Throne of The Fallen - Kerri Maniscalco

Sinner. Villain. Wicked.

The Prince of Envy has never claimed to be a saint. But when a cryptic note arrives, signaling the beginning of a deadly game, he knows it will take more than a hint of sin to win and save his falling demon court. Riddles, hexed objects, anonymous players, nothing will stand in his way, though none of his meticulous plans prepare him for her, the frustrating artist who ignites his sin like no other…

Virtuous. Darling. Liar.

The trouble with scoundrels and blackguards is that they haven’t a modicum of honor, a fact Miss Camilla Antonius learns after one desperate mistake allows Waverly Green’s most notorious rake to blackmail her. To avoid a ruinous scandal, Camilla is forced to enter a devil’s bargain with Envy, little expecting his game will awaken her true nature . .

Together, Envy and Camilla must embark on a perilous journey through the Underworld—from glittering demon courts to the sultry vampire realm and beyond—while trying to avoid the most dangerous trap of all: falling in love. (link)

Review: 4/5

I didn’t read the other series before this book (that is supposedly a necessary background for this book), but I understood the world-building and characters just fine! I really have been craving standalone fantasy books since I read ACOTAR and TOG over a year ago, because it was just too much. Thankfully, this book was shortly sweet, and hit just the right spots for me.

Maybe it’s because I crave a healthy relationship (always craving something we’ve never had, huh?) but dark romances just aren’t my schtick. For lack of better terms, they gross me out. What do you mean you find his growling jealousy hot? What about when he kills a guy because the guy looked at the main character girl and smiled at her? Right… righttttt… lalalalalalala la la land. Like, YOU ARE CRAZY! Bro if you like that shit, you should be locked up, MAXIMUM PENITENTIARY. I mean it: life with no parole. Because what business do you have admiring and craving a relationship where death is an incentive for filthy, sweaty sex? Ew bro! Get a grip, dark romance lovers!

That being said, I did like this book. Whoops! I want to say that I have never felt fully relieved or fulfilled by a dark roman-tasy book (or dark romance at all, for that matter), but this book actually impressed me! I liked the characters, the circumstances, and I didn’t feel the “dark” romance was too much, where I normally do in other books. All that to say that this is the best dark romance I’ve read, where I wasn’t FULLY grossed out the entire time. Was I grossed out some of the time? Of course, but for it to not be above 90% of the reading, I’d call that a win.

I do like the fact that the main character, Camilla, has the literal, godly embodiment of greed and envy begging for her approval, support, and love. Like damn, okay… Can I change him?

I also liked the casual but imminent danger facing the courts and their challenges the characters were all facing. Why did it remind me slightly of Percy Jackson, combined with ACOTAR and LightLark? Maybe I’m hallucinating, and I’ve read so much fantasy and challenge based fiction that it’s all bleeding together… Maybe!

Also, be warned that this author is very obviously trying to break out of her well-known Young Adult into fully adult. Because if you didn’t know that beforehand, the many, many, MANY, explicit smut scenes might take you by surprise. I mean, this was an insane amount of smut, and I’m comparing it to A Court of Silver Flames here; which is almost 800 pages of pure sex. Did I read it in two days? Nonyabusiness. However, every time a “winged” immortal male takes his lover, bats his wings, and makes love to her among the stars (cough cough ACOTAR), a fairy loses its wings - and I throw up in my mouth. What an awful taste to have for the rest of the day! There was way too much physical description for my tastes regarding the smut. This slightly felt like a published Tumblr or A03 fanfic where writers are overcompensating the lack of plot for describing the animalistic porn happening. But hey, who am I to judge? Ya like what you like, and I don’t like it back. But I can give this one slight leeway.

For this playlist, you’ll be very surprised to be thrown back to my 2014 emo phase combined with some angsty, lovey folk. Hozier, anyone? Maybe you aren’t surprised by that. Whatever, enjoy it anyways.

Spotify: LINK