Kingdom Of The Wicked(Kingdom Of The Wicked, #1)

 

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Two sisters. 

One brutal murder. 

 A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself… 

And an intoxicating romance. 

Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe—witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family’s renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin… desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister’s killer and to seek vengeance at any cost—even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden. 

Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked Princes of Hell that she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia’s side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women’s murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems… 

 

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 Mysterious. Gripping. 

How am I supposed to wait until October to find out what happens next? I was expecting a thrilling ride when I picked up Kingdom Of The Wicked , but I wasn’t prepared for how much of an exciting ride it will be. This is the 2nd series that I have read by Kerri Maniscalco , and as you guessed, I am in love with her stories, her writing. I loved Stalking Jack The Ripper , and I had a feeling that I was going to love this one. Kingdom Of The Wicked was different and felt as it wasn’t as graphic as the first one was. I love books about demons, witches. Through the years, I have read multiple versions of witches and demons. I felt that Kingdom Of The Wicked portrayed demons and witches how they should be shown. From all the books that I have read, I never read a version anywhere close to this one. 

Kingdom Of The Wicked isn’t an easy book to put down. When you’re sure that you found a good spot, something else happens, keeping you reading for hours. I lost count of how many times I have done that while reading the book. I did feel that the beginning had a slow start. However, once Vittoria’s body is discovered, that’s when things start to get more interesting. I cannot even begin to imagine what was going through Emilia’s mind at that moment, to find your sister that way... There were so many thoughts that were going through my mind when Emilia found her. The emotions that she was feeling at that moment; it was as if I was experiencing them too, the horror, the grief. I don’t blame Emilia for wanting revenge. I just hoped that she knew what she was doing when she decided to use dark magic. 

I knew there was something different about Wrath, even though it was Prince of Hell. I couldn’t figure what was different about him, but I knew that there was something. Like Emilia, I didn’t trust him initially; after all, he is the demon. However, when he kept coming to Emilia’s rescue, I knew that he cared about her more than he cared to admit. The two of them were constantly arguing with one another, and that’s what made the story between the two of them exciting. I’m eager to see what happens next in Kingdom Of The Cursed , even if not sure if I can wait that long. I am excited to see what Emilia, Wrath will have to face next.

The Lost Apothecary.

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A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge. Welcome to The Lost Apothecary… 

 
Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries. 

Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate—and not everyone will survive.

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Magical. Mysterious. 

I have been hearing about The Lost Apothecary since it was released earlier in the year. I have come across few good reviews about this book. I reserved a copy from my library a while back, but there was a long waitlist. As a result, I was drawn into the story only a few moments after reading it. The Lost Apothecary is the book that will have you hooked from behind until the end. When I started reading the book, I found it hard to put the book down. More than once, one more chapter turned into five more. For me, it was hard to find an excellent place to stop. Every chapter had me craving for more because I wanted to know what’s going to happen next. Dual point of view books is becoming popular, I have read multiple books like that recently. I enjoy those. The Lost Apothecary wasn’t different, and I loved that it went between the 1700s and to the present time. The dual point of view connected, which made it even more interesting to read. 

I enjoyed Caroline’s point of view and the mystery behind it. However, Nella and Eliza’s point of view was more interesting to read, and I felt much more happening. I loved the mystery behind the poisons. I always wondered if one of those days, she will be discovered that she’s the one that is making poisons. Suppose there is a chance that the wrong person would be given the poison. Most of all, I was curious why Nella started to make the poisons first; what had happened to her to go in that direction. I loved the bond between Eliza and Nella. It did seem like sometimes Nella didn’t want Eliza around, but I know that it was because she was trying to protect her. When I read Eliza and Nella’s point of view, it always left me wondering what would happen next. 

I don’t think that The Lost Apothecary is a historical fiction fantasy, but it did have some magical realism aspect to the parts of the story. I knew that I would like this story, but I did not realize how much I would love it. I loved that the story took place in London, where I want to visit one day. This is unlike any other historical fiction that I have read this past year, but that’s what I love about it; it’s different. I can’t wait to see what Sarah Penner adventure will take us on next.

The Book Of Lost Names.

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Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names. 

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war? 

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears. 

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 Heart -wrenching. Intriguing. 

Where to begin? It seems that the past few books that I read in this genre; took my breath away. The Book Of Lost Names wasn’t any different. As I read The Book of Lost Names , I felt as I was going back in time, and in the way I was. I have been hearing about this book for months now, and I have seen few good reviews. I would have read it sooner, but the waitlist for the book was massive. Now that I have read the book, I can see why. Holocaust is a hard subject to read about, and my heart broke multiple times in this book. I cannot imagine, to go through what Eva had to endure. Despite how hard it was and how others tried to talk her out of it, Eva didn’t let that stop her. Eva was brave. I was always afraid that she would get caught and get herself killed. She was passionate about resistance and helping the children. 

I tried to feel bad for Eva’s mother; after all, her husband was taken, ending up at the concentration camp. She made it very hard to feel sorry for her. She acted as if she was the only one who was suffering. Most of all, I hated how she treated Eva, how she blamed her for letting her father get taken. How could she possibly stop him from being taken? I understand that she was in pain, but she acted like a child. There were times that I wanted to shake her, to talk sense into her. I loved that Eva stood by her side, despite her mother’s treatment of her. That takes a lot of patience. Of course, I loved the dual point of view and the fact that it was from the same character. I did wonder why Eva never told her son the truth, what she went through. At the same time, I understood why she didn’t. She wanted to forget that time. 

I wondered about the title, The Book Of Lost Names , and the story behind it. The story behind the title wasn’t what I was expecting it to be. But, looking back at the book, at the story, it does make sense. The title fits the story perfectly. Both the cover and the title would capture anybody’s attention. If I didn’t keep hearing about the book, that’s what would catch my attention first. The Book Of Lost Names is another book that I can’t accurately describe all of my emotions; there were so many. I would highly recommend this to any historical fiction fans, especially if you enjoy books during World War 2.
Be prepared for an emotional ride.

The Flight Attendant.

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Cassandra Bowden is no stranger to hungover mornings. She's a binge drinker, her job with the airline making it easy to find adventure, and the occasional blackouts seem to be inevitable. She lives with them, and the accompanying self-loathing. 

When she awakes in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece the previous night back together, already counting the minutes until she has to catch her crew shuttle to the airport. She quietly slides out of bed, careful not to aggravate her already pounding head, and looks at the man she spent the night with. She sees his dark hair. His utter stillness. And blood, a slick, still wet pool on the crisp white sheets. Afraid to call the police—she's a single woman alone in a hotel room far from home—Cassie begins to lie. She lies as she joins the other flight attendants and pilots in the van. She lies on the way to Paris as she works the first class cabin. She lies to the FBI agents in New York who meet her at the gate. 

Soon it's too late to come clean—or face the truth about what really happened back in Dubai. Could she have killed him? If not, who did? 

 

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 Suspenseful. Enthralling. 

I didn’t hear about The Flight Attendant up until I saw the preview for the show online. Not long after, I heard that it was based on the book. The show preview looked very mysterious and the type of story that I love. When I was in Virginia, visiting my friends, a best friend of mine and I went to a bookstore, and when I saw the book, I ended up getting a copy. I wasn’t sure if I would like the book, I haven’t read anything by the author before. I decided to take a chance. Have you come across the book when you started to read it? You wished that you came across it sooner? That’s how I felt few minutes after starting to read The Flight Attendant, which drew me in from the first sentence. In that first sentence, you will wonder what will happen, and most of all, you will wonder the reason behind Alex’s murder. This book rose beyond my exceptions. 

I didn’t know what to think about Cassie. She wasn’t a character that you could quickly like. On the other hand, you do feel sorry for what she had to endure after the murder. You would think that after an experience like that, she would give up on drinking. If you get to the point where you blackout from drinking, that is never a good sight. I wonder if that would be a sign that she should give up drinking. Except the opposite happens. With the choices that she makes and the lies, I felt that the FBI would figure out that something is not right at some point. I think Cassie get herself in more trouble, and she wouldn’t even listen to the advice that her lawyer was giving her. I couldn’t figure out how I felt about the character, but I hoped that she realizes that her drinking is a problem. I wondered if anything more would happen between Alex and Cassie if he weren’t killed if the two of them would see each other again at some point. 

There were some slow parts in the book. Elena, I enjoyed reading few parts of her story, but to me, it wasn’t as interesting as Cassie’s. In general, it was one of the best murder mystery books that I have read in a while. My favorites were the details in The Flight Attendant and the description of everything that was happening, including the ongoing investigation. I thought as I was there along with everyone. I loved the interviews that were posted through the book. The Flight Attendant is not a book that can be easily put down. I read the book within three days because I spent hours reading, wanting to see how it ends. The Flight Attendant might have been my first book by Chris Bohjalian, but it won’t be my last. Now that I have read the book, I’m excited for the chance to check the show.

The Night Train To Berlin.

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Two lost souls brought together by the chaos of war.
A train journey into the past.
A love that echoes through time. 

 
Paddington Station, present day
A young woman boards the sleeper train to Cornwall with only a beautiful emerald silk evening dress and an old, well-read diary full of sketches. Ellie Nightingale is a shy violinist who plays like her heart is broken. But when she meets fellow passenger Joe she feels like she has been given that rarest of gifts…a second chance. 

 
Paddington Station, 1944
Beneath the shadow of the war which rages across Europe, Alex and Eliza meet by chance. She is a gutsy painter desperate to get to the frontline as a war artist and he is a wounded RAF pilot now commissioned as a war correspondent. With time slipping away they make only one promise: to meet in Berlin when this is all over. But this is a time when promises are hard to keep, and hope is all you can hold in your heart. 

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I came across The Night Train To Berlin while looking for more historical fiction books to read. World War has always been my favorites theme when it comes to historical fiction. Through the years, I have read few books that took place in World War. One that attracted me first to this one, the cover. I believe that the cover itself tells a story or at least part of the story. There is the mystery behind the cover, and you cannot help but be curious. When I saw a cover, I knew that The Night Train To Berlin would be a book that I would end up enjoying. I was right. I couldn’t get enough of the story. I kept on turning the pages, and before I knew it, I was reaching the ending of the book. In my opinion, the stories that you must pull yourself from are the best ones. Yet, every page had me craving for more. 

When it comes to historical fiction, I had always enjoyed it when the point of view shifts from past to present. It’s more fascinating when it’s told from different characters that somehow connected. The way that Ellie and Eliza were connected. I thought that it was romantic that Ellie and Eliza both found love on the night train. I always thought that meeting love on the train was romantic, and of course, I couldn’t help but fall in love with both Ellie and Eliza’s stories. Both of those women were finding battles, except Eliza’s seemed much harder. I don’t think that I would be able to go through what Eliza had to endure during that time. I loved Ellie and Eliza’s stories, but Eliza and Alex’s love, I couldn’t get enough of them. I wanted them to find a way to be with each other; finally, I was rooting for them to find their way to one another. The Night Train To Berlin might be a fictional story, but it’s not the one that I will forget. 

That ending, the one that I can’t seem to get out of my mind. It’s not the one that I expect, and I think that I was in as much shock as Eliza was. Now that’s a twist that nobody will see coming. I might have known that I would like the book, but I didn’t have very high expectations at the beginning. I had Melanie Hudson books on my read but did not get around to reading them yet. Now I wish I had. That’s what I love about discovering new authors. It feels like making a new friend. I cannot wait for a chance to check the rest of her books now. I would highly recommend this for any historical fiction fans.