Review: Kingdom of the Wicked

• Title: Kingdom of the Wicked

• Author: Kerri Maniscalco

• Series: Kingdom of the Wicked #1

• Genre: YA Fantasy / Fantasy Romance / Paranormal

• Rating: ☆☆☆☆

“Envy whispers in your ear and every action I’ve taken is wiped off your imaginary tally. Tell me, Emilia, what has he done for you? Aside from trying to carve out your heart. What honourable thing did he do to deserve your trust? Spill the blood of those you love? Maybe you like threats. Maybe I should maker some of my own.”

I really, really wanted to love this story. Witches, demons, threats and betrayals? It’s something I’ve come to enjoy in fantasy novels. And whilst all of that is present in Kingdom of the Wicked, it failed to impress me as a 5 star read as I had hoped it to. This is purely down to the pacing of this novel. It was far too erratic, with twists and turns happening on top of the other, so much so that there was no time to contemplate the next step before it was happening. I would have liked this had it been set up better. Whilst everything was piled on top of the other, there was hardly any resolution to what had just happened, let alone enough build-up to warrant the feelings Emilia experienced at times. I struggled with this multiple times throughout the story, which disappointed me because there was so much potential for this world to hit me harder. Emilia was a character that weakened as the book continued, whilst Wrath became formidable. In the beginning, I adored Emilia’s way of thinking and what felt like rational and well-thought out steps. I liked that even if she was unfamiliar with the dark arts she was dabbling in, she was able to hold her own against some of the Malvagi. She didn’t readily step into promises and stopped to think first. Granted, grief and recklessness come hand in hand, and the further the world turned hopeless, it made sense for Emilia to grow hasty in her decisions or muddled in thoughts. However, I felt it cheapened her character to flit around as much as she was. Part of this came from the pacing, but the rest was her character development. Which was a huge shame as I had started the novel quite fascinated by her. Wrath, however, went in the opposite direction, and I thoroughly enjoyed his development. He was every bit of wicked as he was gentle to Emilia. Whilst he was fuelled by his pursuits, there was no denying he felt at least a bit of genuine connection towards her. If I push aside the pacing of the story, the actual plot is very clever and some of the twists were executed well. Others were hasty or so left field I struggled to understand their place in the progression. I had also guessed from the beginning the role of some characters, but how it came to fruition only left more questions than answers by the final page. I was unsatisfied with the ending because so much had happened and yet so little in the same breath. I know there is more in this series to allow these questions to find resolutions, but I felt Maniscalco could have extended the writing of this first book to answer some of these and slow the pace down enough to leave some parts of the story less rushed and pushed together. In saying all this, I gave it 4 stars because throughout it all, I recognised it was an interesting story enough to have me invested to reach out for the second book. I now wonder if the way this novel was written was cleverly done so to have the reader struck with as much confusion and interest as I now hold for Emilia, the Malvagi, and what will now happen within the pages of Kingdom of the Cursed.

Reviews of this series: Kingdom of the Cursed | Kingdom of the Feared (coming soon)