Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Re-read May 9, 2023 (4 stars)
I never actually finished this series and I really wanted to, but it'd been such a long time since I read the first book that I decided to go back to it. And if I may say so, this was a very different reading experience listening to the audio.
Some of the stuff that apparently bothered me originally didn't really phase me this time around. I still couldn't say what time period this is supposed to be set in, but I like that. It makes the story have a timeless feel to it and honestly that's a nice change of pace from the dated books where from the moment they mention cellphones, it's more clear what era you're in.
It still is a little unclear if the other princes were summoned or if they're just freely wandering the earth. I feel like sometimes their actions and personalities are a bit off, too. It would've made more sense if Wrath was the prince who influenced Antonio to start murdering witches. If it had been Envy, wouldn't it have made more sense for Antonio to take their hearts because he was trying to steal their magic or something? I think even Gluttony could have worked-- always wanting more doesn't just mean food.
The "mystery" is still one of the weakest parts of the book. I don't even know if this book was meant to have elements of the mystery genre, since there were no real clues and Emilia's investigations had her jumping from one suspect to the next with hardly any evidence. Something that is pointed out multiple times, I might add. In fact, her whole "well it can't be a witch hunter, wait maybe it is" thing got super repetitive after a while to the point where I would swear the author repeated herself word-for-word, or near enough.
The writing itself is still excellent, and though I still wasn't sold on the "romance", the dynamic between Emilia and Wrath was written well. Looking forward to finally getting to the sequel!
Original review October 23, 2020 (3 stars)
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinion was not affected by the free copy.
Despite my eventual disenchantment with her Jack the Ripper series, I still liked Maniscalco's writing enough to be interested when I saw this book. That's what makes this one hard for me to rate: I did like parts of it and I think the author is very talented in certain areas. I just think she's very weak in others.
Let's get the negatives out of the way first, as always. I wasn't entirely sure what time period this was set in and on the one hand, I kind of liked that as it gave a very timeless quality to the writing. It didn't feel dated by pop cultural references or mentioning certain technology. I also don't know a lot about Italian history so I couldn't really grasp if anything going on was supposed to be accurate to how people acted back whenever this was supposed to take place. Except when it came to the attitudes of people concerning Vittoria's habit of talking constantly about the devil and otherwise shooting her mouth off inappropriately. Are you seriously telling me that people just laughed that off? I don't think comments like that would be ignored or seen as a joke TODAY, let alone back in earlier time periods. Especially considering that they had a family friend who was in the church.
Another thing that bothered me was the portrayal of demons. I had to suspend my disbelief but even factoring that in, the rules just don't make any sense. How is it that lesser demons have more power and freedom than the princes of Hell? And what exactly are the rules of demons coming and going? Are we to assume that all the princes of Hell featured in this book were summoned by someone? If so, who summoned which prince? If not, why is their influence only just now noticeable? Were they always able to come and go or is this a more recent development?
Regarding the mystery, it was pretty poorly constructed. I don't know if this is intentional or not, since Emilia never even looked for clues that might have pointed her to the culprit. On the one hand, I can understand why she focused her attention where she did, but on the other, if this was meant to be a mystery then there was no evidence to suggest that anyone was guilty of anything. Something characters actually point out when Emilia tries to accuse them. Yes, the culprit wasn't difficult to figure out; I just wish there was more investigating and clue-gathering to help reach that conclusion.
And then we have the romance. If this can even qualify as a romance. The "enemies to lovers" trope isn't a terrible one, except it was so hard to tell Wrath's motivations or reasons for him to be interested in Emilia. A lot of their "romance" was literally forced. I would've been fine if this was portrayed as something dark and twisted, but no, I think this was supposed to be seen as hot and steamy and worth rooting for. Not the direction I want to go in when one of them is a demon. A very sad sort of demon, too. Sometimes he seemed legitimately threatening but not in the same way as the other princes Emilia comes across in the narrative. Again, not sure if this is because of plot reasons or because the author didn't want the romantic lead to be too threatening.
Oh, and Emilia has a special power that goes nowhere and adds nothing. If you cut it out, nothing would be lost. Same with a power Vittoria mentions she has. What was the point in that?
All that said, the writing is still very good. The opening prologue intrigued me immediately. I wish that the entire book was written like that rather than sticking us in Emilia's point of view. The action scenes were good and so was the atmosphere. I don't know much about cooking but there are a lot of descriptions about food and cooking that will make your mouth water. There are also some pretty violent and gory scenes in this that should be handled with discretion if you're thinking of giving this book to a younger reader. There's a pretty disturbing and uncomfortable scene that I thought was written well but am on the fence on how it was actually handled in the story, and while I'm not a fan of the romance, there's no denying Maniscalco has a talent for writing steamy scenes.
I think if this book had more firmly embraced the dark tone and cut out the romance entirely, it would've turned out a lot better. There are some interesting discussions about good and evil, the choices a person makes, how far someone would go for a person they loved, and it touches on grief and depression in very well-written ways. In some ways it's a hot mess but it's not without its better moments. Read for yourself and see what you think!
I never actually finished this series and I really wanted to, but it'd been such a long time since I read the first book that I decided to go back to it. And if I may say so, this was a very different reading experience listening to the audio.
Some of the stuff that apparently bothered me originally didn't really phase me this time around. I still couldn't say what time period this is supposed to be set in, but I like that. It makes the story have a timeless feel to it and honestly that's a nice change of pace from the dated books where from the moment they mention cellphones, it's more clear what era you're in.
It still is a little unclear if the other princes were summoned or if they're just freely wandering the earth. I feel like sometimes their actions and personalities are a bit off, too. It would've made more sense if Wrath was the prince who influenced Antonio to start murdering witches. If it had been Envy, wouldn't it have made more sense for Antonio to take their hearts because he was trying to steal their magic or something? I think even Gluttony could have worked-- always wanting more doesn't just mean food.
The "mystery" is still one of the weakest parts of the book. I don't even know if this book was meant to have elements of the mystery genre, since there were no real clues and Emilia's investigations had her jumping from one suspect to the next with hardly any evidence. Something that is pointed out multiple times, I might add. In fact, her whole "well it can't be a witch hunter, wait maybe it is" thing got super repetitive after a while to the point where I would swear the author repeated herself word-for-word, or near enough.
The writing itself is still excellent, and though I still wasn't sold on the "romance", the dynamic between Emilia and Wrath was written well. Looking forward to finally getting to the sequel!
Original review October 23, 2020 (3 stars)
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinion was not affected by the free copy.
Despite my eventual disenchantment with her Jack the Ripper series, I still liked Maniscalco's writing enough to be interested when I saw this book. That's what makes this one hard for me to rate: I did like parts of it and I think the author is very talented in certain areas. I just think she's very weak in others.
Let's get the negatives out of the way first, as always. I wasn't entirely sure what time period this was set in and on the one hand, I kind of liked that as it gave a very timeless quality to the writing. It didn't feel dated by pop cultural references or mentioning certain technology. I also don't know a lot about Italian history so I couldn't really grasp if anything going on was supposed to be accurate to how people acted back whenever this was supposed to take place. Except when it came to the attitudes of people concerning Vittoria's habit of talking constantly about the devil and otherwise shooting her mouth off inappropriately. Are you seriously telling me that people just laughed that off? I don't think comments like that would be ignored or seen as a joke TODAY, let alone back in earlier time periods. Especially considering that they had a family friend who was in the church.
Another thing that bothered me was the portrayal of demons. I had to suspend my disbelief but even factoring that in, the rules just don't make any sense. How is it that lesser demons have more power and freedom than the princes of Hell? And what exactly are the rules of demons coming and going? Are we to assume that all the princes of Hell featured in this book were summoned by someone? If so, who summoned which prince? If not, why is their influence only just now noticeable? Were they always able to come and go or is this a more recent development?
Regarding the mystery, it was pretty poorly constructed. I don't know if this is intentional or not, since Emilia never even looked for clues that might have pointed her to the culprit. On the one hand, I can understand why she focused her attention where she did, but on the other, if this was meant to be a mystery then there was no evidence to suggest that anyone was guilty of anything. Something characters actually point out when Emilia tries to accuse them. Yes, the culprit wasn't difficult to figure out; I just wish there was more investigating and clue-gathering to help reach that conclusion.
And then we have the romance. If this can even qualify as a romance. The "enemies to lovers" trope isn't a terrible one, except it was so hard to tell Wrath's motivations or reasons for him to be interested in Emilia. A lot of their "romance" was literally forced. I would've been fine if this was portrayed as something dark and twisted, but no, I think this was supposed to be seen as hot and steamy and worth rooting for. Not the direction I want to go in when one of them is a demon. A very sad sort of demon, too. Sometimes he seemed legitimately threatening but not in the same way as the other princes Emilia comes across in the narrative. Again, not sure if this is because of plot reasons or because the author didn't want the romantic lead to be too threatening.
Oh, and Emilia has a special power that goes nowhere and adds nothing. If you cut it out, nothing would be lost. Same with a power Vittoria mentions she has. What was the point in that?
All that said, the writing is still very good. The opening prologue intrigued me immediately. I wish that the entire book was written like that rather than sticking us in Emilia's point of view. The action scenes were good and so was the atmosphere. I don't know much about cooking but there are a lot of descriptions about food and cooking that will make your mouth water. There are also some pretty violent and gory scenes in this that should be handled with discretion if you're thinking of giving this book to a younger reader. There's a pretty disturbing and uncomfortable scene that I thought was written well but am on the fence on how it was actually handled in the story, and while I'm not a fan of the romance, there's no denying Maniscalco has a talent for writing steamy scenes.
I think if this book had more firmly embraced the dark tone and cut out the romance entirely, it would've turned out a lot better. There are some interesting discussions about good and evil, the choices a person makes, how far someone would go for a person they loved, and it touches on grief and depression in very well-written ways. In some ways it's a hot mess but it's not without its better moments. Read for yourself and see what you think!
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I really like this as an opening there was enough going on to keep me interested
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love this world and I am so surprised wtf is happening with this ending
I am very appreciative of the way the characters were written in this book. Our FMC is logical, thoughtful, emotional, and matures before our eyes. I LOVE being able to actively watch and follow the growth during a story like this. That being said, while the writing was some of the best I've read recently, the story was not gripping enough for me to continue to the 2nd book at the moment.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
tense
So it's just ended like that? Is the end about Wrath or Pride?
dark
emotional
mysterious
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Dark and witchy vibes were immaculate! There is a lot to take in with the story, so I felt lost at some points, but overall I enjoyed it and looking forward to the next book.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A