Oh, how I loved this book. It was an absolutely phenomenal start to what is bound to be yet another fantastic series by Kerri Maniscalco.

The world that Maniscalco has created is so detailed and intense which made it easy for me to fall into it. I loved how it was crafted with her Italian heritage in mind, as it merged with the magical element of the setting so well! The creatures in this book (we’re talking demons, witches, vampires, werewolves, and more!), their history, and how the world worked was intricate and spellbinding. With all of its fabulous world-building, Kingdom of the Wicked took a bit longer for me to get into than Maniscalco’s previous works, but trust me, it was soooo worth it…

After all, it had absolutely everything I adore in a fantasy book:

- A strong willed female protagonist
- A snarky, devilishly handsome love interest (who also happens to be a Prince of Hell??!)
- DEMONS. LOTS OF DEMONS.
- Bad-ass witches
- Heavenly descriptions of Italian food that will MAKE YOUR MOUTH WATER
- An incredible enemies-to-lovers romance
- A gripping murder mystery that will have you turning the pages like mad
- PLOT TWISTS

And so much more! If that doesn’t convince you to pick up this book ASAP, I honestly don’t know what will.

Y’all– Enemies to lovers is easily my favorite trope, and Kerri Maniscalco had me swooning away with the slow-burn hate to love romance between our main character, Emilia, and our brooding love interest, aka the Prince of Wrath. I like how it didn’t distract from the overall plot, but still had us mentally screaming “JUST KISS ALREADY” over and over again. In other words, there was a perfect balance between plot and romance. Emilia and Wrath are also both very deep, layered characters. Emilia is smart, stubborn, and brave, and Wrath, though mysterious, is clever, ambitious, and determined. Both of these characters had such complicated and captivating personalities, making the romantic tension between them all the more compelling.

In sum, Kingdom of the Wicked is a dark, gripping story that both new readers and fans of Maniscalco’s previous work will LOVE. I am in complete awe of the writing, the characters, and the plot of this story, and I just know that many other readers will be too! I am SO looking forward to seeing what Maniscalco has in store for us as this series progresses. I enjoyed this book so much, and I can’t wait for its sequel!

In a world of witches and the wicked, nothing is as it seems...When Emilia's twin is brutally murdered, she vows to do whatever necessary in order to exact vengeance on the murderer and avenge her sister's death. Following the trail of clues unintentionally left by her twin, Emilia finds herself summoning the Prince of Wrath and employing his assistance in hunting down the killer. Yet as Emilia delves deeper and deeper into the dark arts, she has to decide: what price is she willing to pay? And just how far is she willing to go?

How prophetic that Kingdom is slated to be released so close to Halloween! Definitely a story for the spooky season, readers now have the choice to make it their Halloween 2020 read thanks to the release date. This story was full of thoughtful details that I supremely enjoyed; for instance, the Princes of hell (at least the ones we met) were written very creatively--it's as though she brought our ideas of each of the seven deadly sins to life. I also enjoyed the details of the restaurant that were provided at the beginning of the book, such as the recipes mentioned. Maniscalco combines her obvious love of family and dark, wicked things in this book and it is something that blends together very well in the way only Kerri seems able to accomplish.

The only minor issue I had with this book is I didn't feel the romance was up to snuff with what I was expecting after reading Stalking Jack the Ripper. At the end of the book I was super confused as to what was going on in regards to that, but nevertheless, I am very interested to see where we go with it all in book number two.

Good books always end too soon. Right from the getgo, I was drawn in. Witches. Italy, dark princes with manners (kind of). Very good storyline. I liked that it wasn't predictable, it had me guessing.

Going into this I only knew 19th century Italian backdrop with witches. So I was pleasantly surprised at the seven Princes of Hell, each representing a deadly sin. We don’t meet them all but I’m intrigued to if we meet the rest in book two.

Due to my reading mood this took a few chapters to get into. But once I sat down and properly read I found myself captivated by this world, characters and story. Not wanting to put it down.

Kerri Maniscalco writing creates an dark intense atmosphere I couldn’t get enough of.

When it comes to the characters created Wrath is a brooding Prince of Hell. Cocky, arrogant, powerful, morally gray flirt you can’t help but love. The instant chemistry with Emilia, the banter and bickering had me at one point blurting out JUST KISS ALREADY. Talk about a potential slow burn romance. At least I hope that’s where its heading. I just love them together.

The added mystery regarding the murders intrigued me. Although I didn’t find myself trying to figure it out. Instead just letting myself enjoy the book and see if anything stood out as a clue. I was surprised by the reveal.

The cliffhanger has left me wanting more ASAP. I need to know about basically everything. The curse, Wrath and Emilia relationship, Pride, the other Princes.

*3.5

I found the book very funny and intriguing but, unfortunately, it wasn't up to my expectations. 
The plot is very simple and a little plain, it reminded me a mix between Caraval and Stalking Jack the Ripper, but I always love witch stories so it felt like coming back home. It was also a very fast read, I'll give it that.

Two other things I liked were the setting and the romance. 
The setting it's a little bit stereotyped (you're talking to an italian here) but overall it was good and I enjoyed finding some words in my native language.
The romance is nothing I've never seen but I found it very entertaining and I always adore Hate to Love.

Let's get to the sore points! Unfortunately I found some elements in the story a a little bit annoying: first of all the characters. 
Emilia, the protagonist and her love interest seems the only ones with some characterization, even If Wrath was introduced as the terrible and evil demon and it's a lamb instead.
The secondary characters are relegated to the background, for example Emilia's family is presented to us and we don't even know her father's name just because it isn't important for the plot.
I know it can seem a small thing, but we get to know the neighbor's name and not the one of an important person in her life?
This thing makes all the story predictable, I immediately guessed the evil guy and the final plot twist because he was the only character that was introduced to us that wasn't APPARENTLY involved with all of this.
I think it's important to give all the characters a little bit more background and not only use them as puppets, don't you think?

In conclusion, it wasn't a bad book at all and I still believe a lot of people will appreciate it and even love it, but I wasn't entusiast about it.

Kerri Maniscalco has done it again. She has written a vivid world full of characters that draw you right into their stories.

Emilia's transformation throughout this story was a thing to behold. I loved her, and hated her, and cheered for her.

The Princes of Hell were beautifully terrifying. I love that Maniscalco didn't try to make them something they aren't.

This story was not sweet or soft, it is a fierce exploration of grief and vengeance and how far we are willing to go for justice. I cannot wait to see what happens in the next book!

I am a massive fan of all things Kerri Maniscalco. I devoured the books before this one as I devoured this one too. I kind of wish I had read this one closer to Halloween with a carved pumpkin lit in the corner and some spooky lighting because this book really sets a mood.

I love the originality of all of Kerri's writing and this one did not disappoint.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for my honest opinions.

Kingdom of the Wicked is a highly entertaining paranormal murder mystery set in Italy, complete with swoon-worthy demons, witchy vibes, and all the food descriptions you could ask for. While the historical elements aren't the most accurate - language, attitudes, and beliefs are largely modern - it has great Italian-inspired atmosphere that makes this a fast and immersive read. It doesn't do anything wildly inventive with the genre, but it's a lot of fun and has all the makings of a "ship" that readers can obsess over. A slightly rushed and confusing ending was a little jarring, but a cliffhanger will leave readers wanting more.

Recommended for fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout and paranormal romance.

This was good but somewhat repetitive. I found myself skimming some pages because I felt like I had already read some of the material. It was still enjoyable and had an excellent mystery component to it. I will still purchase for my library.

Witches, Demons, Curses, Religion, Dead Bodies and Mediterranean Food Delights. I don’t know which held my attention more the story or the glorious foods. Just wait, you’ll see.
This is my 4th book from this author. She loves strong women who don’t follow societies rules and limits well. This one stared a witch, one whose family owns a restaurant, a Mediterranean month watering one. The story follows Emilia, a young witch who finds her twin sister’s body deep in a church with a man dipping his fingers into her open chest and he’s tasting her blood. There are rumors, ancient stories and and lot of danger as to what is going on. Someone is killing witches, the why and who are a tricky thing. Emilia will do anything to find the killer, and does unleashing Wrath. Nothing comes easy, nothing comes without cost, nothing is as it seems.
Oh this was fun. I really loved the characters, they all fit so well into their parts. They were written well I felt I knew even the smallest one without a long backstory. Wrath, my favorite naughty character. I was left gasping, that ending ! I can’t get my hands on the next book fast enough, well right after I eat my cannoli. :P

Did I have amazingly high expectations for this book? Obviously. Did it live up to them? Absolutely. What I did not realise until later was that these expectations started changing as the book went on. It was as if my mind commenced asking for different things as I read, to fit the story better. Which is something that has never happened to me before, and I love that!
What first caught my attention was the prologue. It was engaging and absorbing on a level that I have not seen in YA in such a long time. It made me what to continue reading until the end. The same happened with the first couple of chapters. Flawless.
Then we get to the middle, and this is where my issues begin. Around the 50% mark, the plot started feeling repetitive. After all, they were solely investigating murder after murder without moving forward. But it soon picked up once more.
The ending was INCREDIBLE. There was a moment of convergence where everyone involved came together. But it was sufficiently vague for me to not be able to make any assumptions about what could happen next. I was really confused with Wrath's behaviour, and can't wait for how exactly will Emilia's choice change their relationship dynamics.
I would like to think that Kerri Maniscalco went hard with the foreshadowing in this first instalment, for what I believe is to be a trilogy. Because, even though we get to meet the characters, the only one we truly know is Emilia. And she goes through a vast number of changes through the book. We know her deepest desires and her strong wish for revenge. But besides her, we are pretty blind on what the other characters think and want. And, we also got the prophecy, the Horns, the Grimoire...
Plot aside, the writing was beautiful, incredibly atmospheric. We get engulfed into this Sicilian port city atmosphere. I haven't read any of the Stalking Jack the Ripper books, but I'm quite motivated to after this experience.
My only problem had to do with Sangria. I am not an expert about Italian culture, far from it. But what I do know, as a Spanish citizen, is that Sangria is an alcoholic beverage originating in Spain and Portugal. So, I have my doubts about whether it was historically accurate for 1800s Sicilian residents to drink it.

Now I don't know what to do with my life, I need to know what else is going on!

I have enjoyed this book, it has so much darkness, but this makes the intrigue prevail throughout the story.

The love story is quite atypical, considering the kind of protagonists that the story has, I really loved them and I want more of them especially with that ending!


Thanks for this arc!

This book was received as an ARC from JIMMY Patterson in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I love fantasy novels and mystery novels and this one had the best of both worlds. As I read on secrets were uncovered, true colors literally and figuratively shined through that it left my body in complete shock and my jaw wide open. I also love books with a twist and there were many of them that came just as the right time when you had the mystery figured out. Also, the characters were so creatively written and very relative to the story. I know our teen book club will enjoy and have many discussions on this book.

We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

I am in-between 3 an 4 stars for this book, but I always round up in my ratings so 4 stars it is.
As a fan of the author's previous series, I was really excited to get a chance to read this book early. I love the premise and the magic system of this book! The Italian setting is interesting and the food descriptions are amazing. I enjoyed the characters, but like most first books of a series, they are not as developed as they would be in a stand-alone. What I struggled with a little bit was the pacing of the story and the occasional repetitiveness of certain ideas. Obviously, some of that might be slightly different in the final version so I do plan to read a finished copy of this at some point. I should also say I probably wasn't very fair to this book because I was reading several other things and was super busy.

The premise of this book sounded amazing to me which is why I was so happy to be asked to be a part of the book tour. The premise of this book was so interesting and I have to say it pulled it off. I ended up loving this book.
I’ll start with the plot which was really engaging and I could not put this book down without constantly thinking about it. I really enjoyed the mystery in the book and the romance was good. I’m not usually a fan of romance but I really enjoyed how it worked in this book. The story is intriguing as the main character is trying to find out how her twin died but she has demons, magic and family detracting her. The writing style was easy to read and it flowed really well. I really enjoyed the deliciously dark descriptions and the writing just worked for me.
Another part I relay enjoyed was the world. It is set in an old Italy where there are several witch families. I really enjoyed the magic system of the witches and how dark magic was shown. I love books with witches. I also enjoy books with demons and summoning. There is a history to the witches and they have their own myths which I enjoyed reading about, I found the magic interesting and I would love to know more about it. The author excels in this book and her imagination shines. I can’t wait to see what happens next in the series.
The characters were okay. I found that I really enjoyed the main character Emilia who is the main POV in the book. I liked her and loved that she was strong, caring and determined to find out what happened to her twin. Her twin I didn’t really like but there isn’t much of her in the book. Wrath is a demon Prince and is the other main character. I liked Wrath and I enjoyed his personality, although I would say it is what you expect in a demon prince. One of my favourite characters was Nonna and I would read a book about her. There are plenty of other characters as there are seven demon princes, lots of witches and non magical people.
The only complaint is the ending, it ends on a sort of cliffhanger and why leave it there? I need the next book! That’s all I will say as I don’t want to spoil anything.
Overall this is a wonderfully dark read with witches, demons, mystery and romance. I enjoyed it way more than I expected and I did expect to like this. I would highly recommend this book!

I adore Maniscalco, so my expectations were high; I was not disappointed! Yet again, she captured me with interesting characters, complex (at times frustrating) characters, and a very cool setting. Excited to continue in this world!

I dont even know where to begin with this review. I am shook, I am in love, I am a mess!

Where to begin? Well I loved the setting and the sense of family I felt from Emilia; the family dynamic, the restaurant, the food...it was all superbly done.

For me, the absolute prize of this book is the way grief changes Emilia into someone she wasn't before. It twists and warps her through rage and wrath until she is almost unrecognisable. I absolutely loved reading about her journey, and was addicted every step of the way.

The dark and seductive magic was so compelling, so hard to tear your eyes away from that this read became something I was willing to loose sleep over...and no, I do not regret that decision at all.

This book has since kept me wondering, made me want to reread from start to finish and made me despair that I have to wait so long for book 2!

Truly a joy to read and I just know I'm going to be absolute fangirl trash for this series.

This book was in a word delicious! I loved every second of it. I'm addicted! And now I have to go through the torture of waiting for a sequel.

Wow wow wow wow. Kerri Maniscalco doesn't even need to take my money because I will be throwing it at her.

I forgot the last time I read a whole book straight without any distractions. The world-building, characters, and Italian settings were a feast for the senses (as Kirkus said) and I can not believe she had the AUDACITY to leave us hanging.

I think the romance was perfect; there was only a hint but it was enough in that it wouldn't go overboard. The best thing about Kerri's work is that she always leaves room for more character development. I see a lot of other authors who word barf onto their characters so that in the second book we can't learn anything new out of them, their romance becomes boring and flat. Not for these perfect, amazing, feisty characters! Wow, I loved Kerri's portrayal of Emilia and how she grew from the nice twin to the vengeful witch. Amazing. AMAZING.

There was never a dull moment. Kerri is an expert at making sure there are no bland filler chapters, but she also paces her action scenes very well, so it doesn't feel like I'm reading a whole year in a chapter.

BUT NOT THIS BOOK. MY GOD. I think I read this arc more than 4 times. There a lot of little hints that might (fingers crossed) allude to the second book. I had a little tantrum reading this book knowing I will have to wait till 2021 or later for the next.

I recieved this free eARC from NetGalley for a review. All opinions are my own.

This book though. I took my time reading it because I did not want it to end and I now have to wait till 2021 at least for the next book in the series.

We follow Emilia and her need for revenge in this story. Emilia has a twin sister who is murdered and she doesn't know who did it. Through out this story we follow Emilia's pursuit to try and find her sisters killer and avenge her death. Along the way, we find out about the Wicked and the Princes of Hell, and how witches, like Emilia, do not mix with them. There is romance in the most unexpected ways, banter, humor, and intense moments through this entire story and you will not want to put it down.

Before reading this story, I read Maniscalco's Stalking Jack the Ripper and Hunting Prince Dracula (I haven't finsihed the other two because I am not ready to be done with that series. I am taking my time with it), and I am in love with those stories, so I was nervous going into this book because I wanted to love it just as much. Kerri Maniscalco did not disapoint. I was engaged the entire time I was reading the book.

I think my favorite thing about this book is the banter in it. I found myself laughing outloud when it popped up. Emilia and Wrath, one of the Princes of Hell, are an unlikely duo that just work even though they aren't supposed to. They know how to jab at each other and get on each other's nerves but still work together. Maniscalco really knows how to write these fun, bantery realtionships and I am here for it.

I really, really loved this book and will be buying a phyiscal copy once it comes out. I can already see this book being turned into a TV series. I am totally getting some Vampire Diaries/The Originals vibes and could see some of the actors playing characters in an adaption here. Daniel Gillies as Wrath... Yes please.

Book rate: 5/5 stars