I enjoyed the FMC, she was clever and wasn't constantly plagued with indecision. She was committed to her goal and wasn't going to let anything even morals get in her way.

🇳🇱: een prachtig boek. Ik heb hem in drie dagen uitgelezen en ik moet zeggen dat ik er goed doorheen vloog. Van het moment dat toorn in beeld kwam was ik verkocht, wat een heerlijke man.

ik vond het jammer dat hij zo veranderde op het einde. Al weet je natuurlijk nooit wat de ware aard is van de prinsen....

Ik vond de bijnamen heks en demon erg aandoenlijk, omdat het zo goed paste binnen het verhaal. Het waren koosnaampjes, die de nodige haat bevatte. Er was veel spanning, al vond ik die wat voorspelbaar. Ik kreeg bij dit boek geen vijf sterren gevoel wat ik erg jammer vond, omdat ik dit wel hoopte vanwege de prachtige special edition.  De schrijfwijze is goed. In het begin werd ik wel wat verward door de italiaanse termen en bijnamen. Later heb je door wie ze ermee bedoelen. Ook de personages waren heel goed neergezet, je voelt echt goed met ze mee. De schrijfster zet heel mooi de karakter van de personages neer. Ook laat ze heel goed zien dat je niet iedereen kan vertrouwen. 

 Al met al een leuk fantasie boek en ik kan niet wachten op deel twee.

Book: Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco (@kerrimaniscalco)
Genre: Fantasy
Age: 17+ (violence/gore)
Quote: “One day you’ll call me Death. For now, Wrath will do.” 

My Thoughts: Emilia and Vittoria are twin witches who’ve been warned against the Princes of Hell their whole lives. But when Vittoria doesn’t come home for dinner one night, Emilia happens upon her sister’s desecrated body—and decides to take up the Dark Arts in hopes of finding the creature that killed her sister. But Vittoria had been keeping dark secrets of her own, and as the truth unfolds Emilia finds herself in an impossible situation: work together with Wrath, one of the beastly Princes of Hell, or face the darkness alone and risk never finding out what happened to her sister. As Wrath and Emilia struggle to trust each other, things become complicated as more witches are brutally slain…and the gates of Hell threaten to break open and flood the human world with horrors. Sacrifices must be made. Rules will be broken. And Emilia may find that the only way to get to the truth behind what happened to Vittoria is to jump head-first into the darkness. If you love Kerri Maniscalco’s books as much as I do, are looking for a gripping mystery and a fiercely compelling enemies to lovers fantasy, THEN THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU! 

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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…

Another anticipated book series.

This book was everywhere on booktok and I put it to the side until the last book gets released so I could binge watch it. But..I am kind of disappointed…

The story was really long. At first I was very invested: the magic world, the world building, the characters, the dark magics…. 

So many things were going on which was kinda hard to keep up. 

This book is kinda hard to digest because it emphasizes mainly on grief, pain, “mental health” and deep sadness, probably even depression. But those feeling changes to anger and thirst for revenge: 

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

The story is about Emilia who goes on a rampage/vengeful tasks to find her twin sister’s murder and kill him/her/they… but in order to do so, she needs help… from Wrath, the MMC, and my new book boyfriend. 

The ending kinda felt rushed. The story had a lot of potential but felt that it was kinda badly executed. Hopefully the other two books are better…

Emilia…. My oh my… she is a stubborn and hard headed character. Which sometimes, I wished I could go into the book, and shake her to wake her the f-up. She can be extremely reckless because she is so blinded by this “revenge” that I feel like she doesn’t think rationally sometimes. Sometimes, there are scenes of hers that felt repetitive. 

Edit: I just saw someone say that it feels like reading Bella Swan’s POV…. Lol.

Look besides all that, the princes of Hell are quite interesting. I hope we get to see them more on the other two books:

           "There are seven demon princes, but only four di Carlos should fear: Wrath, Greed, Envy, and Pride. One will crave your blood. One will capture your heart. One will steal your soul. And one will take your life.”

    Wrath didn’t seem as present as I taught he would be but he did make an impression on me. Especially whenever he bangers with Emilia. The only thing with him is that for a so-called Prince of Hell, we don’t really see the scary side of him. The author probably saved that for later. 

And I love Emilia’s grandma, even though she is constantly pestering her granddaughters, is it always for the better. People trust your ancestors stories, they might come true who know…:

   "Love is the most powerful magic. Above all else remember that. It will always guide you where you need to go?”