Review | Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco (Kingdom of the Wicked #1) ★★★★

“One will crave your blood. One will capture your heart. One will steal your soul. And one will take your life.”

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I can’t stop thinking about Kingdom of the Wicked it’s an atmospheric read with great characters

I received this e-book from NetGalley. This does not affect my review or opinion. All thoughts are my own and I’m being 100 percent honest. Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me this book for reviewing purposes.

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I finished Kingdom of the Wicked two days ago and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. The atmosphere in this book was amazing. I loved the characters and the whole Sicilian culture. I am Sicilian so it was really fun to read about all the typical Italian elements that Maniscalco writes about in this book. The ending did feel a bit rushed and was quite predicable.

Synopsis
Two sisters.

One brutal murder.

A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself…

And an intoxicating romance.

Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe – witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family’s renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin…desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister’s killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden.

Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia’s side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women’s murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems…

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I adore this cover! It’s absolutely gorgeous. I can’t get over it definitely 10/10.

The plot was fun. The mystery could’ve been a bit more mysterious. Some things were predictable for example who the killer is and how some things ended. Now, I actually didn’t know Vittoria… was going to be murdered. It’s written in the synopsis I KNOW. But I often don’t read blurb before starting a book? I like to be surprised. Anyways, I did love Emilia’s dedication to avenge her sister. I loved the fact that she would do everything and anything to find her sister’s murderer. She even aligns herself with Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell even though she has heard all the stories about the princes and how she should never trust them.

I loved the characters in Kingdom of the Wicked so much. I loved everything about Emilia and Wrath. They were very fun to follow. They’re a great team. Wrath is an interesting character. He is very mysterious. All the characters were well-written and had depth to them. I do feel like Emilia didn’t have the time to fully grieve. She was mostly focused on the quest to find her sister’s killer. I can see how that is her way of grieving her sister, by getting revenge, but I would’ve liked to see more vulnerable moments. There were some moments where Emilia had a hard time but I felt like Maniscalco went over them fairly quickly. I wanted to really feel her grievance but didn’t.

I also loved Nonna Maria, the grandmother. She’s very superstitious and I can’t wait to see what role she’s playing in the second book. I do feel like she expected a lot of Emilia and Vittoria without being completely honest with them and keeping them in the dark.

“Grief carved me in half. And fury honed the pieces into a weapon.”

The pacing was good. I basically read the book in one day. I could not put Kingdom of the Wicked down. I wanted to keep reading. Of course now I have to wait more than a year before the second book comes out which is very sad. The only thing I disliked was the ending. All the important things and revelations happened in the last 20 pages of the book. This felt very rushed and I didn’t have time to wrap my mind around it.

The romance was good. It’s lovers to enemies, a trope I enjoy. The romance is quite predictable, you know who the love interest is going to be from the start. However, that didn’t make it less enjoyable or boring at all. I fell in love with the ship. It reminded me of the kind of ships we had a couple of years ago. I don’t know how to explain but yeah.

The atmosphere in Kingdom of the Wicked holy shit!!! This was by far my favorite element. It’s definitely a nice spooky read. The worldbuilding was good. I could picture everything. Maniscalco doesn’t go into far into detail but provides enough information for me to picture the scenes. I also really enjoyed the magic. I wanted more of the magic! Hopefully in the next part Emilia will unlock her true potential as a witch.

I really enjoyed the authors writing style. This is the first book I read from Kerri Maniscalco (yes yes I know but Stalking Jack The Ripper is on my tbr) so I didn’t know what to expect. However, I did feel like her writing style is very modern? At one moment I expected Emilia to take out her phone and text her sister. This bothered me a tiny bit in the beginning but after the first few pages I didn’t think about it again.

Would I recommend it?
Yes! If you liked The Cruel Prince this book is definitely for you.

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Trigger warnings
Death, blood, death of a loved one, murder, grief
Representation
Sicilian culture??? idk
Genre
Young adult, fantasy, paranormal, witches
Publication date
October 27, 2020
Publisher
Hodder & Stoughton
About the author
Kerri Maniscalco grew up in a semi-haunted house outside NYC where her fascination with gothic settings began. In her spare time she reads everything she can get her hands on, cooks all kinds of food with her family and friends, and drinks entirely too much tea while discussing life’s finer points with her cats.

She is the #1 NYT and USA Today bestselling author of the Stalking Jack the Ripper series and the forthcoming Kingdom of the Wicked.

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Have you read any of Kerri Maniscalco’s books? Let me know in the comments!