Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Kingdom of the Wicked

Since the SJTR series, I knew I would love anything Kerri wrote, and there's no surprise to find truth in that.

I loved the darkness of this one. It was tense and moody and sultry and I couldn't get enough of it all. I loved the story line and the characters and I loved how different it was from SJTR, but I also loved how Emilia possessed badass, and smart ass, qualities from Audrey Rose too.

I wanted to fly through this one, but also wanted to take my time and let it sizzle and burn! I can't wait to continue the trilogy!

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purplehulk713's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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…

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lunariya's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Its trash but its good trash, much more bearable to listen to the audio book btw

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politewriter's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A rather thrilling fantasy novel. The world building had some rather fantastic depths and color to it. It was really easy to see how the author incorporated their personal experience. I really liked how that meshed. Some elements of their story seemed to get muddled at times, and I found myself needing to go back to reread something in order to understand what was happening. Lots of characters, but the author does a good job of keeping them all straight— as well as their alliances and organizations. However, FL seemed to have very little development throughout the story. She made a lot of odd choices, and that really took away from the tension of the story. I liked the chemistry between the FL and the ML tremendously. I hope to see that further developed in the second volume.

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mia_s_book_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I actually enjoyed this book! Wasn’t so sure since thriller isn’t my go to genre but color me surprised, this was good! Loved Wrath and everything about him. However Emilia annoyed me a lot at times, being very obnoxious and making very poor choices, but I do respect her need for vengeance, wit and quick thinking. Also loved the Italian components incorporated into the whole plot, made the book so much more intriguing.

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haileynelson's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the voice of the main character Emilia as we follow her through her quest for vengeance and finding the murderer of her sister. There's a pretty strong enemies to lovers trope happening, there are more books coming so keep that in mind. Some of the twists I started to suspect and some I didn't, but in either case they kept the plot flowing and kept me engaged the whole time. I was hooked from the very beginning. I do hope the next book has a bit more magic in it, there wasn't as much as I would expect given the main character is a witch, but that fact didn't pull me out of the story at any point. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys darker fantasy, enemies to lover, a bit of moral ambiguity, and revenge plots.

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