And above water, Prince Elian is known as the fearsome siren killer, more pirate than prince. Princess Lira, an ambitious girl that's next in line to be Sea Queen, has a taste for royal hearts only. Tradition dictates that a siren steals a human heart once every year on their birthday. Sirens aren't beautiful maidens they're monsters and creatures of the deep. It's a savage retelling of the Little Mermaid story, except that sirens and humans are at war and each side aims for genocide. To Kill a Kingdom is a dark fairy tale at its core. 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? When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby-it’s his calling. The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. 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. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most-a human. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. But if you’re looking for an action packed pirate romance (a la Daughter of the Pirate King), you might want to look elsewhere.Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. I think those who enjoy adventure novels with a larger focus on character redemption stories will enjoy this. It’s a shame because they did have some moments of good banter between them but it just didn’t get built upon enough. I didn’t get many romantic vibes from them at all. A forbidden romance between enemies (even if one person doesn’t know that’s what it is) should be charged and brimming with tension. Perhaps I read too much into it in the synopsis but it just fell flat to me. The romance was probably the most disappointing aspect for me. Truthfully, I enjoyed the scenes with his crew a lot more than his scenes with Lira. But I didn’t find anything new to his character that I haven’t seen before. She definitely isn’t the same character at the end of the story.Įlian is the charming pirate through and through. I think part of the reason for that is that we spend so much time watching her in her own kingdom fighting with her mother’s rule over her. It takes a long time to get things in motion and I felt like, at times, there was more describing and travelling than doing (if that makes any sense). And the book does pick up in the last third, but I was also a little over it by then. Truthfully, I would have DNF’d it but I was enraptured by Elian’s crew and the promise of a good pirate heist. I think this story manages to carve out its own distinct voice. But it really isn’t the light-hearted tale you expect if you only know the Disney version. I suppose you could say that this is a loose adaption of The Little Mermaid since there are a lot of parallels. And the pirate crew is everything you want them to be. It was nice to have the distinction between sirens, merman and mermaids. I really loved the hierarchy of the sea world. I love pirate/mermaid/siren stories especially ones with promises of forbidden love so I was eager to read this and so I quickly added it as a 2018 pick for my 2019 5 Year 5 Book Challenge. I saw this book everywhere prior to its release but it was a review I read by Alyssa The Eater of Books that convinced me to give this book a try. Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Pirates, Mermaids, Fairy Tale Retelling Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. Synopsis for To Kill a Kingdom (from Goodreads): Single Sundays: While this blog may be focused on reviewing book series as a whole, we can’t forget about the good ole’ standalone novel! On Sundays, I will review a novel that is considered to be a standalone novel.
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