Committing to the TBR

I have finally finished the Kingdom of the Wicked series and boy did that take me longer than anticipated! For me, I flew through the first two installments so this third one was a little slower for me to finish this time around.

Wrath and Emilia’s love story continues, but the long-awaited bonding is not until at least 100 pages in. (OUCH for the people that have been waiting for this joining moment for these beloved characters.) I was very excited to finally read this book and complete their love story but was met with harsh situations where these characters could not be in the same room as each other.

Wrath, as a character in KOTF, felt rushed. Maniscalco in her first two installments created Wrath as a complex demon that had a love for Emilia without the audience knowing his secret curse in book three. I was a little confused with this plot in KOTF as I felt as he had shown his love all throughout the series thus far. Maybe I am taking this too literally, but I for sure would not be invested if it wasn’t for their connection throughout the Kingdom of the Wicked series and felt that love throughout the pages. I felt as though this could potentially be sloppy writing or editing just to complete the series to make it a trilogy. I felt as though this would have better carried over into four/five books or just a duology.

I was a little confused while I was reading as there were a lot of characters that I forgot about. Maybe this is just an issue for me and not for other readers but seriously let me know, but if you tend to jump around a lot of series, make sure to remember the characters here as they fill huge plot points towards the end!

Some plot points I do feel are very “deus ex machina.” Everything just so happens to work out all the time! I really didn’t think Vittoria would get away so easily, and towards the end, I still thought she was going to do something vengeful.

Although it does seem like I am ripping this book to shreds, I really did enjoy it. It was nice to conclude Wrath and Emilia’s journey which I have been invested in for years. We, as an audience, always knew there was something more to Emilia than she let on and her not remembering, makes complete sense! It does maybe make me want to go back and see what I missed first read around for the first two novels.

As I am a fan of Maniscalco’s descriptive writing style, I will definitely be reading her next book Throne of the Fallen but I’m hoping there are slightly more adult themes and concepts. We started to get it later throughout the series– but I’m always looking for that little extra.

On to the next!

Rating: 3/5