I loved this book! I was a bit hesitant because I heard mixed reviews, but this was a pretty fun read. I thought this was high fantasy, so I was a bit surprised when I learned it took place in historical Italy. The lore and magic system was really interesting, and I thought it was well built. World building was alright, not amazing, but it described everything necessary, just not in depth.

The plot was a bit slow at first, and it took me a moment to really get into it. Some criticism of this book was the amount of cooking and recipes there were and how much a focus it was. I understand that it's a large part of Emilia's identity, but it was laid on a bit thick at times. Additionally, the first to middle part of the book was a lot of Emilia and Wrath just "running" around Italy and not really doing much, seemed very repetitive. The pacing got better and the plot picked up towards the middle/end and I really enjoyed it then and was very enraptured at that point. 

The characters themselves were really fun to read about. Their banter was amazing and I couldn't help but root for Wrath even though he's a "villain." I expected some sort of plot twist, so I wasn't too surprised with it. The ending was really, really good. I am desperate to read the sequel and know what happens next!