This post contains light spoilers for the Kingdom of the Wicked series.
The Kingdom of the Wicked trilogy has been a popular fixture in the online book world over the last couple years, and for good reason. Book 1 was an instant favorite for me, and I gave both it and book 2 four stars each.
But then we got a genre bait-and-switch. Book 3 doesn’t match the series in content or tone, and I personally felt it threw a wrench in the whole series.
The long and short of it is…I couldn’t finish it. Let’s discuss.
What is the series about?
In book 1, Kingdom of the Wicked, we follow Emilia, an eighteen-year-old witch in 1800s Italy. When someone brutally murders her twin sister, Vittoria, Emilia embarks on a quest for vengeance – one that leads her to mistakenly summon a prince of Hell who embodies one of the 7 deadly sins: Wrath.
But not all is as it seems. As Emilia works to uncover the truth about her sister’s death, she finds herself wrapped up in a plot that goes beyond Earth and into Hell itself.
While not perfect, I enjoyed books 1 and 2.
Kingdom of the Wicked was fun and atmospheric. I really felt I could envision the Italian city, the food, and her family’s restaurant. There was romantic intrigue. I also enjoyed the plot and the characters. It was great for a fun, dark, and easy read.
This book is labelled Young Adult (YA). Important note: books 1 and 2 were both presented by JIMMY Patterson Books, which is a YA imprint at Little, Brown.
In the sequel, Kingdom of the Cursed, the series definitely moved into new adult territory, though the publisher still labelled it YA. There was a lot of steamy romantic tension. It was still enjoyable – the new setting in Hell was fun, meeting all the princes of Hell and their courts was interesting, and there was still a lot of focus on unravelling the mystery of Emilia and Vittoria’s histories and fates.
In both books, I dropped a star because of some qualms I had with both the writing and pacing that drew me out of the reading experience at times. I was close to giving Kingdom of the Cursed 3 stars, but decided on 4 because I enjoyed it for the most part.
I quit book 3 halfway through.
I pre-ordered this book. I was excited. To not want to finish it was such a disappointment. Here’s a quick summary of my critiques:
- There was so much dialogue on every page (I don’t think Emilia was EVER alone). Just passages and passages of it
- Too much exposition (delivered via the excessive dialogue)
- Explanations and anticipated scenes felt anticlimactic in their delivery
- Characters and relationships felt dull and flat compared to the first two books
- Emilia as a character was different, and not in a good way
- From sheltered and inexperienced in book 1 to completely owning her sexuality in book 3? And with no real experience to back it up? Hard pass
- She got a little magic and then started acting all tough…I cringed at her behavior a few times
One of the main draws for me in the first two books was the mystery, and Emilia’s efforts to uncover the truth. We lost that thread entirely in book 3, and every answer was served up to her on a silver platter through dialogue.
Sex ruled over plot.
There was an excessive number of sex scenes in book 3 – and there’s nothing wrong with sex scenes – but it did not match the tone set by books 1 and 2, where I felt the romance was more of a titillating subplot to the mystery elements.
For a series that started off as YA, to take this deep dive so intensely was…jarring. To say the least.
Why does this matter?
Book 3 notably lost the “James Patterson presents” label. But it was still published by Little, Brown for Young Readers – which means it’s being marketed as YA.
Even if that weren’t issue enough, romance and erotica aren’t the same thing. Again, there’s nothing wrong with erotica. But baiting-and-switching readers is confusing and frustrating.
Because readers of these two genres may not always overlap, this creates a marketing and reviewing nightmare for this series:
- Readers who primarily prefer erotica have to read two YA books to get to the erotic part
- Fans of YA fantasy romance have now read two books they loved only for the series to drop them into a more erotic third book than they signed up for
Logistically, this setup makes it harder for a book or series to reach its target audience.
Basically, don’t do that.
I’m inclined to think publishers would likely have an easier time with these kinds of issues if they embraced the New Adult label, and created imprints focused around it. But take my opinion with a grain of salt – I’ve never worked in the publishing world, and I’m no expert.
However, if experience is anything to go by, I would’ve liked to know what I was getting into when I picked up this trilogy.
If you’re interested in learning more about the difference between YA and NA – read my article here.
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