Kingdom of the Wicked
Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Rating: 5 / 5 stars
Kingdom of the Wicked is such a lovely surprise and honestly I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. The story is set in the 19th century and follows two twin sisters Emilia and Vittoria, descended from a line of witches. The girls live in secrecy among humans together with their family who owns a trattoria in Sicily. Throughout the book food plays an important role. There are many descriptions of amazing dishes, smells, spices that inevitably take you to Italy.
Our main characters have almost nothing in common. While Vittoria is adventurous and craves danger and thrill, Emilia is cautious and timid. The girls have grown up with stories about the Devil and the seven demon princes of Hell (Wrath, Pride, Greed, Evny, Lust, etc.) who all have been banished to the darkest pits of Hell by a powerful witch. Emilia and Vittoria have felt their whole lives safe and protected until one day a series of violent murders targeting witches begins in their town. Unfortunately, one of the murdered witches happens to be Vittoria. Fuelled by vengeance, Emilia takes the dangerous path of revenge. She is willing to do anything – lie, betray, do dark magic even align herself with a demon prince in order to find the murderer and avenge her twin sister. This is how we get introduced to our main love interest. One day in her desperation Emillia does a calling spell and traps one of the seven princes of Hell – Wrath. After they discover their more or less mutual goal, Emilia makes a deal with the prince and they start their investigation. The plot has the infamous ’enemies to lovers’ trope (my favourite). We follow those two incredibly stubborn characters from barely able to stand each other to actually caring about the other one. I really enjoyed the portrayal of the brooding Prince of Hell, he’s arrogant, cocky and an absolute shameless flirt. Same can be said for Emilia, I loved her transformation from a timid and scared little girl to an absolute badass female protagonist who is going to tear down the pits of Hell.
This book fell into my top 10 reads for 2020!
0 Comments