A few years ago, I reviewed Kingdom of the Wicked, the first part of the series by the same name by Kerri Maniscalco. Given the fact that a new spin-off novel is soon to be released, I thought it time to make a series review.

Attention:  I will be reviewing all books of the series in this post (gradually), but everything apart from the first book will be hidden so that you will not see any spoilers for the rest of the series (unless you want to, of course). Please note that the review of the first book also contains some spoilers as I couldn’t write an honest review without mentioning some parts in this case.

Book 1: Kingdom of the Wicked

The Seven Circles of Hell

Kingdom of the Wicked tells the story of two twin sisters with magical powers, Emilia and Vittoria. As of an early age, they are taught to stay away of anything connected to black magic by their grandmother, out of fear that they might draw the attention of “The wicked”. The wicked are the seven princes of hell, representing the seven deadly sins of Christianity: Pride – Wrath – Gluttony – Envy – Greed – Lust – Sloth. Each has their own Royal House in Hell.

“There are seven demon princes, but only four di Carlos should fear: Wrath, Greed, Envy, and Pride. One will crave your blood. One will capture your heart. One will steal your soul. And one will take your life.”

When Vittoria is brutally murdered, Emilia sets out on a quests for vengeance that brings her into contact with Prince Wrath, who is on a mission of his own. Can she trust him to combine forces to solve the murder? Or is he as devious as her grandmother always said he was?

Kingdom of the Wicked

I quite liked the idea of hellish nobility with their own concepts of politeness and social rules etc. Give me a dashing devil any time of the week 😉 And the book definitely succeeded to capture my interest as of the beginning. I liked the sense of foreboding. For example, the first X chapters all end with a dark premonition that keeps you wanting to read on.

However, I sometimes felt confused by the story (and so did the author, she famously confused which sister was murdered on page 50). I thought you had the seven princes and they answered to the king, but the king is actually one of the seven? Did I understand that correctly? Emilia’s confusion doesn’t really help the reader either. She constantly switches ideas and beliefs and comes across as an unreliable narrator, but I’m not convinced that was actually what the author was going for. All in all, I’m not convinced by the writing style.

I did appreciate the excerpts of grimoires, diaries and documents however. In my edition (the Premiere Collectables edition), they were rendered as images of pages and it really broke the text a bit, which is always nice. The only one that disappointed me was an example of a contract to sell your soul. Really. It looked like something I would have written when I was 12 to get out of PE the next day. Like I said, I love the idea of excerpts, but they need to look the part.

Or not so wicked

I also quite liked the focus on kitchen witchcraft. I agree with some reviewers that the focus on food is maybe a bit over the top, but it’s refreshing to encounter this type of witchcraft in a novel. It’s not one you would typically be introduced to unless you are reading non-fiction witch books. Kerri Maniscalco clearly did her homework, because the spells she mentions made quite a lot of sense.

What I don’t understand though is how badly the grandmother prepared the two sisters. Emilia literally seems to be learning everything on the fly. I get not wanting your granddaughters to meddle in dark magic, but really, a bit more info would have come in quite handy. This also contributes to the confusion the story causes. Emilia believe X, then is proven Y and hop, we start again. It felt a bit like the Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris (you know, True Blood). Interesting, but do we really need so many new types of creatures to be introduced as the story progresses? Suddenly there are vampires, werewolves…It starts to feel as too much icing to hide that the cake was a bit burned…

“My true name doesn’t concern you. Address me by my House title. Unless you’d like to call me His Royal Highness of Undeniable Desire. That’s always an acceptable option. If you want to bow, I wouldn’t mind that either. A little groveling goes a long way. I may grant you a boon and make your death swift.”

Sexy dark princes, who doesn’t love them? And especially if they start saying things like the quotation above. Wrath reminded me of a more self-confident and demonic version of Nasir from We Hunt the Flame (Hafsah Faizal). But to be honest, he just couldn’t capture my attention for very long. He’s really not as devilish as you would expect. And the passion between him and Emilia didn’t feel believable to me. But maybe that’s also due to the fact that I really did not appreciate Emilia.

All in all, I wasn’t convinced, but the story clearly shows potential: Three out of five gemstones:

Book 2: Kingdom of the Cursed

Summary & Evaluation Attention: Spoilers! (click here)

Okay… Now I’m even less sure about this series. There were some improvements compared to book one. For example, some of the gaps and confusing elements of the first part were explained in book two, which makes me wonder whether this had been the plan all along, or whether the author actually listened to the feedback and improved her storytelling. Either way, this was a huge step forward on the level of coherence. Furthermore, the obsession with food has diminished (the setting also doesn’t allow for it, to be fair) and has been replaced with a lot of sensory info about smells, colours, and textures. This made me so curious about the MBTI profile of the author, could this be a sign that she’s a sensor? I also liked several of the supporting characters.

Unfortunately, I still could not stand the main characters. Emilia is just way too annoying and she isn’t half as bad-ass as she seems to think she is. Furthermore, that’s a feeling I had about almost all of the characters: they seem a bit like fakers to me. For example, the princes aren’t half as evil as you could reasonably expect princes of Hell to be either…But what bothered me most of all: there didn’t seem to be a plot and what little there was was very, VERY predictable. There was clearly more smut in this book (hence the new label), however, I didn’t particularly like any of the spicy scenes as they seemed completely random to me.

In conclusion, I was not at all convinced: 2 gemstones out of 5.

Book 3: Kingdom of the Feared

Summary & Evaluation Attention: Spoilers! (click here)

I officially gave up on this series and stopped reading after about 100 pages into book three. I have to admit, the writing style has once again improved compared to book two, but I couldn’t be bothered to pretend to be interested in the plot, nor in any of the either annoying or boring characters any longer. Granted, the spicy scenes weren’t bad and the concept is still interesting, but it’s just not for me.

In conclusion, once again: 2 gemstones out of 5.

Age Category: Young Adult (book 1) – New Adult (book 2 – 3)

Trigger Warnings (click here, may contain spoilers)

Warnings for death of family members, each of the seven sins, dubious consent.

Do you want to discover more?

If my review inspired you to pick up the first book, don’t hesitate to check it out at Goodreads or at the below online stores.

Amazon.nl: Hardcover Edition

Amazon.nl: Paperback Edition

Amazon.nl: eBook Edition

Or you could buy the hardcover boxset of course.

There are several special editions available of this series.

First of all, there’s the Fairyloot edition. Kingdom of the Wicked was featured in their Young Adult book box of October 2020. This edition has an exclusive cover with foiling, a reversible dust jacket, stenciled edges, and – most importantly – contains bonus content. It was also digitally signed and came with a signed book plate and author letter. They also did matching editions of book two and three (unsigned) which cost about € 25 each. These go for quite a lot on the second hand market, so you can expect to pay € 80 – 120 per book or €250 and up for the set.

Next, there’s also the Premiere Collectible edition, which comes with two art prints, a signed bookplate, and a certificate of authenticity.  I’m not sure what these go for, recently, but I was able to buy my copy of the first book for € 40 on the second hand market. I saw that they also did an edition for the second book, but the third one I haven’t seen yet.

Last but not least, there are also the Waterstones Exclusive editions, with their sprayed edges, and bookplate (book one and two). I’m not sure about their prices either, but my best guess would be around € 45 per book.

Similar to this

I have to say I find it rather difficult to recommend similar books, which is either a point in favour for Kingdom of the Wicked or a good excuse to go to the bookstore.

As I mentioned, I got a bit of a Sookie Stackhouse vibe, so in case you haven’t read the Southern Vampire Mysteries Series by Charlaine Harris, I would recommend you to check it out. Also known as the Sookie Stackhouse Series or True Blood, this series follows a young girl from Bon Temps in a world that is getting used to the presence of Vampires. This book series is suitable for a wide audience (I read them when I was about 16 and my grandmother read them when she was close to her 70s already).

Prince Wrath also somewhat reminded me of the Prince of Death in We Hunt the flame by Hafsah Faizal. I was OBSESSED with this duology for so long. It tells the story of a huntress and an assassin prince and is set in a magical, Arabian inspired setting. My full review can be found here.

As mentioned earlier, Kerri Maniscalco will soon release an adult, spin-off, stand-alone novel, which will be the first in a new trilogy. This book will be called Throne of the Fallen and will focus on one of Wrath’s brothers, namely the Prince of Envy.

I would also really like to read the Stalking Jack the Ripper Series by the same author, that story seems to have a lot of potential.

And finally, if you are into wickedly handsome devils, check out Lucifer on Netflix. If only Wrath would have had half of his charm…