Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco Review
5 STARS || ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review || Amazon + Goodreads
The Kingdom of the Wicked has me all twisted up in my feelings and giddy with the direction that I foresee this series going. Oh-my-goodness-y’all. For real, this book. I predict the fandom of this series to be massive, it is that good. And the characters are pure gold perfection.
Kerri Maniscalco is a crazy talented writer, seriously. And her world building for this series is off the charts. Her characters, are just – yes! I’m in love, y’all, so totally stupid in love with this new series. And the cover. Can we take a moment to drool over the masterpiece of the cover? It ties so flawlessly into the story and it’s so gorgeous!
Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are witches, taught from childhood that there is a curse that can open the gates of hell and bring the very Princes of Hell into the world. No spoilers, but from the beginning you know death is chasing Vittoria and when it comes a knocking, it’s drenched in blood, trauma and a burning seed of revenge and vengeance that grows inside Emilia that will reshape the entirety of Emilia’s life, magic. . .and love.
Emilia is an interesting sort, in the beginning I was a little bummed that we weren’t going to be in Vittoria’s headspace, as she seemed to be the more reckless and outgoing of the two. And then, Maniscalo flips the script and all of a sudden I couldn’t get enough of the evolution, power and disaster of Emilia’s journey and character growth.
The Wicked, or the dark deliciously twisted and wonderfully decadent, Princes of Hell are something to behold and let me just say that from the moment Wrath makes his appearance, even in the midst of the horrific-ness of the scene, I felt the inkling of butterflies. When he fully comes into the story, I went into complete and utter grinning madness. Wrath is deliciously delightful and I adored each and every scene stealing moment that he was on the page.
From the very get go, I knew in my gut that this book was going to be a race against hell. As Emilia free falls into the anger of the brutal mysterious murder of Vittoria, the secrets of her death, the details of a curse that has been sewn into the girls lives from the beginning and the overall crazy awesomeness of the magical system and the dark magic itself, I knew I was a goner. I was cozily wrapped up in every delicious word of this novel.
This book is one that I loved, and is definitely one of my favorite reads of this dumpster fire we call 2020. Thank goodness I was able to escape the insanity for a few days while I squirreled away in Emilia’s world with demons, and magic, and hell, oh, my! I can’t wait to see what happens next, that cliffhanger ending had me feeling all sorts of things, mostly just excited to see what Kerri Maniscalco does next. Grab this on release day and read it, I think you’ll love it too!
Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
Two sisters.
One brutal murder.
A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself…
And an intoxicating romance.
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…
