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 I am also keen to see what Wrath's part to play will be, as he was little too quiet and unnaturally withdrawn at the end.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. 

there was a plot, but whether we stuck to it or not was another thing. emelia was annoying and also an idiot, not gonna lie. i don’t like her character but i do understand her initial reasoning for trying to solve her sister’s murder. i too would unleash hell if someone ever laid a hand on one of my siblings’ heads. i can only imagine how much more intense that fury would be if it happened to be my twin who was hurt. also nonna telling emelia to deal with the fact that vittoria is gone and move on already is a pretty crappy thing to say. emelia described her twin as her other half and to be expected to keep going after losing that is cruel, especially by someone who had a hand in raising both those halves.

it makes sense why its wrath who she summons. her twin is dead, her grief is choking her daily, and no one is doing anything to try and solve her sister’s murder. summoning rage and fury itself? that’s a given.

emelia’s moods give me a lot of whiplash though. her character didn’t have any substance and she played the damsel-in-distress role so often that i hardly think her capable of figuring out who ate the last cannoli, much less a murder and bringing hell down to its knees.

wrath was a complex character and it was pretty clear who the author’s favorite was. if she had put even half as much of an effort as she put into wrath’s character into emelia, then maybe she would be decent instead of all-around pathetic.

that ending was meh and i could tell

the murderer was antonio

from the moment vittoria scared them in the monastery’s kitchen and he just stepped in front of emelia while holding up his rosary, unfazed.

that was kind of a dead giveaway that he wasn’t the innocent boy next door emeila always thought of him as.

also pride x emelia? as if. she’ll be back in wrath’s arms soon enough. doesn’t help that he’s acting like such a dick though so i guess we’ll see if they even deserve to be together in the next book.

this gets 3.25 stars from me. it had promise but the execution of it all was terrible.

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. 

This ending was mean!!
Alright, I really enjoyed this book.
Very light reading, good story and easy writing, it keeps you curious throughout every chapter.
Absolutely love Emilia, she's a great character, and Wrath is...intriguing. I needed to see a little more of him though.
There were things I didn't like of course, such as the way some scenes and moments that felt big and powerful suddenly died out, and got fixed in half a dozen lines.
The story develops very well but sometimes I got this feeling that there was a bit of rush to include all the characters in key moments, trying to force the mystery or the shock, and it didn't really work out.
But overall it was the book the helped me fight the reading slump I'm currently facing and now I'm curious the read the next!