This series was my final read of 2022, I listened to the first as an audiobook and quickly went and bought the rest.

A summary attempt

The first book begins with two sisters, one, Emilia content to live a quiet life cooking in her families’ restaurant, the other, Vittoria, wild and full of life, living in Palermo, Sicily. They come from a family of witches, each possessing a magical amulet, designed to defend and disguise them from The Wicked, the seven princess of the hell. Despite the fact that demons are supposed to have been barred from entering their world without being summoned, they are raised to fear The Wicked, to be constantly ready to defend themselves against them. When Vittoria is violently murdered, Emilia suspects everyone, from mortal priests, to Witch hunters, to demons or perhaps, even the Wicked princes she’d been taught to dread. In her grief, Emilia tries to piece together what happened to her twin, soon finding that she had many secrets, including the pages from an ancient grimoire, with instructions on how to summon and bind one of The Wicked. Desperate for answers, Emilia chooses to summon a Wicked prince of her own and soon realises there’s a lot more at play here than she originally thought.

The next two books follow Emilia into hell itself and to the secrets and mysterious that will rock the foundation of everything she believed to be true about herself and her family.

My thoughts

This book really takes you on a journey! The Emilia we end with is nothing like the character we see at the beginning of the book. The backdrop of Italy and the richness of Emilia’s connection to her family restaurant and her people, adds some really clever depth to the story. It was such a different take on demons, the seven deadly sins, on concepts of morality and sin itself, all with a full compliment of tall, dark and handsome men and a slow burn romance that is drawn out well into the third novel. I found these an enjoyable read, I’m not sure it’s a series I’ll feel the need to re-read over and over but I would definitely recommend it.

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