The premise of this book is wonderful, it's got pirates, sirens, princes and action.
I really liked the split POV of the two main characters and I loved the characters themselves and how the developed over the book too.
The plot was interesting, and adventurous, but sometimes things seemed to get brushed over rather than explained properly, or they'd suddenly be in another place.
The world building was good, but also could've been better and more developed.

Overall it was enjoyable to read, but it was just slightly lacking in some sort of spark for me, that meant I never got fully into the story. All of the components were there for an amazing book, but it just wasn't executed as well as I'd hoped it would be.

Oh my days, I totally loved this book! I just finished reading it today and what a journey this novel has been! Perfect blend of characters, plot and good writing. It is one of the best retellings I've read lately! 

“I’ve made a mistake. It started with a prince, as most stories do. Once I felt the thrum of his heart beneath my fingers, I couldn’t forget it.”

THE CHARACTERS….

Lira and Elian, the main characters of this story, both have a clear understanding of duty and what their roles within their respective kingdoms should look like, each chasing a goal regardless of how difficult it may be. I really loved them as individual characters and thought that their journey of discovery was really well fleshed out. I really enjoyed their banter and sparring, the tension between them felt natural, authentic. But is it all as black and white as they believe? How does truth really look like and what would that mean for them? 

The most notorious members of the Saab were a very fun and interesting bunch to hang out with. We get to know them well enough to like them and root for them, but not too much to overshadow the main characters or take away from the plot, so I really liked the balance in that. I thought that these characters were individualised enough to merit being mentioned with the main characters and all had strengths and weaknesses that added to the plot and to the main characters development! If there was something that I wanted explored more, was perhaps the Queen herself, however it is explained that once a siren becomes a Queen, things change, so I wasn't very bothered about that, really (don't wanna say to much and spoil things).



THE PLOT…

The story at it's core is a retelling of Little mermaid, but a lot darker and sinister. To be honest I do not remember much of the Little mermaid, just the fierceness of her hair and just an overall idea of the plot line, but absolutely loved the direction in which this story went and kept me guessing every step of the way. I had a general idea what would happen in the end, but I was totally in loved with the story and was at the edge of my seat. 

What I liked as well is that we get some political intrigue, as well as travelling to other kingdoms and meet other races and explore part of those worlds which I really found fascinating. The pacing as well was really well done, not too slow, not to fast... although the ending was sweet torture! I don't know how I managed to pace myself and read properly, and not rush to the end!

THE WRITING…

The writing was really good, especially the dialogue between the characters. There was a lot of banter and messing around which went well in hand with the pirate mood (if there is such a thing!) of the story. I thought the descriptions of the other kingdoms were very creative and interesting, painting a lush enough atmosphere without slowing down the plot. I would love more stories set out in these worlds actually! I also really liked that the sirens although they were beautiful, they were also terrifying and powerful creatures not only by virtue of their song, but also their strength. The mermaids and meremen were an interesting addition to the story and I found fascinating their differences as I would normally don't see any difference between the sirens and mermaids. 

This is about the writing, there are little gems scattered throughout the story that elevate it to another level and show different layers of the characters and plot. 

THE ENJOYMENT…

I really loved this story! Totally enjoyed it and I would recommend it! This book will go high up on my list of favourite ones!

What I enjoyed the most, was how this story made me feel! I wanted to be there, on a ship navigating the seas, wanting to throw myself into the sea and feel the coolness of the weaves on my skin. The seas did feel alive when reading this!


Happy Reading

Xoxo

Janekelsey.com

This book is so good! It is about Lira a siren princess, who literally has ripped the hearts from princes chest. When she disobeys her mother, the Sea Queen punishes Lira by turning her into a human. Floating out on the sea with her new pair of legs, Lira is picked up by Prince Elian's ship and the story unfolds. The writing was great and the characters were also amazing with a very slow burn romance. Overall I would highly recommend.

4.5 stars :)

The book itself: Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was funny with a lot of banter and action-packed. The romance side was a less prominent aspect and that was really nice. I felt this could be one of those stories which had a heavy romance part, but it didn't.

The Story: It's a retelling of the Little Mermaid but in a wicked way. Our main character Lira is a siren with burning red hair and a powerful luring song (hello little mermaid). After crossing the queen her song is taken and she grows feet, again hello little mermaid. She then meets a prince and has to take his heart within a specific time frame, (are you sure your not the little mermaid?). Though she wants to rip the heart of his breathing body and grow her collection of human prince hearts (definitely not the little mermaid). 

The prince is sailing the sea, as Eric does, and tries to escape from his role as heir to the kingdom, as Eric also does. He actively hunts siren (yeah Eric doesn't do that...) and often set himself as bait to lure sirens into the net (Eric would definitely not do that). He picks up Lira from the middle of nowhere and I felt his lack of connecting the dots in these scenes of who she is was a bit of a letdown. If he is not to figure it out yet then don't give me all the clues, it makes the character seem dumb. Leave some mystery for me too.

The queen is the main villain in this story but also there is a lot of grey areas with the main characters and their supporters. Killing is cruel but also necessary in a world where there is a constant war between sea and land.

The plot of Keto was thrilling and very enjoyable, and I felt it fitted well with the characters.

The Characters: There are two main characters, but there are in total quite a lot of people in this book which gives it depth.

Lira is the siren princess. She is cruel and wicked. She prefers torture to a clean kill, and find others who perform a clean kill to be soft or kind. I really enjoyed her. Yes, she is wicked (but so am I) but she has her soft parts. Even though she wants pain (seriously, she placed herself under a jellyfish to feel the pain flow through her body, and nudges it when it stops) she has a humanity which grows as she becomes human.

Elian is the siren killer and prince of the golden kingdom. I really enjoy his humour and the dry sarcasm he shares with his crew. He really cares for his chosen family, aka the crew.

There are also Elian's sidekicks of Kye and Madrid who cannot stop flirt with each other for a second, though it is quite funny. Kahlia is Liras cousin and the only other siren Lira feels protective over, aka Lira's soft spot. 

The relationship between the characters was great. I feel there could have been more to some of it especially to the hatred the prince feels to the Prince's Bane, I feel its a bit thin. Now if the Prince's Bane had taken his brother I could understand the hatred.

I did like the slow-burn of the romance tho, it was very sweet.

Writing: The writing was easy and flowing, and I had no problems or issues with it. I would be interested to read something by this author again.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s fierce, filled with great characters and a really gripping story. Power-struggles abound in this one, and the race to attain it made the book even better. Mermaids, sirens and pirates are definitely my new fave types of characters! Loved this one!

Overall, I was really surprised with this book. It was dark and compelling and far better than recent YA I’ve read. To Kill a Kingdom is a brilliantly thought out book, filled with a magical world that made me want to jump on Elain’s ship and explore every corner of the kingdom.

Our main character Lira is truly a vicious siren who keeps the hearts of princes she’s murdered in her bedroom. Can you hear me screaming about this character yet?

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. Buried deep and bloody. I count each of them, so I can be sure none were stolen in the night. It’s not such an odd fear to have. Hearts are power, and if there’s one thing my kind craves more than the ocean, it’s power.

At this point she is truly an evil character yet you love her for every blood thirsty cell in her body. When she falls out of her mothers favour she decides that bringing her the heart of the famous siren killing prince is her way to redemption. However, she’s not the only one with murder on her mind at the prince has every intention of killing her for every heart that lies under the seabed.

I love a slow burn romance. I am not here for the fall-in-love-at-first-sight trope, I like a more realistic romance and throw in a good love-to-hate trope and I’m all over it. I do like the fact that the romance is not the main theme of this book which it could so easily have been. This really is Lira’s story which is so interesting to read.

Honestly, I loved all the characters in this book. They all jumped of the page and pulled me back into their world and made me care about their fates. And I mean talk about strong female characters, I don’t think you could get anyone more badass than Lira.

Although I loved the story and most of the time it was fast paced and engaging, I did hit a wall at about 20%. I was even tempted to put it down, but then the story picked up again and I couldn’t put it down from there on. It was just a couple of slow chapters, but it does bring my rating down by half a star.

I really do recommend this book. Even if you’re not a big fan of retellings, it truly is a brilliant book.

4.5/5 Stars

A brilliant new take on an old favourite. Very well written and an enjoyable read. Likeable characters, action packed and full of passion! What more could you ask for?

This book has 1) a pretty cover 2) hate-to-love romance and 3) evil sirens who seduce boys and kill them with their voices.

I mean?? That’s what you call an epic book. Am I right or am I right? But to Kill a Kingdom was actually very good! I am in love with the alliterative title and the whole premise and the book really delivered because i was quite entertained.

So, What’s this book about?


We have two main characters. We have Lira, a siren, daughter of the Sea Queen. Now Lira is an interesting character and she has really great development over the novel. At the beginning of the novel, she is controlled by her abusive, mean and horrible mother the Sea Queen. Now Lira disobeys her mother and as a punishment, she is turned into a human!! She can only turn BACK into a siren if she steals Prince Elian’s heart.

This is where Prince Elian of Midas comes in. He rescues Lira from the bottom of the ocean and takes her on board the ship. He doesn't know that Lira is in fact THE PRINCE’S BANE. When Lira was a siren, every birthday she would steal a prince’s heart. Elian is a siren hunter so he basically hates the Prince’s Bane! BUT ELIAN DOESN'T KNOW WHO LIRA TRULY IS?!

But Lira falls in love with Elian and doesn't want to kill him and take his heart but then she’ll never be able to turn back into the Siren. And Elian falls in love with Lira but she is a siren so like?? DILEMMAS HERE WHAT A JUICY BOOK.

How is the story told?


The story is told alternating between Elian’s perspective and Lira’s perspective. Annoyingly, the proof copy didn’t say who was who so I was taken out of the story multiple times trying to figure out who was talking? Luckily, the finished copy has names!!

The writing was REALLY QUOTABLE as in I wanna quote the whole book (however, i lost my plastic coloured tab bookmarks so I won't quote anything + im lazy af) The writing was easy to read and was really dark and chilling and it told the story well!


What about the characters?


I didn’t FALL in love completely with the characters but they were likeable and written well! I felt like we got to know them even though they were a bit flaky.

Elian is a sweet cinnamon roll, I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. He’s just trying to do the RIGHT thing all the time and please everyone but obviously he can’t. And he wants to appear all brave and such but he’s really just soft and polite on the inside. SOFT. PIRATES. Ahhhhhhh.

Elian also has amazing friends. I mean, TORIK WAS HILARIOUS I'M HOWLING!! I’m grumpy Torik got such little spotlight because he was great. And then there’s Kye and he’s BASICALLY KELL and Elian is Rhy and their relationship is like Kell’s and Rhy’s from ADSOM AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH THEY'RE LIKE BROTHERS JKSjdhSJ MY FEELS ARE SPLATTERED. AND OMIGOSH MADRID. She's like one of the only female pirates on the ship “The Saad” (which is such a ridiculous name TO BE PERFECTLY HONEST)At one point shes like to Lira “glad to have you here we have way too many boys here” IF THIS ISN’T A MOOD.

Lira was a very cut-throat and kick-ass and I LIKED THAT. She kind of reminded me of Lila Bard from A Darker Shade of Magic and as you can tell, I LOVE GIRL PIRATES SERIOUSLY GIMME ALL OF THEM PLEASE AND THANKS. But anyways, Lira was fierce and bold and packed a punch and she grew over the story, figuring out what other people wanted and what she wanted. Only thing that bugged me was how she thought feminine things were a sign of “weakness”.

Villains? Hmmm. The Sea Queen was a typical boring villain IM SORRY so I don’t have much to say about her? She’s controlling and selfish and needs to go die. And Rycroft was...interesting. Very cunning though I think the plot twist concerning him was a bit...EH.


R O M A N C E

Ohhh it was a good romance BECAUSE hate-to-love WHICH IS ONE OF MY FAVE TROPES EVER!!! And it was done pretty good!! BUT I feel like it went to “hmmm I like him” to “OMIGOSH I WOULD DIE FOR YOU LET ME BOW -DOWN IN FRONT OF YOU OMIGOSH I AM OBSESSED WITH YOU” Which…Um. It was NOT insta-love!!It was definitely slow burn and sometimes I just wanted to pull my hair out in FRUSTRATION because "KISS ALREADY!!" I’m sorry but you could just see they liked each other?? I feel like the romance did take over a little TOWARDS THE END and it wasn’t developed amazingly but I liked them?! Conflicted.

What about the World?


To Kill A Kingdom is set in a really interesting world. There are deadly sirens who seduce boys and kill them and steal their hearts which is such a dark concept SO IT’S OBVIOUSLY BEAUTIFUL. The world building is okay, I couldn’t care less about the names of places though. There’s lots of sea creatures like Mermaids and Sirens and the Sea Queen and I absolutely love it.


How did you feel overall?


OKAY BUT EVIL SIRENS AND HATE TO LOVE ROMANCE AND BLOOD AND MURDER AND GORE AND THE OCEAN AND PIRATES AND HEARTS AND BETRAYAL?!?!

Of course, I loved it. 1000% my type of book!!! So a really good read I AM GLAD I ENJOYED IT. 8/10 would recommend. I mean, it took me a while to get into and i was WAITING for stuff to happen a lot and sometimes it was slow-moving and I didn’t feel involved and was a bit disconnected but I quite liked it and it was interesting.

When I first saw this on Netgalley I was so sure it was not going to be for me with that synopsis. It just didn’t quite appeal to me. After seeing so many people absolutely rave about this book however I was curious, and here we are. And hey, I can see why so many people loved it. I really took a liking to it myself. Just not as much as everyone else. I have a few bits and pieces that I wasn’t quite so taken with.

To Kill a Kingdom is a retelling of the Little Mermaid, loosely anyway. Because our main character is not a mermaid but a siren. One of those that kills people. They are vicious and a small cold war is happening between the kingdoms and the sea queen. When Lyra, the sea queen’s daughter, does something unfavorable in her mother’s eyes she is punished by being turned into a human with the mission to kill the human prince that is also known as the siren killer.

But that is just where it starts. In its dept this is a tale of two people that are trying to find their way out of the clutches of their parents expectations that weigh them down. As a human it is easier for Lyra to see what her mother was doing to her. How she abused her. Adding onto that ongoing action and adventure it gives a very rich and quick paced story. I did however feel like the ending got wrapped up with a bit of a too nice bow.

World building wise I think that it certainly stands for the amount of pages that the book has. It is, for as far as I can tell, a standalone with less than 400 pages. That is not a crazy amount to tell a story like this in but the author managed that splendidly. However deep down I wish we had gotten just a bit more world building. Because of right now this world and these kingdoms are quite forgettable to me. I want to know more of the 100 kingdoms and about the treaty that was signed. But I also see potential for more standalone stories being set into this world that could build onto this. In any case I did enjoy the reference we got to King Midas.

Character wise I loved Lyra. She is a siren who is vicious and goal driven. She is the next in line to become the sea queen and as such has a lot to live up to with her mother. I quite enjoyed her bite and claws. She never becomes unlikeable. She just is who she is. The longer she is human the more she starts to question that if this is who she is or that her mother made her this way. I think this is always an interesting question, the nature vs nurture discussion. I do have one point of beef and that is that she is called Princes’ Bane as she only kills princes. You’d think she kills them monthly but just once a year. Since she was 13.

I liked Elian but he just seems like the typical prince who is barely 18 and a captain of a ship with a bunch of ‘pirates’ that are extremely loyal to him that he earned. Whatever did he do to earn to get the loyalty of 200 men like that? Especially as they are pirates. And I am using this word loosely , because come on, they are not pirates. And as an heir I can’t imagine a king so easily letting him do whatever he pleases.

The romance was okay. I wanted to ship them but their hate to love went a little too fast all of a sudden. The book was quite frankly too short for it to properly simmer between them. But their witty banter was amazing and I’d reread the book just for that.

The premise of this novel is both refreshingly original and simple - written from the viewpoints of a prince and a siren, who would both quite like to kill each other. This should make for a lot of tension. However, though each character will often tell you how dangerous and deadly they are, they really don't come across this way. Elian doesn't realise that the mysterious girl who just randomly appeared in the ocean is Lira, really? I mean, really? Is the most deadly pirate in all of the one hundred kingdoms really that dumb? The other issue I have is the ending. Everyone is happy. And that made it unsatisfying.

This was a really enjoyable read which I thought was a really interesting take on The Little Mermaid. I loved the storyline but thought that the love was a bit insta lovish for me, but I loved Lira - she was perfectly dark and creepy. The beginning chapter was without a doubt one of the most intriguing I have read.

To Kill a Kingdom Flooded My Senses

*Received this book off Netgalley in exchange for an honest review- but the gushing you’re about to see is all me*

Like a lot of my ARC reviews at the moment, this is a little overdue- but there’s a good reason for it! Namely, I’m floundering about, struggling to find the words for how good this was. Because how on earth do you fully express your love for books that truly capture your heart?

I knew from the first line that I was falling under its spell. From the opening, I was sucked in to the evocative world under the sea Christo had created. Vividly depicted and with a striking tone, I realised straightaway that this was my kind of book. The writing was a showstopper from the start, making me chuckle darkly all the way through and catch my breath at every gorgeous turn of phrase.

Above all, the characterisation was struck through the powerful voices of the two leads. They gripped me, like sirens, dragging me down into the depths. I adored both of the main characters and soon recognised the brilliance of the dual perspectives. Lira was clever and deadly; Prince Elian, for all his sharp edges, was a sweetheart. Their back and forth banter blew me away and I nearly keeled over from how adorable their budding relationship was.

As a retelling of the Little Mermaid (incidentally one of my faves by my favourite fairy tale writer) I had both high expectations for this and also hoped for little more than a fun romp… this completely blasted those presuppositions out of the water. The plot was so much more twisted and surprising than I ever would have thought. It had a wicked premise, was all the more romantic and the evil sea witch was, well, PURE EVIL. Plus it had more pirates (yay pirates!)

pirate orangutan

One last way this slayed me was with its mesmerising world building. Both above and below the surface, it was detailed and intricately drawn. I don’t normally find asides interesting, but here they were fascinating. All the snippets of information had me hungering for more. I also appreciated the storytelling theme, like the hidden nuggets pointing to the Midas myth and the textured references to the original story. I especially liked the underlying musical theme, which reminded me of the Disney version. Obviously, this was thanks to the very tight, magnificent writing.

Rating: 5/5 bananas

A princess must have her prince but perhaps not in the usual happy-ever-after fairytale way. With sirens, princes, pirates, mermaids and magic, To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo is a dark fantasy novel perfect for those who grew up with Peter Pan and The Little Mermaid. But, as with most traditional fairy tales, this book is riddled with trickery and lies, making it a heart-stopping adventure.

Lira is a siren princess who is nearing her eighteenth birthday. In order to celebrate the life of their goddess Keto and get revenge for her death at the hands of the humans, each siren must kill and remove the heart of a human victim. Lira has always targeted princes and aims to steal the heart of Prince Elian of Midasan, however, her mother, the sea queen, has different ideas.

As punishment for disobeying her orders, the evil queen temporarily turns Lira into a human, stripping her of her siren power. In order to return, she must kill Prince Elian and return to the sea with his heart. However, things get complicated when Prince Elian saves Lira from drowning and takes her aboard his ship.

Elian is a prince-cum-pirate who has no wish to be the heir of the golden kingdom of Midasan. He spends his days as the captain of his ship, hunting and killing sirens. Not realising Lira is the siren he most wishes to destroy, he gradually gets used to her presence and believes she will be useful to him on his quest to find a crystal that will destroy the sea queen forever. Lira agrees to help, however, she has an ulterior motive – perhaps she can help Elian find the crystal then kill him and destroy her mother …

It takes a while for this dark, romantic young adult novel to get going; there is a lot of introduction to characters and the way their fantasy world operates. With different customs to get familiar with, particularly in the case of the sirens, it is a little monotonous for the first few chapters. However, once Lira and Elian meet, events become far more interesting.

The banter and insults hurled between Elian, Lira and the rest of the crew is a humorous addition to the storyline and makes the prince and princesses growing relationship all the more exciting. With the sea queen lurking in the shadows, the story builds up to a fateful conclusion, however, maybe Lira can steal the prince’s heart a different way.

Once the story is well underway it becomes an engrossing piece of literature that is difficult to put down. With romance, danger and a cataclysmic ending, it has everything that a young adult fantasy fan wishes for. To Kill a Kingdom is Christo’s debut and it is exciting to find out what she will write next.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39070569-to-kill-a-kingdom

*arc received in exchange for a free review*

I loved this re-telling. It kept me guessing until the end and I loved it. The sarcasm, the witty banter and all the characters and their growth. Do yourself a favour and read it!!

Released March 6th, Alexandra Christo’s To Kill A Kingdom is the debut novel all fantasy fans need. A book of Sirens, intrigue, a little romance and brilliant character growth, this book has it all.

I was super excited for this book. Full of some of my favourite mythical creatures, Sirens and Mermaids, I was sold from the get-go. Hearing this referred to as a The Little Mermaid retelling with a twist, I was a little dubious. There were so many ways this could go wrong, however I couldn’t wait to see what Alexandra Christo did with it.

This book appears to be everywhere at the moment, as other book lovers appear to have been just as excited as I was to finally start getting books based on such an under used mythology. In my personal opinion, there has been a major lack of such in the Young Adult and Fantasy markets.

The cover of this book is beautiful. The colour scheme, blues and bronzes, work so well with the font and tentacles that adorn the front of the book. This is one of those covers that try to catch your eye ‘just right’, not trying to hard, but not being bland.

The plot sounded great. A Siren banished unless she steals the heart of the prince. A Prince who is more at home in the sea, a known Siren hunter, who is after one in particular ‘The Prince’s Bane’. Just this alone would have made me want to buy this book, but To Kill A Kingdom is so much more than that.

This reads like a Young Adult Fantasy book. There is just a kind of ‘flow’ to it that makes it read like so many other books I’ve devoured and loved out there. Yet, Alexandra Christo has a wonderful prose that pushes you to want to read more. It is easy to read, and allows you to fly through it in no time. As a standalone book, it wraps up really well. Leaves you wanting to know more about the world, yet answers most, if not all questions you might have whilst reading To Kill A Kingdom.

Some parts of this book were a little slow, but they made for a nice break between the chunks of action. Allowing the story to move along, but allowing you to breath whilst taking everything that happened in.

The characters are well put together and fleshed out. There is so much history to each and every character that I’d love to see novellas telling us more. Lira and Elian are two sides of the same coin. Royally born, out on quests, it’s no wonder that they’re drawn together. Lyra is fierce and knows what she wants. Elian is the same, but he knows how to get it, even if making sacrifices on the way. I loved that there was a slow-burn romance in this book. Each of the characters and their choices were so believable I loved being able to guess what they might do next. I felt like I myself, were a part of Elian’s crew.

This book was so much fun and I have loved being on this journey and watching the character grow so much. I felt this book was a great read.

The characters are fantastic takes on the originals, and truly make this retelling the dark beauty that it is. However the world building is a little limited and the romance felt rather lacking in places. Overall a fun read.

"Heirs were easy things to make, and my mother was the Sea Queen first and nothing second"

* * * *
4 / 5

To Kill A Kingdom absolutely lived up to the hype - and I'm not even fond of The Little Mermaid! Ocean inspired fantasy novels are typically not my cup of tea at all, but with all the buzz, I couldn't help but try this one up. It was absolutely a lesson in stepping (or reading) outside of my comfort zone from time to time, because this novel is a gem!

"So may hearts. You'll soon run out of room to bury them all." I lick my lips. "Maybe," I say. "But a princess must have her prince"

Loosely based on The Little Mermaid, To Kill a Kingdom pumps up the volume with a load of viciousness. Princess Lira is a siren, a part-human and absolutely monster mix that sings men to their deaths. She's vicious and unforgiving and I loved her. When a mix of events culminates in her killing one of their own, Lira is turned human by her mother, the Sea Queen. On the other tide, Prince Elian loves the sea and murdering the sirens that hunt his people. Putting aside his princely duties, Elian captains a ship and a crew that adores him. I reckon the best thing about this book is the way you really get both of their cultures - one moment I was rooting for Lira standing up to her mother, keeping the hearts of princes under her bed, and the next page I was grieving for those Elian had lost to the sea and her monsters.

"I know that I should tell him that it's the land that steals away who I am and the sea that brings me back"

When Elian pulls Lira out of the sea, he doesn't quite trust her. I was really interested to find out how Christo would write the whole "I'm your enemy and I need your heart" to "You are the human love of my life" thing, and I was not disappointed. There's lots of sass, lots of wit, and lots of angst, but none of it feels overdone. Again, I loved the POV swapping, as we see how each characters see the other, flipping from hero to villain, murderous to suspicious with each chapter (although my copy didn't have chapter headings, so sometimes it was like woah what's going on here).

So, why not five stars? I've sung this book's praises, but I have this odd sense of uncertainty throughout the book that made me feel a bit uncomfortable. I was never quite sure where the plot was going - I expected some sort of war theme, or diplomatic ideas themed with sword fighting, but instead we got some sort of jewellery and teleporting weirdness. Then there was the interactions between Lira and Elian - at times it was definitely awesome - but there was this rushed and awkward (and not in the cute way) romance. I wasn't really digging it.

To Kill a Kingdom was an amazing retelling that I think actually improved on the Disney film. Packed full of violence and myth and treachery and witty banter, this is definitely one to give a shot!

Unfortunately I just can't force myself to get through the whole of this book. I tried, I really did. It's everything I should want in a book! But the characters are annoying and boring and whiny and the POV switch was frustrating. DNF at around 33%. So sad.

Another late nighter. This was one I really wanted to read and I was psyched when I got it. Nothing starts a story off better than I collect hearts. A vicious siren and a prince who prefers being a pirate. For me this story had everything and I was hooked from the start (probably going to be sleeping at my desk tomorrow).

I adored both Lira and Elian, the dynamics of their relationship had me grinning from ear to ear, it was just so fluid, you could picture them flirting in a kiss or kill way. The support characters Kye and his partner complimented them so well.

From beginning to end the story stayed strong. Last laugh would be at the beginning of the acknowledgments. I’m a little upset it’s over and will definitely buy the book to read again. Well worth the read.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.



★★★★★ 4.5/5



I don’t know where to start, from how this is a book I’ve been waiting absolutely forever for and didn’t realise it, to how it did not for one second let me down?

Lira is a siren and the Sea Queen’s daughter, raised to be a ruthless and cold killer, given the name Prince’s Bane for the hearts of the human prince’s she takes, she wants nothing more than to please her mother.

Prince Elian of Midasan wants nothing more than to travel the seas and kill sirens, known as the Siren Hunter, ridding the seas of the monsters is what calls to him, rather than taking the throne waiting for him back home.

When Lira disobeys her mother and is turned into a human by her as a cruel punishment, Lira has to bring back Elian’s heart or face her mother’s wrath. Knowing what she must do and finding a way to do it, Lira must hide who she truly is and gain Elian and his crew’s trust, using their new adventure to her gain and discovering more about the humans she despises.

The Little Mermaid was always my favourite (alongside Cinderella) as a kid, and to read a well done retelling, you have no idea how loud I squealed. It had everything. A siren who was ruthless, a prince who refused to settle, a crew who were loyal and believed in their captain, and a good storyline that didn’t drag. What more could you ask for?

Definitely one for my favourites shelf, and one I bought so I have a physical copy because I loved it so much. This is definitely a favourite of 2018 and no doubt it’ll remain securely in my top five by the end of the year.



Did I like the book? Yes

Did I love it? Yes

Would I recommend it? Yes! If sirens, pirates, betrayal and good old retellings are your favourite, read it.