Thank you to Netgalley, Alexandra Christo and Bonnier Zaffre for my advanced copy of To Kill a Kingdom.
Title: To Kill a Kingdom
Author: Alexandra Christo
Publication date: 6th March 2018
Page count: 384 Pages
Quote: 'I have a heart for every year I've been alive. There are seventeen hidden in the sand of my bedroom. Every so often, I claw through the shingle just to check they're still there.'
Rating: 5*
Summary
To Kill a Kingdom is the tale of the sirens of the deep ocean and one in particular, Lira, known and the Princes' Bane because of her penchant for only stealing the hearts of princes.
Elian meanwhile is a prince like no other, forgoing his inheritance to become king of the city of Gold, Elian instead travels the seas with his motley crew, killing as many sirens as he can find. But has he met his match in The Princes' Bane?
Robbed of her song by her mother, the Sea Queen, Lira is turned into a human and sent to hunt for the heart of Elian to prove she is as ruthless as her mother needs her to be. When she meets Elian she promises to help him find the weapon to destroy all siren-kind but can she be trusted?

Review
I really, really, loved this book. There's not enough books out there which go into the underwater-fantasy genre. To Kill a Kingdom fills that gap in the market. It's well written and the characters are simply brilliant. I loved Lira she was such a conflicted character, unsure of her true nature and what had been planted by her evil mother. There are definitely parallels with The Little Mermaid here too, Lira's red hair, her song being taken away by her mother who happens to have long black tentacles and a trident.

But it was enough its own story without feeling like a retelling, and is in fact about sirens not mermaids (which are different). I loved the crew of the pirate ship particularly Madrid who was a really cool character. I feel like this worked really well as a a standalone novel but the potential is there for a follow up too.

An excellent and indulgent twist to the much adored little mermaid tale. Flame haired siren Lira, aka Prince’s Bane, is as fierce as can be, her character arc is addictive and her engaging tale of violence, deceit and love is enormously satisfying to read. A quick read and a great book for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Disney’s Twisted Tales series.

What a wonderful book. I enjoyed reading this take on my favourite fairy tale and how it had original aspects of Hans Christian Andersen's tale too. I enjoyed reading this and I would love to see another reimagined take from this author.

An amazing rewrite of the little mermaid. Tense, thrilling and enjoyable. I was a little confused about the royal families and their different gifts, but it didn't hinder my enjoyment at all. Definitely one to recommend everywhere.