Kingdom of the Cursed (Kingdom of the Wicked, 2)

Emilia has now traveled to the underworld under the pretense of marrying the Devil to figure out who was behind her sister's murder once and for all, no matter what she has to sacrifice. Of course, her plan gets knocked off course, and she must figure out and face the truth about everything.

Would I recommend this? Yeah, it's entertaining. If you read the first book and liked it, you'll also like this one, probably even more.
Now on to the review…

The writing style somehow stayed the same, despite kicking the maturity level up ten-fold without a single god-damn warning. Not that I'm complaining. I just think maybe we should have started there.

For the plot, it feels like so much happened, but then nothing at all.

Our MC kept stating that the demon princes better watch out and throwing threats around, but nothing really happened, and she didn't really do anything except maybe annoy the princes at times.

While Emilia did learn a lot in the underworld (even though it took the entire book for her to figure it out, and we, as readers, probably figured most of the shit out at the end of the last book), nothing much happened besides that.

Every time something interesting may have happened to Emilia, she got out of it so quickly.
Stole from a demon prince and the penalty is death? Liberated. Entered another demon's land without invitation? Had to sit around for three hours but got off without a scratch. Wants to learn information from beings known for not giving information up easily? They tell her almost exactly what she needs to hear. Was supposed to have her deepest fear or secret ripped from her and we spent half the book dreading this? No worries, our demon bf will swoop in to save the day!
Emilia kept making all these statements like she was some badass bitch, but she was pretty much handed most things and didn't really do a lot by herself, and she couldn't ever really get herself out of those situations anyway.

Lastly, listen, I love that the Devil is all about consent and choice, but does it HAVE to be brought up every time his character is talked about? I feel like it's getting shoved down my throat. We got it the first time. And the millions of times after that.

The book was still entertaining, but it could have had so much more and just feels too low stakes for being set in literal Hell.

I liked meeting the demon princes, and I wish we got a little more of them, but their houses are so fun to learn about and be introduced to.

Anir and Fauna are adorable, and I absolutely love them. I would die for them. They are so sweet to Emilia, love them <3.

this was a weird book. Can't wait to read the third one.

🌟 Dark Fantasy - Ages 14 and up, 464 pages 💫 Witches, demons, hellhounds, and more Demon Princes from Hell ✨ Book 2 of The Kingdom of the Wicked "One sister. Two sinful princes. Infinite deception with a side of revenge . . . Welcome to Hell. (Amazon)" Pros: This book is even better than Kingdom of the Wicked. It is full of even more twists, turns, magic, love of family (which then goes very wrong), mixed with LOTS of seduction and spice. Sin is a big one in this book. If you know Dante's Inferno, you will understand the references of Hell that are present throughout this book and the rest of the series. I love these references. Emilia has sold her soul to the Devil to become the Queen of the Wicked. As she begins to explore her new home in Hell, she discovers some Wicked truths, or are they truly the truth? Cons, Trigger and Content Warnings: gore, violence, blood depiction, self-harm, revenge, murder, death, sex, lots of sex, and compulsion (magical). 📣CAUTION - MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS📣 I loved this book more than the first one. The writing is more descriptive than the first one and draws you into Emilia's adventures in Hell from page 1. This book has more jaw dropping revelations and scenes that you just can't get out of your head. You also can't help but fall in love with Emilia and Wrath and want them to be together despite the lies. Don't forget Nonna's warning that the Wicked can't be trusted. She should have also warned Emilia to NOT trust her own family. Nothing is what it seems.

I was hoping I’d be able to give the second book more stars, but, I couldn’t shake the resemblance to the ACOTAR series. Maybe if I wasn’t reading them side by side it would have been better. I mean a dark haired, magical, and a winged lover screams the bat boys. There is a love bond and Wrath is supposed to be the most vicious of demons but only Emelia knows his true self and all the trauma he holds for his court.

I want to give more stars but can’t because I feel like it was almost a copy and paste of the ACOTAR series. I will say had there been more story/character building maybe I wouldn’t feel this way. I do love how the 7 sins are demons with their own courts but that wasn’t even more to describing each court. I listened to this book so maybe reading it would have been better too along with not having such a huge connection to ACOTAR. I will read the last book just to finish the series and see if there is more building upon the characters and story.

I liked this one a lot better than the first one. 8/10 overall. I loved the side characters and the settings.