Review: To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is another Little Mermaid retelling, but it is not like the original or the Ariel and Eric version from the movie most of us are familiar with. It is dark and violent, and the main characters are not heroes. There are mermaids, but they aren't beautiful and kind, they are vile and violent. The main character Lira is a siren, daughter of the Sea Queen, and she is known as The Prince's Bane. Each year on their birthday a siren takes the heart of a human, Lira takes the hearts of a prince. Her next victim is the prince of Midas, the ruling golden kingdom. Elian is a prince, but he's also the Captain of a pirate ship. He and his crew travel the seas killing sirens, and the one that they are always on the lookout for is The Prince's Bane. She is the prize that they just can't seem to capture. Elian wants nothing to do with life at court, but he has his duties as heir to the throne. The sea calls to him just as it calls to Lira.

There are so many side characters that I would have liked to see more development of. We get pieces of their stories but I would have liked more. The main characters are well developed, but all of the side characters are so present and such a part of the story I just wanted a little more development for them. Lira and Elian are dark, violent, and reckless as are their crew. They are both sarcastic and snarky and complement each other nicely. They want to kill each other for most of the book, so much so you aren’t really sure their romance is going to happen. Their romance is a hate to love and it kind of just sneaks up on you. The Sea Queen was an amazing villain. She was dark and ominous and every time she entered a scene she was pure evil. I loved her as a villain.

The ending felt a little rushed. It takes quite a while for our characters to get where they are going and everything culminates in an epic battle. So much happens and it was hard to keep up with. I had to go back and reread sections to figure out who was doing what, who was fighting whom and who was winning. It was a great battle, just a lot to take in.

I highly recommend this retelling if you want a new take on an old classic.  I've read several Little Mermaid retellings this summer and I think this one is my favorite.  It is so unique and I really enjoyed it.


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June Wrap Up

I think I read almost everything I planned to.  I didn't read as much as I wanted to, but I was on vacation for 2 weeks and reading wasn't the priority.  I still did a pretty good job and got all of my ARCs reviewed.  I hope to get the few outstanding reviews up in the next few days but I make no promises.  

What did you read in June?  Any recommendations for me?  Do you have any exciting vacation plans?  My family an I went to Orlando and went to Universal Studios and Disney.  It was ridiculously hot, but we had a blast.  It isn't much cooler here in Pennsylvania.

Books/Ebooks/ARCs

• The Fragile Ordinary by Samantha Young
• Review
• This is a great coming of age story with a ton of character development.  It is heavy on the teenage angst, which I don't love.  I love Samatha's writing and the way she develops her characters and identifies their flaws.  The main character starts out pretty unlikable but she grows so much.  I also really loved the poetry in this.  This will be out on June 26th.
• Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage
• Review
• This was pretty dark and creepy.  It was a pretty wild ride.  I would never imagine a child doing some of the stuff that happens in this book.  This has some major shock value for sure.  This comes out July 17th.
• Born of Legend by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• I've been a huge fan of this series for a very long time.  The main character Jullien has been a villian for the entire series up until this installment.  We get to know him and his backstory.  While he isn't perfect, we learn that he isn't exactly the jerk everyone thinks is.  He's no teddy bear, but he has a softer side that he only reveals to a trusted few.  
• Dark Water by J.A. Armitage
• Review
• This is a Little Mermaid retelling.  it is a reverse fairy tale and keeps in the spirit of the original tale of The Little Mermaid with its own twists and turns.  It is a YA retelling and I found it enoyable but predictable and kind of tropey.  Is tropey a word?
• To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
• Another Little Mermaid retelling, I have one more to read after this one.  This one is dark and instead of a mermaid the main character is a siren who kills princes instead of falling in love with them.  She has no desire to be human, but as a punishment her mother the Sea Queen turns her into a human.  To gain back her status as a Siren Princess she must fight her humanity and obey her mother.  This was awesome.  I really loved it.   

Audiobooks

I'm taking the same approach I did last month, I'm going to see what is available and what I'm in the mood for.  I have a ton of  challenge books I want to get to, and audio seems to be the best way to get to my challenge books and the other stuff I want to read.  If only there were more time in the day to read.

• The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
• I kept hearing great things about this and I'm so glad I picked it up.  I really enjoyed this and I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment.  I found some of the plot to be fairly predictable, but I was still very entertained.
• Till Death by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• Review
• This is another book I have a copy of but haven't gotten to yet.  Hoopla had it and it wasn't terrible long on audio so I was able to tackle in just a few days.  I love Jen's thrillers and this was no exception.  She keeps the elements of the crime pretty vague throughout.  I really loved the reveal at the end and while I had my suspicions of who the villain was, I wasn't quite sure until the end.  
• Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi
• Review
• I had this on hold on the library in e-book format, but I keep pushing it off.  My library finally got it in audio so I grabbed it.  This has a totally different feel than the original series.  The characters feel different, and it is almost as if we are restarting with Juliette and Warner and the rest of the cast.  I'm not sure if it is because I listened to it or if it really is because it has been so long since the original series.  Then again, they've been through alot and they were broken to begin with.