Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Amazon ~ Goodreads ~ TBD
Synopsis: Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.
The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?
My Rating
4/5 stars
My Review
To Kill a Kingdom was absolutely fantastic! This book is supposed to be a story-retelling of The Little Mermaid, but it honestly didn't feel like that at all. There was so much creativity and action in this book, I couldn't help but love it from beginning to end.
Princess Lira has a reputation to uphold. Known as the Prince's Bane, Lira must hunt and rip the heart out of a prince every year on her birthday. When Lira makes the mistake of killing a prince before her birthday, she is punished and given the task to kill the prince that hunts their kind, but she must make the kill as a human. If Lira can't succeed, it will be her heart that will be ripped out.
To be completely honest with you guys, I hate The Little Mermaid. Now I'm talking about the Disney version, I actually really like the original written by Hans Christian Andersen, because it was a lot more dark, but so much more beautiful. Needless to say, I started reading this book with my fingers crossed that it didn't resemble the Disney version too much, and thankfully it didn't. With the amount of amazing twists Alexandra Christo made to the story, I honestly thought it was a completely different story that barely had a Little Mermaid feel to it at all, and if anything it resembled the original story much more than the Disney version.
Lira is a fantastic main character. I honestly can't tell you guys how much I loved her. She is tough and sassy, but she also has a good heart, and even though her whole life she was basically abused by her mother, she always chooses the right thing to do and is a good and kind person on the inside. I admire how strong she is, and just how much she was able to change and become the person she was meant to be. You guys, she is literally goals.
I surprisingly also really enjoyed the romance. Immediately after starting the book you just know that Lira and Elian will fall in love, and you can just guess what is going to happen. But the way it was written was really well done. While it wasn't an instalove connection, the two definitely had a spark between them right from the beginning, but they chose to be really careful and take time to get to know each other before even admitting to their feelings. It made the romance so much more realistic and definitely more enjoyable to the reader.
The plot of the story was fantastic as well. There was lots of action, especially since the main character is a siren who hunts humans, and the other main character is a prince/pirate that hunts sirens. There really wasn't a single moment where I was bored. The story was written really well.
The only thing I didn't like about this novel, was that there was a lot of descriptions in this book that I found to be a little bit unnecessary, which eventually I ended up skipping over a little bit just to get to more dialogue or there more interesting parts. But other than that, there really isn't anything I can find to complain about.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to all YA and fantasy fans. If you're like me and you don't like The Little Mermaid, I'd still give it a try because this story is so unique you will probably forget that this is supposedly a retelling. I can't wait to read more books from this author in the future.
Happy Reading,
Aneta
Princess Lira has a reputation to uphold. Known as the Prince's Bane, Lira must hunt and rip the heart out of a prince every year on her birthday. When Lira makes the mistake of killing a prince before her birthday, she is punished and given the task to kill the prince that hunts their kind, but she must make the kill as a human. If Lira can't succeed, it will be her heart that will be ripped out.
To be completely honest with you guys, I hate The Little Mermaid. Now I'm talking about the Disney version, I actually really like the original written by Hans Christian Andersen, because it was a lot more dark, but so much more beautiful. Needless to say, I started reading this book with my fingers crossed that it didn't resemble the Disney version too much, and thankfully it didn't. With the amount of amazing twists Alexandra Christo made to the story, I honestly thought it was a completely different story that barely had a Little Mermaid feel to it at all, and if anything it resembled the original story much more than the Disney version.
Lira is a fantastic main character. I honestly can't tell you guys how much I loved her. She is tough and sassy, but she also has a good heart, and even though her whole life she was basically abused by her mother, she always chooses the right thing to do and is a good and kind person on the inside. I admire how strong she is, and just how much she was able to change and become the person she was meant to be. You guys, she is literally goals.
I surprisingly also really enjoyed the romance. Immediately after starting the book you just know that Lira and Elian will fall in love, and you can just guess what is going to happen. But the way it was written was really well done. While it wasn't an instalove connection, the two definitely had a spark between them right from the beginning, but they chose to be really careful and take time to get to know each other before even admitting to their feelings. It made the romance so much more realistic and definitely more enjoyable to the reader.
The plot of the story was fantastic as well. There was lots of action, especially since the main character is a siren who hunts humans, and the other main character is a prince/pirate that hunts sirens. There really wasn't a single moment where I was bored. The story was written really well.
The only thing I didn't like about this novel, was that there was a lot of descriptions in this book that I found to be a little bit unnecessary, which eventually I ended up skipping over a little bit just to get to more dialogue or there more interesting parts. But other than that, there really isn't anything I can find to complain about.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to all YA and fantasy fans. If you're like me and you don't like The Little Mermaid, I'd still give it a try because this story is so unique you will probably forget that this is supposedly a retelling. I can't wait to read more books from this author in the future.
Happy Reading,
Aneta
Ahhh I'm so glad that you enjoyed this one! I'll be reading this one soon and the fact that you love it makes me even more excited ^_^
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing,
~Brittany @ Brittany's Book Rambles