Reviews

Kingdom of the Feared by Kerri Maniscalco

jabbeline's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

lmanzo10's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

sararvsilva's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“𝐼 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝓀𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁. 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓈𝑜𝓊𝓁 𝒸𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑒. 𝐼𝓉’𝓈 𝒶 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝒻 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝑜𝓂𝑒. 𝒪𝒻 𝓅𝑒𝒶𝒸𝑒. 𝒩𝑜 𝓂𝒶𝑔𝒾𝒸 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒹𝓊𝓅𝓁𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝒾𝓉.”

𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 - 𝑲𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒊 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒄𝒐

What a book. I loved every page of it. This was a great ending to the trilogy and I loved how different it was to the other two books. All the flaws I pointed out in the other books were nowhere to be found in this one. This was an action-packed book, and it was also full of plot twists and answers to things that happened before that made no sense.

The first thing that I noticed was different in this book was the amount of spice it had. I loved it, especially because I think it matched Wrath's personality very well, but it was definitely different from the other books. One other thing that was different was how every chapter had something to add to the story. There was some kind of discovery or plot revealed in every chapter and it made the book so much more captivating, this was something missing in the other books.

I also, NEED, to mention the characters. There were so many great surprises on characters that I enjoyed but didn’t pay much attention to. It made the whole trilogy make more sense and gave it more depth. Wrath had already had his character development in the other books which I loved, but this one was focused on Emilia and what a character development it was. I loved how, after one scene, we could notice right away the difference in her personality. And I loved how it evolved and how she managed it to become who she really wanted to be.

This is one of those books that I will be thinking about for a whole week. It was great and I didn’t want it to end. I know the beginning of the trilogy is not the best, but I promise that the end is worth it!

karinciksok's review against another edition

2.0

Let's just preface this by saying - I am not Italian; the Italian words/foods could have been exchanged for any generic fantasy and I would've still loved it because of the feeling of home that it managed to give off.

What I liked about [b: Kingdom of the Wicked|52735921|Kingdom of the Wicked (Kingdom of the Wicked, #1)|Kerri Maniscalco|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578938260l/52735921._SX50_SY75_.jpg|73119188] was:

* The chemistry between the characters;
* The Italian culture included quite organically;
* The humour;
* The pacing that was never quite calm, but had some slower moments in between all the detective work;
* The plot that just made sense.

Somehow all of these things were missing from the series finale.

Lately, I don't tend to read series before they are finished - all the hype and excitement just get me a bit too obsessed. However, this time I decided to give the series a shot before the final book was released because the covers were cute, the books were all over my Instagram feed and I foolishly thought "September isn't that far, is it?"

What I mean is - I've been waiting for this book and looking at my calendar for about 7 months now. That is a long time for me to remember the character names, the book and even the fact that I want to read the next book. My expectations got away with me. The second book wasn't everything I could've wanted but I still saw the potential that KotW had and couldn't wait to get to the final book and see how everything ties up.

I understand that authors need to sell the next series they're working on and it is way easier to do that in established worlds and just by elaborating on characters that were left in the background in the previous series. But I want those next series to be separate. I don't want to read about unnecessary background character love triangles, squares or even pentagons when I could have spent more time in the story that I came to this series to read.

I feel like I read an ad. Like a bunch of movie trailers were suddenly in the middle of a movie that I actually wanted to enjoy.

Sarah J. Maas and Cassandra Clare are well known as masters of the never-ending YA series. I have stopped reading all the books they release as soon as they are available, however, giving credit where it's due - they have never made the side characters feel like as much of an intrusion. I might be misremembering, but their pacing never suffered this much.

Even though this book wasn't even that bad and was probably just the thing that should have been expected after the second book completely changed everything, I thought this was cheap.

What I miss most and what could have saved the book even when the events were a bit much, was the feeling of home the first book managed spectacularly. It's a story about how she was lulled into this safe little Sicilian world and then thrown into a viper's nest in KotC, proving in KotF that the lullaby was always a lie. But does that mean that it had to become so generic and lose all its personality in the meanwhile? It could've become a story about how the past 20 years have changed her and how now that is truly a part of her. Instead, she returns to being the Fury and loses most of the things that made her Emilia.

That is another part of the plot that I didn't appreciate at all. The "reborn and lost all memories of her previous life" trope gets on my nerves most times, but wow, did it ruin the character now. I was following Emilia, an 18-year-old girl from a small town who had little power and less knowledge about what to do with it. Then in a heartbeat, I was no longer with Emilia. There was only Fury who I had never met but she was supposed to have these urges of uncontrolled anger that were never shown, but we were told she was supposed to be a terrible person. Where did she come from? How does this have anything to do with Emilia? It never felt organic. Maybe this could've been helped by some flashback scenes. And no, the ones we got of her on her knees and Wrath were not nearly enough to explain who she used to be.

If you are going to completely revamp your main character, please, give me a reason to care about version 2.0.

And yet I was still entertained throughout most of the book, the cover is still amazing and I can acknowledge the fact that I am only writing this long of a review because I do feel like this had a lot of potential.

All in all, I am a bit disappointed, a bit mad, a bit confused and still a bit in love (or is this already the heartbreak phase?).

georgisabina's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

herbaceousriot's review against another edition

4.0

This was my favorite of the three books. This isn't really my style of read so I'm not sure it's fair for me to leave a review. It's really, really, really heavy in the romance genre more than anything. I was skipping whole chapters. That being said, I liked the story and the characters so much I read all three books. I think that says a lot about the books. If you like a lot of heated romance and a bit of fantasy I'd say this is your perfect read.

emwalker0406's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

oatmealolga's review against another edition

1.0

the first 2 books? fantastic, ate them right up. this one? no. The plot dragged and to be honest, I don't think this series needed a third book. If you want full closure on the series, read it, otherwise, leave this one out.

2nd2lastunicorn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

With new powers she never knew she could possess starting to manifest, and memories she doesn’t fully grasp desperately trying to break free, Emilia has to find the complete truth in order to save herself and Wrath from the curse that started it all. But with the tangled web of lies, can they pluck the right threads to create something better or will it completely unravel?

This was a great conclusion to the trilogy! Lots of action, lots of spice, lots of intrigue! I thoroughly enjoyed Emilia and Wrath’s dynamic the most in this book and how they complement each other. Overall it’s a solid trilogy!

emmabussolotta's review against another edition

3.0

meh