Review: To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Pub. Date: March 6, 2018

Source/Format: NetGalley/e-galley | I received a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review. Quotes are taken from the finished hardback.

I've made a mistake. It started with a prince, as most stories do.

To Kill a Kingdom is sort of like Disney's The Little Mermaid meets Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a fairy tale retelling with a serious edge, and I had so much fun reading it! The story alternates between two main characters: Lira, a deadly siren princess known as the Princes' Bane ('cause she's literally stolen the hearts of seventeen princes), and Elian, a human prince turned pirate captain who is searching the seas for, you guessed it, Lira. Elian wants nothing more than to leave the responsibilities of princedom behind and spend his days with his pirate crew on the Saad, protecting the world from the sirens and searching for a way to defeat them, their queen, but most especially the elusive Princes' Bane. Lira has been raised to be ruthless and cruel, a worthy successor to her mother, the evil Sea Queen. But when Lira's worthiness to rule is called into question, her mother curses her to become a human. The only way to break the curse and win back her throne is to bring her mother Prince Elian's heart. After Lira, now human, is pulled from the ocean by none other than Elian himself, she enters into a shaky partnership with him in order to find the one thing that can end her mother's tyrannical reign.

Characters are the most important part of a book for me; if I don't like the main character or characters, there's a good chance that book will end up in my DNF pile. So I knew this book was going to be a wild ride with interesting characters when Lira literally ripped a man's heart out of his chest within the first ten pages. While this is a Little Mermaid retelling, Lira definitely isn't an Ariel knock-off. I love books where we get to see a character everyone sees as a villain transform into someone else––this is definitely Lira's journey throughout To Kill a Kingdom. Elian, on the other hand, for all his talk of being an infamous pirate, isn't quite as devious and swashbuckling as one might assume a pirate prince to be. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the relationship between him and Lira; I'm a total sucker for the enemies-to-lovers trope, especially when there's banter involved. One of my other favorite characters in the story was Kahlia, Lira's cousin, because she brought out Lira's softer, more vulnerable side. Lira is supposed to be this cold, unfeeling monster, but through it all she still has affection and concern for Kahlia. I think it's Lira's love for Kahlia that keeps her from becoming a total monster like the Sea Queen.

I also have to talk about Alexanda Christo's writing style, which is lovely and lyrical and just a pleasure to read. She has a real knack for making settings come alive through her vivid descriptions, and I loved how she made each kingdom Elian and Lira visited so unique.

This is the first standalone YA fantasy novel I've read in a while, and the ending does a nice job of tying up all the loose ends. I am sad, though, that this is the end of Elian and Lira's story. I would have loved to see more of them, but overall, I'd say that as a standalone, To Kill a Kingdom comes to a satisfying conclusion. I hope we see more from Alexandra in the future!