To Kill a Kingdom – 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?

Review:

To Kill a Kingdom seems to be quite a popular and well-received book so far. When I came across it on Amazon, I liked the cover and the premise so I thought, why not? Now that I’ve finished the book I’m a bit in two minds about it. It was overall a quick and fairly enjoyable read, but it had plenty of flaws that stood out.

Let’s start with the two main characters on the siren side: Lira is a Siren Princess and collects hearts of human princes on her birthday, one for each year. Her mother is the Sea Queen and is an evil, manipulative monster who is terrified of losing her power to her daughter at the end of her reign. I love the theme (Bloodthirsty sirens? Yes, please!). I enjoyed learning about this hidden sea where the sirens live and about the mermaids and mermen who, contrary to popular folklore, are just hideous beasts. I think the main point of criticism I have with this book is the characters, the character development is lacking on a few fronts. The Sea Queen is this evil persona who hardly plays a significant role during the story, even though she is almost the center of everything going on during the book. She doesn’t have any redeeming characteristics and is just pure, selfish evil. A little bit more depth would have greatly benefitted her character and that of Lira. What led her to be like this?

Lira’s character development is easy to predict and therefore loses a lot of its intrigue. Lira’s siren perspective on human life was quite comical though at times. Having to move around on two legs and being a lot slower isn’t easy when you’re used to being superior. The only character that I really enjoyed reading about is the prince of the story: Prince Elian. The Midasan prince who actually wants to be a pirate instead of a royal and who has made it his mission to kill all the sirens and especially the Prince’s Bane. Following his dreams but loyal to his family and his kingdom, he does sound like a bit of a dreamboat. When he first meets Lira in human form, he’s very suspicious and that doesn’t change right away. Realistic! Yay! He has a tough time trusting her and feels that something is off. The boy obviously learned a lot on that pirate ship of his. I really enjoyed reading the witty banter between him and Lira, they had a nice bit of chemistry going on there without it turning into a love story too quickly.

I won’t get too much into all the convenient coincidences to help the storyline along, just know that there are quite a few. Some of the plot holes were patched up very randomly. For example: how does a society of sirens (women only obviously) actually have children? Let’s use the ugly, vicious, brutish mermen bodyguards for breeding *thumbs up*. Not my cup of tea. The underlying message that I took away from this book was quite relevant and interesting though. How easily two factions can become stuck in this vicious circle of war, hate and revenge and how easily it could all be resolved by walking in each other’s shoes and some understanding and compassion. The worldbuilding was fairly superficial, but intriguing none the less. The different kingdoms all had a special characteristic with some very interesting royals and leaders. I would have loved to learn more about them.

There is a lot to be said about this book and overall it has quite a few flaws, but I enjoyed it none the less. It read very fluently, was nicely paced throughout most of the book and didn’t have any unnecessary embellishments. Maybe not completely my kind of book but I can see why it is quite popular, especially with younger readers.

Release date: March 6th, 2018
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 352
Format: E-book
Source: Bought