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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Genre/themes: fantasy fiction, thriller, paranormal, YA romance, new adult romance, dark fantasy.
Quote: “You always have the power of choice, even when those choices seem limited. Never forget that.”
After Emilia’s twin sister, Vittoria, is brutally murdered she finds a shadowed figure standing over her body, her blood on his hands. It sends her into a spiral of vengeance and she makes a deal with a forbidden force to get to the bottom of her sisters murder.
I saw some bad reviews about this book. People said it wasn’t worth it but I couldn’t disagree more. It was such an amazing book with great concepts and a wonderfully different and dark storyline. The unwanted partnership between a prince of hell and the witch causes no end of tension and so many emotions that just made me fall more in love with them. I loved the unpredictable-ness of the storyline with its twists and cannot wait to read the next one. Wrath was an absolute favourite from the start, maybe it’s his darkness or lurking power but I was entranced by him. I love him to bits.
I wish more was done with the whole bathing scene after the Viperidae attack but I’m also guessing maybe the next book will bring some enlightenment or something along those lines.
Quote: “You always have the power of choice, even when those choices seem limited. Never forget that.”
After Emilia’s twin sister, Vittoria, is brutally murdered she finds a shadowed figure standing over her body, her blood on his hands. It sends her into a spiral of vengeance and she makes a deal with a forbidden force to get to the bottom of her sisters murder.
I saw some bad reviews about this book. People said it wasn’t worth it but I couldn’t disagree more. It was such an amazing book with great concepts and a wonderfully different and dark storyline. The unwanted partnership between a prince of hell and the witch causes no end of tension and so many emotions that just made me fall more in love with them. I loved the unpredictable-ness of the storyline with its twists and cannot wait to read the next one. Wrath was an absolute favourite from the start, maybe it’s his darkness or lurking power but I was entranced by him. I love him to bits.
I wish more was done with the whole bathing scene after the Viperidae attack but I’m also guessing maybe the next book will bring some enlightenment or something along those lines.
slow-paced
This book makes me hungry.
I read this book in a day (well, technically I finished around 1am but that's hardly relevant) and once I was a few chapters in, it held my attention. The beginning of the book is by far the weakest. The prologue is almost entirely unnecessary and suffers from infodumping exposition that we could've found out naturally. Because this book is constantly reminding you about the Wicked, and demons, and hell, and how their grandmother always warned them to stay away. I understand the desire to share with the readers all the complex worldbuilding, but we're pretty good at filling in information for ourselves. Maniscalco doesn't seem to trust her readers' intelligence, which is pretty clear throughout the book in the repetition (and in the rather predictable plot twists). Another small complaint I have is that the editing in this is pretty sloppy. Comma splices? Really?
I like a dark romance now and then. That's not entirely what this felt like. Aside from being deceitful, Wrath is quite the gentleman, though I prefer perfect demon lovers to the borderline abusive human characters that populate half the genre.... He's not the most interesting of characters, but the nature of his magical relationship with Emilia kept me entertained.
Emilia is a perfectly serviceable heroine. She's clever, and I always enjoyed her verbal sparring with Wrath, and I'm also a big fan of female characters motivated by anger and revenge and other darker emotions. It's nice to see a character who draws such strength from her family, too. I also liked the witchy elements, with the connection to nature being an important part of her magic, though I would've liked to see her magic explored more within the story. Being a witch is so important to her identity, yet more talking about magic than actual performing occurs. Also, this is nitpicking, but her ability to see the luccicare is never relevant to the story. But she's interesting and dynamic, and her interiority made me smile a couple times.
The other characters in the story, I feel, were pretty weak. Vittoria only got interesting after she died, since the descriptions of her wild and carefree behavior rubbed me the wrong way. She didn't feel real--more like a stereotype than anything else, but I guess when a character is written to be a fridge, that happens. Nonna was frustrating, since the story couldn't keep her relevancy consistent, and she alternating being withholding and being used as a source of exposition.
The pacing and plot of the story was similarly inconsistent. Emilia is working to uncover the mystery of who is responsible for her sister's murder, but the events of the story often felt discrete from one another, and at times I was confused why she was just sitting around flirting with Wrath as the story moved in stops and starts. The ending was rushed and I counted a couple plot holes that left me confused; surely Maniscalco could've taken time to pump the brakes a little and give readers time to understand the major plot events.
Overall, this story is fun and has an interesting premise. It has a satisfying start to an enemies to lovers arc and has plenty of dark fantasy elements to keep me invested in the story. Stay tuned for my review of the second installation.
I read this book in a day (well, technically I finished around 1am but that's hardly relevant) and once I was a few chapters in, it held my attention. The beginning of the book is by far the weakest. The prologue is almost entirely unnecessary and suffers from infodumping exposition that we could've found out naturally. Because this book is constantly reminding you about the Wicked, and demons, and hell, and how their grandmother always warned them to stay away. I understand the desire to share with the readers all the complex worldbuilding, but we're pretty good at filling in information for ourselves. Maniscalco doesn't seem to trust her readers' intelligence, which is pretty clear throughout the book in the repetition (and in the rather predictable plot twists). Another small complaint I have is that the editing in this is pretty sloppy. Comma splices? Really?
I like a dark romance now and then. That's not entirely what this felt like. Aside from being deceitful, Wrath is quite the gentleman, though I prefer perfect demon lovers to the borderline abusive human characters that populate half the genre.... He's not the most interesting of characters, but the nature of his magical relationship with Emilia kept me entertained.
Emilia is a perfectly serviceable heroine. She's clever, and I always enjoyed her verbal sparring with Wrath, and I'm also a big fan of female characters motivated by anger and revenge and other darker emotions. It's nice to see a character who draws such strength from her family, too. I also liked the witchy elements, with the connection to nature being an important part of her magic, though I would've liked to see her magic explored more within the story. Being a witch is so important to her identity, yet more talking about magic than actual performing occurs. Also, this is nitpicking, but her ability to see the luccicare is never relevant to the story. But she's interesting and dynamic, and her interiority made me smile a couple times.
The other characters in the story, I feel, were pretty weak. Vittoria only got interesting after she died, since the descriptions of her wild and carefree behavior rubbed me the wrong way. She didn't feel real--more like a stereotype than anything else, but I guess when a character is written to be a fridge, that happens. Nonna was frustrating, since the story couldn't keep her relevancy consistent, and she alternating being withholding and being used as a source of exposition.
The pacing and plot of the story was similarly inconsistent. Emilia is working to uncover the mystery of who is responsible for her sister's murder, but the events of the story often felt discrete from one another, and at times I was confused why she was just sitting around flirting with Wrath as the story moved in stops and starts. The ending was rushed and I counted a couple plot holes that left me confused; surely Maniscalco could've taken time to pump the brakes a little and give readers time to understand the major plot events.
Overall, this story is fun and has an interesting premise. It has a satisfying start to an enemies to lovers arc and has plenty of dark fantasy elements to keep me invested in the story. Stay tuned for my review of the second installation.
DNF at 42% because the worldbuilding or something was off i don’t remember i just didnt enjoy it