Kingdom of the Wicked is a lot of fun. It intertwines familiar aspects of Catholicism with a new twist with the sins as Princes of Hell. While the magic system could have been fleshed out further, it felt more balanced than many others, showing some of the consequences of using too much power. The banter was bantering for sure. The more tender moments were very sweet, and I can't wait to see how the relationships develop in the sequels. It's fairly obvious who the original enemy is, but there were enough twists and turns and additions along the way that it didn't matter as much that that was predictable. 

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. 

It had such a strong start and then things pittered out. The love felt instant and really the main characters didn’t interact much. However when they did I think they had good enough banter. I’m going to read the next book because I feel the story has potential. 

Great start, not so good middle part but i want to know more

3⭐️


Empezaré diciendo que este libro no me ha parecido malo, pero es de estos que tienen tanto potencial que la autora lo ha malgastado de una manera increíble.

Creo que lo mejor sería empezar por lo que más me ha gustado, y es que me parece que Kerri Maniscalco tiene una pluma buenísima que ha hecho que me haya leído el libro súper rápido sin ni siquiera darme cuenta de las horas que pasaban. Cuando leí la sinopsis lo quise agregar a mis lecturas porque me pareció una idea estupenda: ¿quién no quiere leer sobre brujas y demonios? Emilia, la protagonista, me ha gustado bastante por lo fuerte y segura que es, al igual que Wrath (que encima tiene tatuajes, qué más se puede pedir). Que esté ambientado en Italia también es un punto a favor del libro, nunca había leído un libro situado allí y me ha encantado.

Como siempre, ahora vengo a hablar de cosas que me han tocado la moral bastante: para empezar, no sé a quién se le ocurrió catalogar este libro como enemies to lovers cuando simplemente se odian porque Emilia es bruja y Wrath un demonio: no hay más razones a porqué son esos supuestos “enemigos” así que, para mí, esto sería más bien un haters to algo porque es que no hay romance casi. Odio cuando no evolucionan como “pareja”, básicamente han ido de odiarse a querer arrancarse la ropa en dos páginas: ¿perdón? No, así no vamos; antes he dicho que la pluma de Maniscalco me parece increíble pero también me parece que hay demasiada información innecesaria: perfectamente podría haberse ahorrado cien páginas o más; sabemos que está ambientada en Italia, como he dicho anteriormente, pero ¿en qué época? ¿tiene eso influencia en el libro? bueno pues aparentemente eso te lo inventas tú, porque nunca se sabe, simplemente das por hecho que es en el siglo XVIII-XIX por cómo se describen las ropas que llevan los personajes, poco más se sabe, y creo que podría haber añadido eso y quitado unas cuantas recetas, que ojo, amo la comida italiana y puedo entender que me quieras explicar algo de su cocina ya que los padres de las gemelas son dueños de un restaurante, pero no hacen falta tantas, me ha quedado claro que les gusta comer, muchas gracias; el libro empieza con las gemelas Emilia y Vittoria siendo inseparables y, de repente, Vittoria está muerta y ni me he enterado. La protagonista da mil vueltas al mismo tema para luego irse por las ramas con otro asunto y luego se vuelve todo un lío porque simplemente este libro está desordenado; tampoco me ha gustado cómo han aparecido los hermanos de Wrath, me ha parecido demasiado fácil la manera en cómo pueden moverse del infierno al mundo de los humanos, y sin hablar de cómo conoce Emilia a Lust, que me ha parecido un capítulo de relleno que no tenía sentido alguno; hay tantas preguntas sin resolver que sé que probablemente no serán resueltas, pero si me pongo a enumerar todo lo que está mal del libro me tiro el mes entero con esta reseña.

Si quieres leer un libro sobre brujas para pasar el rato, este es tu libro, pero no esperes una obra de arte impresionante porque como ya he dicho, este libro tiene un potencial malgastadísimo. Seguramente (100% probable) seguiré con la trilogía, pero ya mis expectativas no son tan altas como las tenía con este. 


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I’ll start by saying that this book wasn’t bad at all, but it’s one of those that have so much potential that the author just wasted it in an incredible way.

I think the best thing would be to start with what I liked the most, and it seems to me that Kerri Maniscalco has an amazing way of writing that made me read the book super fast without even noticing the hours that passed. When I read the synopsis I wanted to add it to my tbr because the premise looked amazing: who doesn't want to read about witches and demons? I really liked Emilia, the main character, because of how strong and confident she is, just like Wrath (who also has tattoos, what more could I ask for?). The fact that it’s set in Italy is also a point in favor to the book, I’d never read a book set there and I loved it.

As always, now I come to talk about things that have touched my morale a lot: to start with, I don't know who came up with the idea of classifying this book as “enemies to lovers” when they simply hate each other because Emilia is a witch and Wrath is a demon: there is no more reasons why they are those supposed "enemies" so, for me, this would be rather a “haters to something” because there is almost no romance. I hate when they don't evolve as a "couple", they've basically gone from hating each other to wanting to tear each other's clothes off in two pages: sorry? No, that's not how we go; as I said before, Maniscalco's pen seems incredible to me but it also seems that there is too much unnecessary information: it could have perfectly been a hundred pages or more less; we know that it is set in Italy, as I said before, but in what era? Does that influence the book? well, apparently you make it up by yourself because you never know, you simply assume that it is in the 18th-19th century, because of how the clothes worn by the characters are described, little else is known, and I think the author could’ve added that and removed a few recipes: don’t get me wrong, I love Italian food and I can understand that you want to explain something about their cuisine since the parents of the twins own a restaurant, but you don't need that many, it has become clear to me that they like to eat, thank you very much; The book begins with the twins Emilia and Vittoria being inseparable, and suddenly, Vittoria is dead and I didn’t even noticed. The MC goes around the same topic a thousand times and then goes off on another subject and then it becomes a whole mess because this book is just simply messy; I also didn't like how Wrath's brothers appeared, the way in which they can move from hell to the world of humans seemed too easy to me, and not to mention how Emilia meets Lust, which I thought was a filler chapter that it didn't make any sense; there are so many unanswered questions that I know probably won't be answered, but if I start to list everything that's wrong with the book, I'll spend the entire month with this review.

If you want to read a book about witches to pass the time, this is the book for you, but don't expect a masterpiece because as I said, this book has a very much potential. Surely (100% likely) I will continue with the trilogy, but my expectations are not as high as I had it with this one.

I like the premise and the characters but it was very lack luster for me. It could be so much more! 

Not that I didn’t enjoy Kingdom of the Wicked, but I had higher hopes for it from reading its preview. Maniscalco’s writing was sometimes confusing—too ambiguous to be understood upon a first or second reading of the section. It was frustrating. But the magic was bewitching, especially the culture of the streghe and their myths (some true, others false) about the Malvagi (the Wicked) and La Prima Strega (the First Witch). The romance was pretty good, I love a good enemies-to-lovers trope, but I hate how Emilia (like many other YA protagonists) judged Wrath so simply every time she saw a new side of him, and didn’t realize that just because he is one of the Wicked, that does not mean he is heartless or totally evil or whatever. Kerri Maniscalco did do a good job of leaving me wanting more, despite if it was for reasons of ambiguous writing on her part. I’m still confused about the details of the devil’s curse. Envy as a character also seemed rather predictable. Basically, as much as I enjoyed Kingdom of the Wicked, it didn’t wholly satisfy me as a reader.
Beware the Malvagi, fellow streghe…

This book took me a while to get through, but overall I found it quite intriguing. Watching Emilia comb through clues with her reluctant sidekick was quite amusing, even if her denial of fact was a tad frustrating. 

The plot really picks up towards the end, and some lore is actually given, albeit a tad predicatable if you are reading the context clues correctly.  

I mean, you're telling me that this-

-isn't the plot of every enemies to lover's romance, I am supposed to remain oblivious???  I think the fuck not, and I honestly love and respect that it doesn't shy away from the trope, but rather embraces it wholeheartedly.

Overall, this book was a tad slow on the uptake, but it was quite a nice starting point for the series. Emelia's revenge has only just started, and I am eager to see the wrath (yes, I went there) she brings down upon the princes, and those who ultimately have caused Vittoria's death. I am also keen to see what Wrath's part to play will be, as he was little too quiet and unnaturally withdrawn at the end. I know he's strategizing, but how he plans to fulfill his plan is something look forward to watching.