I read this already once before and loved it then too. The re-read was just as enjoyable, especially this time as an audio.

Emilia's family are witches. They live and work in Italy, at a family run restaurant. Emilia loves to spend her time cooking with her family, coming up with new recipes and in her spare time, reading romance novels. But Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria have always been warned to keep their cornicellos on them at all times. But they must never be brought together. Other than one time when they were ten, Emilia and her sister listened to their Nonna, and never removed them from their person, or brought them together. But things are rapidly changing, and when Vittoria is found with her heart ripped out of her chest, Emilia will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of her sister's murder, even if that means summoning a demon to help her. What she doesn't count for is accidentally summoning a Prince of demons, instead of a lowly regular one. Not fully understanding the gravity of what shes done, Emilia embarks on a quest to get the answers she needs to make sense of this murder. She receives instead, more questions than answers, and further unravels a curse (or prophecy?) that she was unaware of at the start. Can she trust one of the seven Princes of Hell, to help her find what she is looking for?

I loved both Emilia and Wrath (especially Wrath). The setting was delicious and rich, and though the lore and ultimately the mystery/plot became a little muddled and confusing, I was still all in on this because their (Emilia and Wrath's) dynamic was addicting. I remember upon first read, I immediately bought the next two books before finishing this one, because I knew I wanted to binge the whole thing. That didn't happen at the time, though it is happening now. The audio, though one reader, is well produced with little added music occasionally, and the reader using difference voices for each of the characters. I liked this a lot, and can see myself re-reading this a few times.

The writing in this novel was serviceable at time, but lacked any real beauty. At times, the writing felt robotic: the rhythm of the sentences were unvaried, the word choices odd and chunky, and the emotion lacking from vital moments. It’s a shame the writing was so poor, because elements of the story were definitely compelling but lacked execution.

I wanted to like the characters more than I actually did. Emilia had a very cool conception, but I wanted more depth with her emotions. While her personality itself was interesting, it wasn’t brought to life as well as I would have wanted on the page. I thought there were a couple of great character moments between Emilia and Wrath, yet I wish so deeply there could have been more. I also think that while Emilia’s family was relatively well-rounded, I would have loved more than a passing glimpse at her sister’s personality. It felt mainly like Maniscalco wanted her to be fun and quirky, and yet it came off as a bit chaotic and underdeveloped. 

Plot: 3.25⭐️/5 

The concept of this story is fascinating. And, while its execution was a little clumsy in spots, it read fairly well. A few snags, slow parts, and plot holes aside, I did fly through the story fairly quickly. At first glance it was fun; on deeper analysis, it’s definitely lacking depth and nuance. I do want to say that if you’re looking for a fun, fast-moving plot, this definitely might be for you! 

World: 3.75⭐️/5 

The world of this novel really grabbed me. On a personal level, I’ve heard many aspects of Sicilian folklore before, so it was rather fun to see them brought into this world as real-life magic. I enjoyed a lot of the references to Italian culture. I do think certain elements could have been introduced and explored a bit more deeply, but I did have fun with the world. 

Readers looking for a fast and fun book; Those who know some elements of Italian/Sicilian culture; fans of a decent, fast-paced fantasy romance mystery novel.

Blood, murder, injury, injury detail, murder, gore, body horror, sexual content (mild), 

The ending felt a bit forced to me. I didn’t enjoy it near as much as I did aspects of the middle, and I don’t feel a huge pull to read the next one.

First thing first, to me this book is NOT young adult. I know KOTW was marketed as such before it was changed for the sequel, but I think this first book was already not accessible to young readers. Not necessarily because of the sexual content, there’s no *actual* scene of intercourse between the two characters despite a heated kiss, even if Emilia has a lot of sexual thoughts regarding several male characters; but more because of the violent and gore descriptions. Yes, this is a murder mystery, but I thought most of the descriptions would be lighter than that considering it was YA and not adult.

Jumping back to the story in itself, it had an interesting concept, but the poor writing and the insufferable MC ruined my reading.

I was hooked by the murder mystery, even if I’m disappointed we don’t have a clear conclusion to it by the end. Many questions remain and I’m scared the author forgets about it for the sequel. It was fast-paced, and I have to admit I enjoyed that. But the downside of it is, the plot felt rushed sometimes. I was also very interested in the worldbuilding, especially about the witches families, their history, their powers. Sadly, it felt set aside, and all the info dumping is focused solely on how sexy the princes of hell are rather than interesting facts about covens or even the Houses in Hell. Sometimes, the author herself seemed lost in her worldbuilding.

As for the characters, I hated Emilia. Her character was so unbalanced, her actions never stick to her personality (does she have a clear one?) and most of the time, she’s just dumb and horny. Also, the consequences of her actions aren’t relatable, I couldn’t believe she kept getting away without a scratch after being so disrespectful with literal demons that are supposed to kill her in a second. By the way, such a choice of writing dismissed Wrath and the other princes' characters because not once did they felt *that* dangerous. I’d also prefer more confrontations, especially with Envy, so that the plot twists could have a real impact on the reader experience. 

Emilia's relationship with her twin and then her grief suffer from the same treatment. Their bound isn’t well described enough to me, I didn’t feel like they were that inseparable, and honestly Emilia could have grieved on her own for a few months, there would be no story. I can’t tell if I liked Vittoria, we don’t see her much (a problem when her death is the very reason of the book) and Wrath was okay (always humbling Emilia, I loved that) but I’m scared the author changes him too much in the sequel regarding his behaviour at the end. 

Moving to the writing, it was a nightmare. I didn’t remember the author’s writing in "Stalking Jack The Ripper", but in this book? I really thought at some point it would be a DNF because of that. It was all "I do this, I do that, I think about this, I’m scared of that". It felt like reading a diary. The author kept losing herself in her descriptions. I know people liked all the food aspects, but I didn’t. I’m reading fiction, not a cooking book. I don’t care about recipes, I want to know more about the worldbuilding, the characters dynamics, what is happening and where. 

By the way, we have no clue where and when the story is taking place. The author kept talking about "The Kingdom of Italy" which is very vague and not necessarily true depending on the time you’re focusing on (history student speaking here oops). I’ve also noted a lot of anachronisms, especially in the way of talking/thinking ( use of words such as "creepy", "cringe" or "nerve receptors" just after mentioning herbal medicine). Every description was unclear, you don’t know how the scenery and people look like, as if the author was waiting for you to fill the blanks by yourself. 

Also, this book is the definition of "tell" rather than "show". Every needed information is introduced through dialogue (Emilia’s dumb questions, Wrath’s semi-answers, the grandma's stories). Even when Emilia dreams about something, the author makes her character re-thinking about her dream rather than making the reader live the dream at the same time as Emilia. And when I see how much effort the author put into describing food and recipes, I tend to think descriptions aren’t, in fact, such a problem for her. This brings me to the conclusion the writing is just lazy and could have been done way better. 

In conclusion, a very disappointing book despite all those promises. I mostly feel angry after finishing this book, especially towards the author’s writing because it could have been so much better. The concept had a lot of potential but all of it was poorly executed. However, I see why and how it works. Because yes, I still enjoyed the murder mystery, despite having to endure pages of Emilia being annoying and reckless for nothing. And even stranger than that, I want to read the sequel? This is a weird feeling that definitely needs to be scientifically studied! That’s why I think I’ll give a try to the second book, and I hope the sequel will be a bit better. Because delulu is the solulu 🫠

📌 CW/TW: emesis, gambling, magical compulsion/mental manipulation, mutilation, non-consensual touching, self-harm (blood magic)

Kingdom of the Wicked gets barely 2.5 stars from me because of the interesting setting and general premise. The characters were too stereotypical for my taste, and the story is not really clear. 

Emilia is a witch living in historic Sicily. Her sister Vittoria gets murdered, and she summons a demon prince which her grandmother has always warned her about. For most of the time in this book, we just spend the time with Emilia and Wrath which was just a bit boring and not engaging. This can work but not with uninteresting characters like those two are. The storytelling wasn’t great either. Conflicts could be solved quickly if the characters just talked to each other, and some things are just not well explained so that there were a lot of moments where I didn’t know what was happening. Like for example I didn’t understand why no one said anything about Emilia being gone for like two weeks, and I didn’t even know where she’s been. Emilia also apparently cares a lot for a grandma but doesn’t even

visit her when she’s injured

? 

Besides this, this novel had one of my least favourite tropes, the

”we’re suddenly engaged!”

trope. It also irritated me that there were randomly some kind of

vampires

. Towards the end, the deus ex machine moments became more frequent, and it was so obvious who the murderer was. 

Like I’ve mentioned, I really liked the Italian and Sicily setting but for quite some time, I wasn’t sure whether this book was contemporary or historical since there were not enough descriptions. Besides this, the timeline and universe were a bit hard for me to grasp. In contrast, the atmosphere created was quite nice and especially her feelings after her sister’s death were depicted so well. 

I don’t have too much to say about the characters. Emilia is an okay protagonist, but she felt a bit stereotypical to me. Her love interest Wrath is of course muscular and has dark hair. The side characters are in part not well characterized, I think we don’t hear her parents say one word. Besides this, it annoys me that there are of course only demon princes but not princesses. 

Kingdom of the Wicked is probably most interesting for those people that focus on the romance aspects of romantasy. The fantasy elements were unfortunately underdeveloped, just like the story and the characters.