Book Review | Wicked Knight (Knight Duet book 1)

Well I decided I needed a little change of pace and picked up a mafia romance for a bit of light escapism.

Wicked Knight
Diana A. Hicks

Sinfully gorgeous Professor Luca Gallo has zero tolerance for the remarkably spoiled Donata Salvatore. The last time their paths crossed, she almost ruined his life with her lies. Now she’s in his classroom asking for favors and an easy grade. Professor Gallo has a lesson for Donata. One he’ll make sure she never forgets.

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I hadn’t realised when I picked this up that I have read books from this author before but a pitfall that I always seem to make is starting the series at the wrong point. Whilst this is the start of a duet and says it can be read as a standalone, I think it would be best to read the other stories that are part of The Society World first because I did feel at points that I was missing context for some of what was happening in this story.

If I’m being honest this book felt like a two-part thing in itself, in the first part I wasn’t very keen on Donata she just seemed a bit ridiculous and kept making these really terrible decisions that made it hard to want to follow her along. However, I was intrigued about why Luca had decided to come back into her life the way he had, even though I really wasn’t so keen on his tactics, and that was enough to keep me going until the second part.

Things definitely picked up in the second half of the book, Donata and Luca are trying to solve a murder, keeping their relationship sort of secret from their families and playing some political games in the process. I felt like I was a lot more invested in the characters and what was happening and was starting to really feel the tension as I got closer to the end of the story.

The romance aspect was ok, again I think if I had experienced the characters in the other stories before reading this one it might have felt a bit more substantial. As I said by the second half of the book there is so much happening that that is what I ended up getting swept up in and I quite liked that there are some hurdles for Donata and Luca that start to come up near the end, so I’m hoping that their romance will get a chance to develop further in the next book.

All I can say is I am so glad that I don’t have to wait too long before diving into the next book because the end of this one is such a tantalising cliffhanger.