To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

 

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?

I picked this book up because it has been a really long time since I read a mermaid book and this one had rumours of being a Little Mermaid retelling so I really wanted to give it a read. This book was way darker than I expected and it made me like it even more. 

Lira is also known as The Princes' Bane because she steals the hearts of princes as the sail across the sea and when I say steal I mean she pulls them from their chests. She is a nice heroine at all. 

Elian is a Prince but more importantly he is a Pirate. Elain's favourite hobby is hunting Sirens. See the problem yet??

Between the Lira and Elian there is a lot of Banter and Sarcasm that is refreshing in the world of YA. I enjoyed the slow burn of the relationship between the two but also between Lira and the rest of the crew. It helped to make the characters more realistic and I am not a fan of the Insta love romances that a lot of YA books favour. 

I would have loved to read more about the Mermaids, Mermen and Sirens because their story was dark and scary and honestly the most interesting part about the story. Its always interesting when a story provides a new take on something that you thought you knew. 

I think that this book could have benefited from a map of the world especially as we visit so many different kingdoms it was a little tricky to keep up with where we were in comparison to everything else. 

I wasnt a huge fan of the way the book ended it didnt feel like it could of happened in the way that it did (trying not to spoil anything) but over all I enjoyed the book. It was a fun easy read that I will probably never reread but I am glad I started of my year with. 

Thanks For Reading

Em x