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2 stars for the interesting concept but poorly delivered narrative with a dumb main character whose only personality trait is being good at cooking.

It would’ve been more fitting had this been marketed as a creative cookbook rather than YA fantasy.

I’ll start with the world-building which was lackluster and quite lazy. We know this was set in Italy, but the time period was unclear. We never got fleshed-out descriptions of the buildings, the clothing, and the people. This was also one of those books that “tell�� rather than “show��. Almost everything about the world was explained and introduced through dialogue such as Nonna’s stories and Wrath’s answers to Emilia’s questions. That would’ve been fine if I were invested enough in the story and characters to look past it, but I wasn’t. The different “Houses�� weren’t developed either. If Maniscalco put as much effort into describing the world as she did for describing the food, the world-building would’ve been great and I wouldn’t have had to piece together information that I didn’t have.

As for the plot, I just needed them to shut up and stop talking about food for the entirety of the book. It was almost as repetitive as the word “mate�� in the ACOTAR series. Granted that the plot did pick up when we finally met Wrath, the bulk of it was still quite the snoozefest. The whole plot just fell flat. I was expecting this to be a well-developed enemies-to-lovers story with dark, witchy vibes that would get me hooked, but all I got was half a story with dark, witchy vibes where not a lot happened. The ending resolved absolutely nothing and left me confused, but I guess that sets us up for the next book which I know for sure I will not be reading because I just can't be bothered. I am thrilled to announce that this book will be the first addition to my new collection of “books to read before bed so I can fall asleep in less than 30 seconds.��

Moving on to the characters. Emilia was boring, annoying, and reckless. It bothered me how she almost always managed to get away rather unscathed despite her recklessness. It also seemed as though everything clicked too quickly with the clues she found. Emilia didn’t even really have to try for anything and everything was way too easy; there was little conflict between plot points. Wrath was the only character that was at least a little bit entertaining to me, however, he was a pathetic manifestation of a sin. One would expect the Prince of Wrath and War to be wrathful or warlike, but he was neither. Instead, he was just a generic “hot, dark and broody�� love interest who actually didn’t have much of a personality and was also quite the bore like Emilia. Gotta love how they match each other’s energies, I guess. As for the Wicked, they should’ve been terrifying, but were all relatively weak and easily defeated. It also seemed like they were placed in random events throughout the story—especially in the beginning—just for the shock factor.

Overall, this book felt rushed and drawn out at the same time. While the idea of the book is good, the execution was not. The plot was undefined and scattered much like the characters. Although I complained about the overwhelming amount of times that food was mentioned, the food still had more personality than the actual characters. This book is the epitome of wasted potential and I can’t wait to read another book so I can purge this one out of my head!