ARC Review: To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

Synopsis:

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?

Release Date: March 6th 2018

Thoughts:

"I have a heart for every year I’ve been alive."

Well, color me surprised. This was pretty dang good. It's been a while since I read a fantasy standalone that kept me as captivated as To Kill a Kingdom. 

The Plot

To Kill a Kingdom has a strong opening, exactly what I'm looking for in a good fantasy book. It opens with Lira (also known as the Prince's Bane), a siren and the daughter of the Sea Queen. Like any true siren, she steals the hearts of men - princes', to be exact. When she angers her mother (who is Ursula from Arielle, just ten times more vicious and brutal and fascinating) she is punished in the worst way possible - turned into a human being, and tasked to steal Prince Elian's heart without her siren song.

Prince Elian, who incidentally, is on a mission to kill all sirens in existence - once and for all. Intriguing, right?

I do admit that the chapters before Elian and Lira meet were a bit slow at times and I felt the end was rushed after so much build-up, but all in all, the plot was strong and didn't let up once it was evident where it would all end - in an all-out battle. 

My lips twitch. “Evil doesn’t follow a calendar,” I say, even though this particular evil has always seemed to do just that.

The Characters

I have said it time and again, but what I need to stay invested in a story are great characters - thankfully, To Kill a Kingdom delivered. Lira isn't just a black or white protagonist. She is morally complex - a ruthless killer as a siren, vicious and brutal, but she is also compassionate. She empathizes, she does not want her mother's legacy of fear and cowering to live on; she dreams of a better world - in which humans and sirens do not have to be enemies, where she does not have to be a killer. What I loved most was Lira's development throughout the story. She doesn't just switch allegiances and is done with it, no - she struggles with who to trust, with who she is becoming, with who she could be. She does not lose her fire nor her ferocity, when she is turned into a human. If anything, she grows fiercer. 

Prince Elian also surprised me. He is not just a spoiled prince, nor is he entirely a pirate at heart. He loves his family, but cannot be what they want him to be - a ruler. Instead, his ship is his home, his crew his true family. Elian is caught in between what he needs to be and what he wants to be - and it was a lot of fun watching him trying to juggle both.

The secondary characters - Sakura, the crew and some of the sirens weren't really fleshed out, which is understandable since this is a standalone, but they weren't mere caricatures, either. Instead, they were funny (Elian's crew is constantly bickering), stubborn (Sakura has her own goals), and dreamers (Lira's cousin deserves her own trilogy). 

All in all, this is a deliciously dark retelling of The Little Mermaid with many twists and turns, fearsome sirens, a sarcastic prince, an anti-heroine you can't help but want to be best friends with and a whole lot of scrappy (cue the "young,scrappy and hungry" earworm) pirates that will make for an immersive and fun reading experience.

4.5 ⭐for To Kill a Kingdom

*thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review*