I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
Series: Kingdom of the Wicked #1
Published by Jimmy Patterson on 10/27/20
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Historical, Mystery & Detective, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 448
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Two sisters.
One brutal murder.
A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself...
And an intoxicating romance.
Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe - witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family's renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin...desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister's killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that's been long forbidden.

Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia's side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women's murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is at is seems...

Short and Sweet Review

Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are witches who secretly live among humans. One night when Vittoria doesn’t come to the families restaurant for dinner service, Emilia goes out to look for her and ends up finding Vittoria’s body in the street. Emilia vows to find her sisters killer and get revenge, and this requires her to use forbidden dark magic. While on this quest Emilia meets Wrath, a Prince of Hell. Wrath wants to find out who has been murdering witches, so the two of them team up.

We start the book when Emilia and Vittoria are 8 years old and we learn that they were entrusted with necklaces given to them by their nonna. The story takes place when both girls are now 18 years old and they just want to live normal lives but that isn’t in the cards for both of them. The gates of hell are weakening and we learn that the necklaces the girls have are important to what’s happening. After Vittoria’s death Emilia learns that her sister was keeping secrets and she tries to discover what they are. Emilia starts by summoning a demon she thinks its simple but she ends up summoning a Prince of Hell. Emilia has heard her entire life that The Prince’s of Hell cannot be trusted so she’s wary of everything that Wrath says but she knows it could be beneficial to work with him.

The relationship between Wrath and Emilia was an interesting one. They go back and forth a lot, he doesn’t necessarily want to work with her and he doesn’t like the fact that he was summoned. Emilia on the other hand isn’t too excited about this partnership either but she deals with the hand she was dealt. Over the course of the book we can see that these two do care about each other. There is a bit of romance between them which was steamy. I wish there was more but Emilia had a hard time trusting him so things weren’t exactly great between them in the end.

Wrath’s goal is to find a bride for Pride, but when he meets Emilia his goal changes to finding who is murdering the potential brides. I liked seeing Emilia and Wrath follow leads. Emilia did go off on her own sometimes which did put her in a lot of danger. We also get to meet a few other Prince’s of Hell and they definitely live up to their names.

I did not want to pick this book down! I was so invested in what would happen next. I can’t wait until the sequel is released, the cliffhanger in this book left me wanting more. I loved the plot and the characters and would definitely recommend that everyone checks this book out!!!