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lauraciriza 's review for:
Kingdom of the Wicked
by Kerri Maniscalco
#1: Kingdom of the Wicked ★★☆☆☆
Blood and bones! What a disappointment this was!
I must start this review saying that I have been a fan of Kerri's since Stalking Jack the Ripper came out, and I was really invested in this book when it was announced. Now that I have finally had time to read it, I find myself truly disappointed.
First of all, this book was a great chunck of telling and not showing. With the main character, Emilia, being told everything she didn't know at any given time. Conversations looked like interrogations at times.
Secondly, her anger at being lied to by Wrath in regards of their marriage bond made no sense since it had been her own spell that had created the bond. So either the character was so stupid she said words she didn't understand, or the author expected the readers to not know Latin so as to make this some great plot twist. Alas, the plot point fell flat.
Lastly, the story felt disjointed, scenes breaking from one another, feeling rushed and pointless at times, as if the editing process of them had been messy and left unfinished.
That said, the thing that bugs me the most is how the plot of this book is eerily familiar to the Vampire Girl Series by Karpov Kinrade. Sure, the main character and her family are not the same, and their motivations vary, but the princes of hell and their houses, even their interactions with each other, are quite the same. That last conversation between Envy and Wrath was almost word by word reminiscent of a scene in Vampire Girl.
It truly nags at me the wrong way.
Plus, it really hurts to see how her writing style has declined from the first book she published until now. As it did with Escaping from Houdini this feels like she paid too much mind to an author friend of hers (if you know, you know) and that influenced her writing to the point where it doesn't feel like hers anymore, yet it sounds terribly like something that other author would write. I really see no other explanation for it.