Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Today, I am reviewing Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco.

Set in Sicily, Italy I could not resist picking up this book! This was my first book I bought from Maniscalco and the language was very accessible to me and the whole world created in this book was easy to get lost in! Kingdom of the Wicked will really have you inhaling the words and on edge as the pages keep turning!

The plot follows Emilia Di Carlo, an eighteen year old witch as she seeks revenge as she tries to unmask who murdered her twin sister, Vittoria. To add some spice, they both come from a family of witches who choose to perform light magic (instead of dark magic where you have to make a sacrifice for each spell). There are a lot of old, dark curses and unsaid spells kept from the twins but they seem to catch up to them in the present. Emilia and Vittoria at least know that there are seven dangerous princes of hell that are destined to return one day and bring chaos.

Naturally, in her grieving and curious state, Emilia performs a dark magic summoning spell she found in her sister's hidden stash of items. This was a big red flag because no one in her family is meant to perform dark magic yet her sister had all these dark mysterious secrets that we have to read to find out because she's DEAD (I really was getting into the book at this point, such spice). The spell is successful (yay!) and she summons a demon (with a very ornate gold dagger) and is surprised he's not any regular demon but the royal kind; a prince of hell!!!

Wrath is everything that he is hyped up to be and goodness gracious, was he FINE. I was infatuated with him and his little snide remarks he would have with Emilia, constantly flirting and bickering with an occasional threat to kill her (so charming, right?). You can really see Emilia's strong character in this book as well, I mean, she is abandoning her shy, private shell and seeking revenge and death, all for her twin sister!(can truly see her love for family)Try telling me she isn't a badass witch!

Emotionally, this book left me hungry when I finished it. Is this it? The book is done? I've been reading for 5 hours straight? My bad. To have a book take me in and refuse to fall asleep (abandoning the characters if I were to nod off) showcases the brilliant writing skills of Kerri Maniscalco and I'm sure others also experienced this reading frenzy. I was mesmerised by the plot of this book and my emotions went from happy, to angry, to sad, to shocked, to giggly, to shocked, to happy continuously, and I'm nearly certain Kerri Maniscalco put a spell on ME!

To sum up my emotions and thoughts, here is the process of me reading Kingdom of the Wicked;

Beginnings: All is going well, death! Ooh! Sad period, mystery...

Middles: spicy, revenge, stubborn! Flirty, death, death, shocked, spicy, sad, hotties! Evil, anger, don't accept offers! Demons!

Ends: shocked, shocked, spicy, spicy, crying, sobbing, must finish why am I still crying, shocked, happy, shocked again, END and needing MORE.

To conclude, I highly recommend this book as once you pick it up, you really won't be putting it down or going to sleep until you finish it. I cannot praise this book any higher than I already am! Now all that's left to do is wait on edge until October 2021 when the next book is out!