Review | Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

Title: Kingdom of the Wicked 
Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Publisher: JIMMY Patterson
Release Date: October 27, 2020

“Fear made monsters of men.”

---

There was a lot I liked about this, but there was a lot that let me down too so it ended up just being an okay read for me. And it’s been a little too long for me to share my thoughts in any formal way so we’re going with a list of positives and negatives …

• I love me a demon/Princes of Hell story, so we’re off to a good start
• The prologue had some excellent set up for worldbuilding, but then it just kinda jumps around and is not the best
• Like what the hell was the festival at the beginning for?
• The writing is very tell not show
• When Emilia sees the creep/killer for the first time, she suspects he’s not human because his aura is black with gold flecks, not lavender – but we’re never told that a human’s aura is lavender in the first place
• And this style of stating facts like the reader already knows them – even though you haven’t told us – happens a few times and it bugged me each time.
• While I totally called the necklace thing, it’s metal as hell and I liked it
•The atmosphere actually ended up being really cool – there was an unease that heightened the tension and stakes.
• I craved Italian food throughout the entire story.
•A good cliffhanger and wraps up some questions and introduces new ones.

Overall while the writing style wasn’t my favorite, I had a fun time reading this and thought Kingdom of the Wicked was a good foundation for the rest of the series. I’m not going to rush out the get book two, but if my library continues to have the series, I’ll probably pick them up at some point.