, exciting storytelling, the compelling characters and the intriguing world they live in.

From the very first page on I was enthralled by the creativity with which Maniscalco paints her picture. I loved the Italian setting, I loved the cultural details. I loved her world full of demons and witches and werewolves and vampires, of myths come to life. The protagonist Emilia is endearing, sympathetic and relatable, and most of all she's not perfect. She is brave, but also scared. She is full of love and also full of hate. She feels raw emotions that are not always of the good, soft kind - her anger can be felt by the reader, the vengeance in her heart spills over the pages of the book. And all these oh so ugly feelings make sense, make her an actual person. I adore her and cannot wait to see where her story takes her. Wrath is just as fascinating. In many ways he is exactly how one imagines a demonic prince that serves as a love interest too, but he still manages to surprise, to challenge, to make the reader wonder. I cannot say where his true loyalties lie and who he really is, and that makes me want to read on, find out more. The romance between them is subtle and deliciously slow burn. It could go either way at this point and the ambiguity is thrilling. The side characters are more or less interesting as well, with Nonna being a special mention that I hope gets fleshed out even more in the next book.

The twists of the story did not always surprise me, and I don't necessarily like when a book ends in a cliffhanger of such proportions. The forced lack of closure would, in my opinion, simply not be needed to convince the reader to pick up the next book because the world, the characters and the story are compelling enough.

reviews on several websites will be added on publication day.

Well about 57 percent of the way in i kind of lost momentum the details seemed to be extremely repetitive and i just couldnt get over how simple things happening needed to be repeated more than once. I ultimately did not finish but i wanted to love it so bad, It seemed more of a middle school read and maybe would reverberate better with a younger reader.

Emilia and Vittoria are witches that live secretly among humans. Vittoria ends up being murdered and found by Emilia. Emilia then summons wrath a prince from hell to help her find who murdered her sister and why Other Demon princes are then summoned and Emilia meets them to try and figure out why her sister was murdered.

This book was okay. At the beginning, I thought it had a lot of potential, but has I passed the 1/3 mark, I started to get a bit bored.

Overall, this is a book I'm pretty conflicted about. I didn't particularly care for the characters or the romance and I found the plot to be lacking. There were parts where it was a struggle to get through the book and I wasn't intrigued by the story.

This book definitely has some positives, though. I think the strongest part of the story would be the incredible atmosphere that the author has created. As someone with Italian family, I found the setting to be very interesting. I also really liked the witchy elements of the story, which were my favourite part.

As much as this book disappointed me, I do think that I read it at the right time and that this is the perfect book to read in October. It's not really spooky, but it's definitely dark. While I don't think this book is necessarily for me and I doubt I'll buy a finished copy, I think that there are a lot of people who will absolutely love it.