Currently searching for a prince of Hell...

I've read 'Kingdom of The Wicked' and let me tell you my honest opinion about my ride to hell!

"One day you'll call me Death. For now, Wrath will do".

*bursts out in laughing

Let me take you with me through my reading process. One of the best things about the book was that I could relate to Emilia's behaviour when she met Wrath. I, too, would burst out laughing in the presence of a too-handsome-for-his-own-good boy and not know how to react to absurd introductions. But to be honest, that is also where my enthusiasm for the book ended. And let me tell you why.

The book has a lot of elements that I love: cannolis, Sicily, Italian culture, family, witchcraft and boys. From the very first moment, you are surrounded by beautiful descriptions of the Italian island and the mysterious history of Emilia's family. Kerri Maniscalco can describe landscapes and scenes beautifully. The way she could almost let me smell the kitchen of the family restaurant was truly wonderful. This surprised me in a very positive way. It was exactly the kind of escape I needed in January.

The story took off at a very exciting turn. If you have read the description of the book, you know what is about to happen, but it still did not come at the moment I was expecting it. After this unravelling, Emilia becomes very determined to find the murderer. And when I say very determined, I really mean very determined. I think there was a repetition, just about every other page, of how much she wanted to find the killer. Which had a terrible effect on the reading pace of the book. So much so that a prince of Hell couldn't make up for it... not even several.

It didn't help much, either, that the film Encanto came out at the same time. The way Emilia obsessively described foods, helped her family, how her appearance was described... everything was similar to Maribel. Which is a bit confussing when you see the *smut* fanart, haha.

Emilia was accompanied by one of the seven princes of Hell. All of them are characterised by sins and I very much loved how that was written. However, I don't think we got to read enough about the Princes of Hell throughout the book. The chapters about the sexy characters you come for, were full of riddles and veiled truths. As a result, you didn't get a deeper understanding of what really drove those characters. They were hot, though.

So I persevered.

The sarcasm and tension between the love interest and the main character made up for most of it. Sometimes, during the quest, you were even led astray. Almost led astray. The options of who the killer could be were very limited and very predictable. On top of that, the search of Maribel, uhh, I mean Emilia, ended rather abruptly and easily, if I may say so. This I found a great pity because throughout the book you are waiting for a higher goal to be reached.

Mini-spoiler... It is an open ending.

I often had to persuade myself not to give up on the book. Still, I really enjoyed certain parts of it. That is why I still give it two stars. The next book seems to be 'spicy', so if you are into that (not me) then the next book might take away the disappointment of the first part. I leave it to you!

This was it. Kisses and hugs!

Daniella,

Books&Butterflies

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Kingdom of The Wicked

★★☆☆☆