Kingdom of the Wicked Review

Two sisters.

One brutal murder.

A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself…

And an intoxicating romance.

-GoodReads

My Review

For those of you who never saw my review for Stalking Jack the Ripper, I was super hesitant going into this book. It sounded alright, I knew there were some issues in the nuances of the book from a cultural standpoint and was happy to see a couple of things fixed (and some not) but I will admit I was pleasantly surprised by this book.

I think this being NA really helped a lot, I love YA in general but Maniscalco’s YA series wasn’t for me -and that’s okay-.

There are again some details for the culture that are…not accurate and I don’t mean the fantasy parts, she can go to town with those and in fact the parts she made up entirely on her own are the best parts of this book. Still the author fixed a few and left a few. My mother is Venetian so I’m not as well versed in the culture of this part of Italy but there were a few glaring things that made it a bit of a rough start but soon I immersed myself in the fantasy aspect of it.

Emilia was always the ‘tamer’ twin compared to Vittoria but when she finds the body of her twin, murdered, Emilia is determined to get to the bottom of it.

Little does she knew that fate may be at play and the Princes of Hell as well.

It’s got a nice mystery vibe combined with some of my favorite fantasy elements and I shipped Emilia and Wrath so hard, but, also, yay for all the other princes of Hell.

I found Wrath fascinating and I would love to know more about him and his brothers, though we do get some awesome information to start us off.

Watching Emilia go against the grain in her small town was interesting, and the betrayals and reveals were nothing short of me going *gasp* I knew it or *gasp* No way, and let’s face it, that definitely makes it a fun read.

The world-building for Hell and the lore behind it was something I really just enjoyed learning everything and the set up for book 2 is probably going to make my world-building heart soar given how this book ends.

I really enjoyed the darker vibes of this, watching a character who had some version of morality that slowly is morphed all in the name of love, but not quite a villain origins story; it was something different than that, with its mystery vibes and the Hellish elements; it was a great read.

5/5 Cups of coffee from me and I can’t wait for the sequel to get here! (But I may have to just roll with it considering mail delays lol)