To Kill a Kingdom book review

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
on March 6, 2018
Pages: 352
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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?

For some reason this book wasn’t at all what I was expecting, I know I read the synopsis but the mermaids and sirens really threw me. To Kill a Kingdom was the perfect retelling that wasn’t a retelling, there was so much I loved about this book, including the mythology and the ramshackle crew of misfits that were put together well and the similarities to The Little Mermaid without it being a complete retake. I just think this book fared really well and I enjoyed it more than what I thought I was going to. There were definite moments that left me feeling a little putout and I wanted a little more but they were few and far between and overall this book thrilled me right to the very predictable end. I think I will definitely be look for more books by this author to give a try and see what I think of her other work.

The characters in To Kill a Kingdom definitely made this book for me, I think I loved learning more about the different crew members than anything else if I’m being perfectly honest. I loved the mythology, the different lands in which they came from and how they all came to be under the leadership of the prince turned pirate. I really adored how romance was played in this book because although some of the side characters were in love or in relationships it didn’t feel as though it would take over the rest of the book. What I would have loved more of was development of each of the character’s back stories and more information in general, I do think this book felt a little info-dumping for a little bit where info was only shared to move on the story rather than to actual find out about the different motivations at play.

The best bits for me was definitely learning about all the different mythologies, I loved hearing about the different kingdoms and how different they all were to one another. I think this was definitely the strength of To Kill a Kingdom, and I would love to have a book just based on the different royalty and the political systems because I think that would be exceptionally well written and interesting.

For me the worst bits of To Kill a Kingdom was unfortunately the ending. I think there was so much lead up to the climax that when it happened I just felt a little like there was something missing. It felt as though everything happened way too quickly and it was over too quickly, it was as though the pacing got thrown off and I was a little jolted and it just felt as though the book ended way too quickly. I really just wanted a little more from the ending.

I definitely would recommend To Kill a Kingdom! If you’re looking for a new take on mermaids and sirens then this might be for you. I will definitely be looking out for similar books!

Have you read this one? What did you think? Let me know!