A freshly dog-eared review
Books Like Kingdom of the Wicked: Dark Fantasy Romance With Demon Princes, Dangerous Bargains, and Zero Chill (For Readers Who Want More Italian Witch Energy)
Kingdom of the Wicked did something specific that I need more books to do.
It made me believe the love interest was actually dangerous.
This shouldn’t be a high bar, but it is. So many “dark” fantasy romances feature heroes who are supposedly terrifying but spend the entire book being secretly protective and gentle. Their darkness is aesthetic — mentioned but not demonstrated. Wrath is actually dangerous. He’s a Prince of Hell. He does terrible things. He would destroy anyone who threatens Emilia, and “anyone” includes people she cares about if they get in the way.
And Maniscalco makes you root for him anyway.
That’s a specific skill. The balance between “this man is genuinely scary” and “I would absolutely trust him with my life” is hard to pull off. Most books tip too far toward softening the hero or too far toward making him irredeemable. Kingdom of the Wicked walks the line.
So does its sequels. So do a handful of other books.
Here’s what scratches the itch.
What Makes Kingdom Of The Wicked Work
1. The sensory detail. Maniscalco writes food, heat, architecture — the texture of a Sicilian night, the weight of a demon’s presence. You can FEEL this world.
2. The genuine danger. Wrath isn’t playing at being scary. He’s the actual Prince of Hell. The power differential is real.
3. The enemies-to-lovers that earns it. They start as genuine adversaries with real reasons to distrust each other. The transformation is built across hundreds of pages.
4. The mythology that’s specific. Italian witchcraft, the Seven Princes of Hell — this isn’t generic fantasy, it’s rooted in particular traditions.
5. The heroine who matches. Emilia isn’t a damsel. She’s investigating her twin sister’s murder, and she’ll burn down anyone in her way, including Wrath if necessary.
If a book has these elements, it belongs on this list.
The Closest Matches
A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah J. Maas (ACOTAR series)
If you haven’t read ACOTAR, start here. The same “mortal woman navigating a world of dangerous, beautiful men” dynamic, the same slow-burn romance built through mutual suspicion, the same found family waiting on the other side of isolation.
Maas writes with less sensory detail than Maniscalco but with more epic scope. The series is longer, the world is bigger, and the romance pivot in book two redefined an entire genre.
FROM BLOOD AND ASH by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Poppy and Hawke. The Maiden and her guard. The twist at the end of book one.
Armentrout writes spicier than Maniscalco, and the series is explicitly more romance-forward, but the “dangerous man who’s not what he appears” dynamic is similar. The power imbalance, the forbidden nature of the connection, the slow realization that everything you thought you knew was wrong — it’s the same emotional architecture.
Here’s one that does something different with the demon romance premise.
A low-level nature spirit accidentally shatters the seal on the most feared demon god in existence. She was supposed to guard it. Instead, she broke it. Now she’s bound to him, and his millennia of imprisonment have not made him merciful.
What makes this work: the power differential is MASSIVE. This isn’t a prince of Hell — it’s a god. The romance has to build through genuine fear, genuine distrust, and the slow revelation that what he wants isn’t what she assumed. The mythology draws on Chinese drama conventions (think “Love Between Fairy and Devil”) blended with darker Western romantasy tropes.
If you want Kingdom of the Wicked energy with a more powerful, more alien love interest, start here.
THE CRUEL PRINCE by Holly Black (The Folk of the Air trilogy)
No demons, but the same “enemies who become something more” energy. Jude is human, raised among fae who see her as prey. Cardan is the prince who’s tormented her for years. The hatred is real, and the transformation of that hatred into obsession and then love is executed with precision.
Holly Black writes darker than Maniscalco — the fae courts are genuinely cruel, and the political stakes feel real. The romance is slower, the payoff is bigger, and the ending is one of the most satisfying in the genre.
Demon Romance Specifically
If what you want is specifically demons — not fae, not shifters, but actual demons:
ZODIAC ACADEMY by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti
Not demons exactly, but dark magical beings with powers that include shadow and fire magic that FEELS demonic. The bully romance structure, the academy setting, the slow-burn that takes EIGHT BOOKS to resolve — it’s maximum chaos.
The scale is intimidating, but the readers who commit become evangelical about it.
KISS OF THE DEMON KING by Kresley Cole (Immortals After Dark)
Cole’s long-running paranormal romance series includes multiple demon heroes. The worldbuilding is extensive, the heat level is high, and the “enemies forced together” premise recurs across multiple books. Start anywhere that interests you — the series is interconnected but the books work as standalones.
A RUIN OF ROSES by K.F. Breene
Dark Beauty and the Beast retelling with a beast who’s more monster than man. The captor-captive dynamic, the slow transformation, the explicit content — Breene writes darker and spicier than Maniscalco while hitting similar emotional notes.
Witch Romance
If what you loved was Emilia specifically — the witch investigating, the magic system, the Italian setting:
SERPENT & DOVE by Shelby Mahurin
A witch hiding among witch-hunters falls for a church soldier who’s sworn to kill her kind. The enemies-to-lovers built through forced proximity is excellent, and the magic system has clear rules and costs.
NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo
Darker, more literary, set in the real world (Yale’s secret societies). Alex is a survivor, not a traditional romance heroine, and the “investigation into dark magic” premise echoes Emilia’s search for her sister’s killer. Less romance, more atmosphere.
HOUSE OF SALT AND SORROWS by Erin A. Craig
Twelve sisters, their father’s cursed estate, a mystery that only Annaleigh sees. Gothic atmosphere, dark magic, romance that develops through shared danger. The fairy tale bones (12 Dancing Princesses) are transformed into something genuinely creepy.
The Pattern
The books that work as Kingdom of the Wicked alternatives share:
1. A hero who’s genuinely dangerous. Not playing at darkness — actually capable of destruction.
2. A heroine who’s not passive. She has agency, goals, power of her own.
3. Enemies-to-lovers that earns the transformation. They start opposed for real reasons.
4. Sensory atmosphere. The world feels textured and real.
5. Mythology that’s specific. Not generic fantasy — rooted in something.
The books that fail usually soften the hero too early or make the heroine too passive. The tension in Kingdom of the Wicked works because both characters are dangerous to each other.
Where To Start
If you want most similar: A Court of Thorns and Roses (the template) or From Blood and Ash (similar energy).
If you want demons specifically: The Dark Fae Demon: When the Stars Went Dark (different mythology, bigger power differential).
If you want enemies-to-lovers perfection: The Cruel Prince (slower, darker, more literary).
If you want maximum spice: A Ruin of Roses.
If you want dark academia energy: Ninth House (less romance, more atmosphere).
Pick one. You know what you’re looking for.