For those who know me, or who are regular readers of my blog, you will know that Kerri Maniscalco became one of my favourite authors of all time after I read the Stalking Jack the Ripper series. There was something about her writing that kept pulling me in, and I loved every single character that she wrote. Even though I was sad about the story of Audrey Rose Wadsworth coming to a close, hearing that Maniscalco had a new series coming out that had to do with witches and Princes of Hell was just *chefs kiss*.

Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe – witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family’s renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin…desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister’s killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden.

Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia’s side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women’s murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems.

I actually listened to Kingdom of the Wicked on audiobook as they seem to be my go-to way of consuming novels at the moment! The narrator – Marisa Calin – is one of my favourite audiobook narrators of all time and has narrated books such as Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller, The Left-Handed Bookseller of London by Garth Nix, and The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe.

Whilst reading this, I couldn’t help but compare Emilia to Audrey Rose, and Wrath to Thomas Cresswell… I know that they’re completely different books BUT I COULDN’T HELP IT! I’m sorry! I really tried not to be biased because Cresswell is a fave of mine but Wrath? Wrath came *so so* close. He was a stereotypical YA bad boy with his sarcastic lines, being tall, dark and handsome, with tattoos and all that jazz. I never seem to get tired of that trope, to be honest.

 

“You always have the power of choice, even when those choices seem limited. Never forget that.”

– Kerri Maniscalco, Kingdom of the Wicked

 

Another trope that I will never tire of? Enemies to lovers. Never ever ever will I get bored of it. The way that Emilia hated Wrath at first, and just couldn’t stand to be near him, the disgust she felt whenever she looked at him was just brilliantly written, and the way that their relationship slowly developed over the course of the novel into something that was special and magical just made me jealous.

One of the things that I LOVED about this book was the food. The novel is set in Italy so of course, Italian food was at the heart of this book which made me crave pasta every single time I read this book. The descriptions of the cheese, the bruschetta, the parmesan, the pesto… YYUUUMMMMM. I was in heaven. Italian food is one of my favourites and being able to read about Emilia and her family making different dishes was one of the highlights of this book for me. I also loved the fact that Emilia made a small dessert dish for Wrath and at first he was a stuck up Prince and gave it the side-eye… but then he tried it… and then he became a food lover as well, trying different dishes when he was out with Emilia. It made me love him more.

 

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

– Kerri Maniscalco, Kingdom of the Wicked

 

As much as I loved the darkness of the book (with all the death and ripped out hearts), I have to say, I had a very good idea of who the killer was. It wasn’t obvious, to begin with, but then things didn’t feel right with this particular character, so I knew it had to be them. I don’t know whether this is because I read a lot of books that have a mystery element to them, or whether it was just obvious, though.

The reason why I gave this 4.5 stars and not 5 was because of the ending. It was good! Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but it wasn’t what I wanted and it made me slightly sad. However, we do have a. second book, so hopefully, that will be able to put my heart back together again!

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

 

 

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