Hi friends! Welcome to my blog and another book review. 💖 I took last week off because I was pretty drained with work and training. I needed some rest and even didn’t read a lot. Once I came home, I immediately fell asleep for almost an entire week but I am feeling a lot better right now. Today’s book is another hyped fantasy romance, a good story with witches, devils and smoking hot bad boys! 🥵 There may be some spoilers because it would be impossible for me to tell you the story without mentioning them so be aware and if you want to read this book without knowing anything, please do not read this review. I warned you. I WARNED YOU DO NOT COME AFTER ME. ILY, let’s start!
Before I say anything regarding the plot and my thoughts, you know that the book’s place is Italy. Our characters are Italian witches and though we do not have a time or era to say, it feels like it took place somewhere in the 1800s. I was scrolling through the Goodreads reviews -as one always does while reading- and I saw many people having issues with Emilia, who is our main character. I cannot believe how much hate she got hate over her cooking. It was ridiculous reading about people hating over her love of cooking. Cooking is a form of art, let’s all stop being b*tch about it and accept that. It is an essential part of Italian culture, and I enjoyed reading the scenes explaining the food, and the process. I feel close to her just because of that. Everybody has a form of coping mechanism and this was obviously her way to figure out herself and her thoughts and feelings. What’s so wrong with that? She lost her twin sister, and everything she learned from her family turned out to be somewhat of a lie, she is a witch with powers unknown. She grew up cooking, what did yall’ expect her to do? I did find her annoying as hell but this was not because of her love for cooking lol.
We follow two main characters in the book, one is Emilia, the witch who had lost her precious twin sister, who died untimely and left many questions and secrets behind. Emilia is a good girl but once she decides to find the murderer of her sister, she decides to call for someone incredibly dangerous. And that brings us our male lead, a prince of Hell, Wrath.
Though I really appreciate her skill in cooking, I HATE her. Hate is a strong emotion I accept, BUT THE FACT THAT SHE HAS BEEN PUSHING HER LIMITS RANDOMLY ACCUSING PEOPLE FOR THE NAME OF REVENGE… Like, please, girl. Calm down because you’re losing your rationality and as someone who has plenty of power and wisdom -the author seemed to put her in this way- you should be doing something more… rational. Again, she kept accusing people without solid proof and acted like a complete mess throughout the first half of the book. It was annoying and sad to read not going to lie. That is not how you avenge a lost one. You think. You plan. You do your best to be clever because your thoughtless actions may actually kill you. The way you acted through this book irritated me. Because if Wrath wasn’t… well… Without Wrath, you’d be long gone with that brain of yours.
Our male lead is a lord from hell, a deliciously written man with no morals or ethics and don’t we love issues like that? From her sister’s death to the point where we meet Wrath, I had very low hopes for this book but apparently, a man with golden tattoos and a hell background makes every book bearable. Wrath is summoned by Emilia and he somehow feels connected to her, this might be because of the magic that binds them or his own will. No matter what it is, Wrath has his reasons to stay and decides to help her to find the murderer of her sister. They snicker at each other and not really get along well, but the slow burn was surely there and if I liked one thing about this book, it would be the burn. Walking through your veins slowly and making you ready for the upcoming steam. The book didn’t have much regarding the steam, it was mainly focused on Emilia trying to find the murderer. It did feel like a true crime at some point. I would love to see more steam, not that I expected to see before starting this book, but because the characters, the brothers of hell *ehem 😳* were thought so well, I needed some through the book. I feel like I’ll see all I need in the second book because of the build up and the last Wrath we saw promised me that. I felt like I was reading characters written by Gena Showalter or J.R. Ward, and I loved this similarity, whatever you say.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and gave it 4 stars, I am excited for the books coming. What makes this book a solid 4 ⭐s to me was totally the slow burn and the development of characters. I liked how magic came with consequences, and required tools and ingredients, it somehow made everything more… human. And Wrath of course, maybe even 3 stars can be his only.
I’ll read the second book sometime this year, but I won’t rush immediately. I suggest that you read it if you enjoy dark witchy things and old times with layered dresses and such. It was a good read but if it wasn’t for Wrath… I wouldn’t read a page lol. Did you read the series? If so, please tell me that it gets better in the second book! I’ll see you in my next post friends ✨🖖🏻
Luster of Books 