To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

In my heart, I’m as wild as the ocean

 Hello book readers!

How have you all been? Me? Well, I’ve been in a book slump and it makes me DEPRESSED. But, finally, FINALLY, I finished it book with the help of my dear friend Melissa over on #bookstagram !

To Kill a Kingdom was one word: GRUESOME.

I cannot believe how bloody this book truly was. I’m not against gore or anything, but there were moments where I thought it was a bit much!

Other than that, this retelling of the Little Mermaid was AMAZING.

Hearts are power, and if there’s one thing my kind craves more than the ocean, it’s power.

At the beginning of this book we are introduced to Lira who is a Siren that takes the heart of Prince’s and is known to the humans as the Princes Bane. The whole process of the Siren’s taking the hearts of humans, and burring them in the sand of their homes, is kind of…gross.

Lira is the daughter of the Siren Queen who is basically the nastiest, vilest, creature to ever swim in the Ocean and out of it! She abuses Lira not just physically, but emotionally, and manipulates her time and time again.

Lira never looked up to her mother, but I do believe Lira wished her mother would’ve changed in the end, but alas, she did not.

“How strange that instead of taking his heart, I’m hoping he takes mine.”

Now, let us talk about ROMANCE.

This book gives you that sloooow agonizing burn that keeps you going till the very last page. We are all here for that hate, turned curious, to friends, than lovers. Nothing is better than that, at least I think so, and Alexandra delivered!

In this book there are two different POV’s. Lira’s and then the Prince of Midas, Elian who is a ruthless pirate that travels on his ship the Saad in search of Sirens to kill. Now, because this is a retelling of The Little Mermaid, I knew that Lira was going to become a human at some point in the story, but there are of course things about that story that don’t apply to this one here. WHICH I LOVED.

“That’s the thing about risks,” Kye says. ” It’s impossible to know which ones are worth it until it’s too late.”

The other characters in this story were probably my favorite thing of this story! For some reason I couldn’t quite connect with Lira’s character, and I just wasn’t feeling the spark of Elian. He was absolutely funny by all means, but not what I would want in a potential love interest.

But, Kye who is Elian’s best friend, and bodyguard.

The guy is covered in tattoos and is sassy, cocky, but on the inside, you know he is tender hearted, especially towards Madrid, who is Elian’s second mate. There romance was more enjoyable for me to read than Elian’s and Lira’s. Is that sad? It might be, but here’s to crossing my fingers that Kye gets his own story! (I would LOVE that!)

“Any human who takes a siren’s heart will be immune to the power of their song. Only Elian didn’t need to take my heart; I gave it to him.”

The world building was really good as well! I just wished we could have spent more time in all the different places! The library in Midas was very interesting and I thought Eidyllio was so colorful, and held a certain beauty about that I wish we could have read more about! Maybe if Alexandra creates another retelling in the same world! THAT WOULD BE AMAZING.

This book definitely deserves a 4/5 rating! I enjoyed it and think that if you enjoy retellings, especially ones that are so different from the original story, you would LOVE this book!