CW: Graphic violence, blackmail, sexual harassment, and mind control

If I had to pick one word to describe Throne of the Fallen, it would be ✨ decadent ✨. A second choice would be indulgent. It has the seven deadly sins in corporeal form, a journey through a seductive fantasy world, and it’s incredibly horny. It also reminded me delightfully of early 2000s paranormal romances, with its borderline corny details and powerful supernatural hero and plenty of sequel bait. I see all of these things as a positive, as these were the types of books that kickstarted my own romance reading. (If you want to hear me wax poetic about how I thought Lover Awakened in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series was peak literature when I read it in my late teens, .)

Envy is one of the seven princes of Hell. His court is in danger of fading away forever. His last chance to save it is to play (and win) a deadly game hosted by the Unseelie fae king. Camilla is a talented artist, creating forgeries to keep her late father’s gallery afloat. When she becomes the answer to one of Envy’s game clues, she’s drawn deeper into a magical world her absent mother and dead father only told her about in stories.

This book is set in the world established in Maniscalco’s Kingdom of the Wicked young adult trilogy, starring Envy’s brother Wrath as the romantic hero. There’s no need to read this trilogy before starting Throne of the Fallen; I didn’t. However, it would help to add some extra context and there are definite spoilers in Throne if you had any plans to read the YA trilogy at some point.

Now, this is Maniscalco’s adult debut and I want to emphasize adult. This is a very horny book and I’d even go so far as to label it an erotic fantasy romance. I was certainly caught off-guard by that particular detail. I’d advise not reading this one if danger boners are an issue for you because there are a lot of them!

Camilla is a mysterious heroine and she certainly had some secrets that were a surprise to me. She’s full of vim and vigor and has no problem attempting to outsmart demons and skeevy lords. Envy is of the PNR alpha heroes oeuvre: strong, territorial, and coincidentally part of an elite brotherhood of sinful demons. I know that isn’t for everyone, but it tapped into such a deep and fond nostalgia for me and reminded me a lot of one of my favorite series, Immortals After Dark by Kresley Cole. There are so many fantasy characters introduced who will undoubtedly become heroes in future books. I particularly have a fondness for Lo, or Sloth, who avoids social gatherings in favor of taking snacks to bed so he can read all night. There’s also Blade, yes…Blade. He’s a pragmatic vampire who seeks to overthrow the current vampire prince.

The book is rather long at over 600 pages. Camilla and Envy go on quite the road trip to reach the end of this dangerous scavenger hunt, but the length serves to introduce the reader to the larger world and the players in it, offering up hooks for future books. It also suffers from First Book Syndrome. Camilla and Envy travel to different fantasy kingdoms, meeting Envy’s brothers, the vampires, fae, etc. It’s like a giant tasting menu of settings and a lot of the action serves to introduce us to the environments, side characters, politics, and magic systems. Not so much info dumping, but plot points sometimes revolve around revealing more details about the world. It’s also, as I mentioned, pretty corny at times. Envy poses as a lord named Lord Synton or Lord Syn for short. See also the aforementioned Blade the vampire. There was also a moment where Envy asked Camilla what she thought about wings and my dumb ass thought he was asking her if she liked chicken wings, which promptly sent me into a fit of giggles.

Throne of the Fallen is a “yes, and…” sort of book that you just have to lean into, which I happily did. It’s extremely cliched and tropey, and I’d eat this nonsense for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.