My Thoughts:
First of all I loved that this was a standalone as I feel that with fantasy genre and books that feature magic we don't often get standalones as they are mostly series or companion novels. The book sets around 2 different characters who are part of 2 very different kingdoms and are both next in line for the ruler of their kingdoms. We have Lira who is part of the sirens and heir to the sea kingdom and then Elian who is a royal prince and a siren Hunter. I thought the characters were well thought out like they each had their ow unique personalities that made their conversations just spark. A part of this book I loved was the Enemies to lovers trope that we see, As if you know me I love anything with a bit of romance in it no matter the trope. The romance was just perfect.
I loved her writing and her world building, you could definitley tell that she did some well earned thinking about this book and didn't just use another authors book for a baseline. It was very diverse and also dealt with some tricky issues like parent/child abuse and manipulation which I felt the author dealt with well.
I gave this book 5 stars and even though I love that its a standalone, I wish there was a sequel.

This was exactly the kind of little mermaid retelling I was after. To be fair, it turns out it wasn't really a little mermaid retelling, which is possibly why I loved it so much. The premise was incredible and I loved the characters. I love the relationship between Lira and Elias and how it evolves over the book. I wish there was more.

*3.5 stars.

This was an enjoyable read and I love mermaids/sirens so i definitely enjoyed that aspect! I would definitely keep an eye out for future books from this author.

This book was so much fun! I haven't read a good sea based fantasy in a long time and this story really hit all the right buttons for me. It was dark and gritty and a wild ride the whole way...

Princess Lira and Prince Elian, I am so shipping this couple. Why? They are not the perfect couple while being the perfect couple. Their goals are to kill each other and they take those goals seriously. It's not half-hearted at all. It's real.

Now the review!

I always like to come across a book that is not the normal-normal of the genre. You know what I mean. Automatically I am going to rate a book higher when the author takes a risk or challenge and chooses a subject matter that might not be rosy to begin with and well, Lira is a siren, who kills ruthlessly. I mean, who would choose a ruthless, otherworld monster as the heroine of a YA novel that needs a happy ending? Laughing. And it's not watered down or shallow. It's for real. This siren can kill you in a heartbeat. Well, no pun intended, but the girl does love her "hearts."

The hero, who is one of the best heroes I've read in YA in a long time, is Prince Elian, the pirate wannabe who is fated to kill sirens and does it so well. And as the title tells, he's not just out to kill a siren, he's out to To A Kingdom, the whole world of the Sea Queen and her brood.

There is a lot of beautiful writing in this book. Hundreds of lines that could be used for quotes and it's not just pretty language, it's philosophy. I love a particular scene leading toward the resolution of the book at Chapter 25 when Lira looks in the mirror and sees her human self, and in the reflection of the mirror stands Elian looking at her. There's a powerful subtext there. The characters in many ways are mirrors of each other. It's the moment where things change and the story and characters arc. It might seem like nothing but it's everything and I know it. From all these years of reading, I see THAT this is the moment for me as a reader, too, when I realize how much depth this book has.

If truth be told, the beginning was a little rough for this reader. These sirens are so ruthless, the world of the Sea Queen so dark and gothic and brutal, I thought, I might not like Lira, but then I loved her, as I had always loved Elian who is a hero to die for, not a bad boy, but a seriously good boy with a killer instinct.

Complex characters, edgy, who are really liminal beings that belong no where and so by duty and love, they fashion a world where they can live and be together. Lessons are learned, hearts are broken and mended. Sacrifices are made. It's messy and I loved it. All of it.

Highly recommended. Just read it, and watch these two characters talk to each other. That dialogue is a love story, itself.

I liked this book all about sirens and their war against humans. It has a very feminist approach. I found it slow in some places and did not hold my attention much. Suitable for young adults and teenagers

I ended up loving this book so much more than I thought I would. The way that it included Sirens was amazing and I recommend this book for anyone looking for a new fantasy

This fairy-tale retelling hit the mark with fleshed out characters and beautifully described settings. The essentials of The Little Mermaid tale were retained, but many of the less vital story points were altered and changed to make the novel unique. Don't go in expecting a retelling of the Disney version though, it's closed to the original!

I was completely intrigued to the story and characters!

Lira is a vicious siren princess who kills prince to collect their heart every year on her birthday. As she broke that ritual and also killed one of her own she was punished by her cruel mother, and being transformed into a human till she gets a heart of a siren hunter prince...
Elian is a prince and also a pirate captain who determined to hunt sirens and destroy them. When he found a drowning girl in the sea, their story start to sail.

When I picked up this book, I heard this is a retelling of The Little Mermaid. Oh well, this one was darker and quite original. The characters are fleshed out, its world and story are more complicated and vivid.

I loved the characters and story, but I didn't like the last fighting scene…I couldn't sense the enough tension.

I marked as 4.0/5.0 stars

All too often, reading a fairytale retelling can seem a little redundant. Not only is the story the same, but the 'retelling' is unoriginal too. Essentially a waste of time if you already know the story. However, this novel is not one of those. The characters felt quite well fleshed out, the settings were vivid, the world building was decent, and the storyline was compelling. While the author kept the essentials the same (eg mermaid princess gains legs, human prince doesn't know who she is), enough liberties were taken with the story to make it feel completely new. I was hooked and I had no idea how the story was going to end. I would have appreciated more time spent on some of the side characters and their relationships with the main characters. But overall this was a solid retelling and one that I would definitely recommend.

In this novel, we follow a siren named Lira. Lira is the daughter of the infamous Sea Witch, who must present her mother with the heart of a prince every year until she takes her mother's place on the throne. We also follow Elian, prince of the Midasan Kingdom, pirate, and siren slayer. If that doesn't pique your interest, I don't know what to tell you! After a misunderstanding, the Sea Queen lashes out in anger at Lira, damning her to a human body until she can tear out the beating heart of a human prince while in the form of their sworn enemies. Stripped of her siren song and fins, Lira sets her sights on the pirate prince Elian, and attempts to infiltrate his mission to put an end to all sirens, and bring his heart back to the Sea Queen. But things don't exactly go as planned...

Lira is a ruthless killer, famed for her cold-blooded pursuit of the princes of the hundred kingdoms. Known as the Prince's Bane, Lira is vicious and unstoppable, and vulnerable only to her mother. Lira has never known love or kindness - it isn't the way of the sirens, especially under the rule of the current Sea Queen. Yet Lira's raw hatred of humans, we learn, is a misdirected hatred of her situation. When Lira is transformed into a human, she's disgusted by her form - shamed and humiliated and stripped bare from everything she's ever been. She despises Elian, who holds her captor on his ship after rescuing her until she can devise a plan that will allow her to gain his trust.

Though Lira is no fighter in her human form, she is perfectly mean and menacing through her words. Unafraid of questioning and confronting Elian, she is the perfect opposite of the pirate prince, yet soon learns that their dreams aren't so different. Lira's character development throughout this book was outstanding. The transition from suppressed and murderous slave to what she soon becomes was executed so smoothly and realistically. Her confidence and sense of self and duty, especially in the face of her enemies, was such a unique take on the "Ariel" character (forgive me, I haven't read the original tales yet) and she very quickly became one of my favourite female characters of all time. Lira's morals lie naturally in a grey area after her upbringing and environment, yet she has such a strong heart and can sass just about anyone regardless of her faltering use of human language.

Elian sees himself as an irredeemable killer. He takes no joy in the slaying of sirens, yet he's perfected the art of doing so. Elian has no interest in inheriting his father's throne, and feels more at home on the sea with his pirate crew; hunting sirens, wooing women, and drinking rum. As dangerous and heartless as he believes himself so, Elian cares so deeply about his found-family, and holds no true malice within himself. Despite his pirate lifestyle, Elian isn't selfish or needlessly cruel - he's exceptionally clever and diplomatic and fair. He knows exactly what people want and how they work, and has a talent of using that to his advantage while offering fair trade for the greater good of the kingdoms. Elian is charming and funny, and takes on Lira's venomous remarks with an attitude that she can't help but admire. Though he doesn't trust this mysterious girl who can speak Psáriin, the language of the sirens, he gives her enough space and respect to earn her way into his trust and crew.

The crew of Elian's ship, the Saad, is made up of some very memorable characters. Madrid is a tattooed woman who escaped slavery in another kingdom, and savours her freedom aboard the ship. She's sarcastic, hilarious, and everything I've ever wanted to see in a lady pirate. We also have Kye, Elian's most trusted adviser/bodyguard, and although he stands firmly in the way between Elian and Lira, I couldn't help but respect him and his loyalty to his captain. The crew of the Saad are a family, and as unwilling as she is, Lira soon finds herself a part of that family and proves her worth among their ranks without a second thought.

The Sea Queen is the ultimate enemy in any story. Truly chaotic evil, she's willing to sacrifice everyone around her to keep her power - her daughter, especially. She forces the sirens to go to impossible lengths to prove their lack of humanity, and has no intention of giving up the throne. While in other retellings of The Little Mermaid, I've always been able to identify with the Sea Queen's side and saw the reasoning behind her evil, this wasn't the case in To Kill A Kingdom. This Sea Queen is power-hungry to the point of carelessness, and filled with senseless, unrelenting hate.

The atmosphere throughout this novel was dark, and so very charged. Every setting - including the Diávolos sea that homes the sirens, every kingdom our characters visit along the way, and even on the Saad travelling through the ocean - was vivid and alive. The tone constantly kept pace with each of the dual perspectives, and ran seamlessly as our main characters learned and grew with each experience. Although at the very beginning, I thought the sentence structures were slightly choppy, I soon realised how this served to egg on the fast pacing that flows consistently throughout the novel. The dual first-person perspectives between Lira and Elian worked perfectly for every scene; they mirrored one another, but with unique voices that added an extra depth to their characters. There are no lulls in this storyline - the pace marches forward at lightening speed, and our main characters keep up without rushing any of their own internal conflicts.

The plot of this novel is so clever - I constantly forgot that this was a retelling, and each time a little Easter egg was presented, it was so much fun comparing it to the other takes of this story. Despite being written in first-person perspective, I was constantly guessing what the main characters were planning and what else they were capable of. Both Elian and Lira surprised each other and themselves with what they're willing and able to do, and I enjoyed this aspect of the book so much. This story is unpredictable; everything impossible comes to fruition in such a sort time, and yet there's never a moment where something seems too drastic or doesn't make sense. We have just enough from the original tale, such as the shell necklace, the siren-human transformation, the trident, and the hot prince, and yet so much more to add to the intrigue. For a world with a hundred kingdoms, the world building was shockingly well done - despite each kingdom holding different legends, traditions, languages, and even forms of magic, it was so easily followed. Although I personally would have loved to see a map in this book (for no other reason than I'm trash for fantasy maps), it really wasn't necessary to keep up with navigating this world.

There wasn't a single moment that I faulted the logic, timing, or pacing in this novel, which can be quite rare with stand-alone fantasy novels of this length. The only thing I wish I could have seen more of was the magic/legends of the various kingdoms. From those I learned from this book, there could be hundreds of stories set in this world... and I'd read every last one of them.

As we come to the end of the book, it seemed as though there was lot more to happen in so few pages, and I was worried that we'd be left with a cliffhanger. Thankfully this wasn't the case, and I was kicking myself for doubting a story that showed no evidence to the contrary. The ending of this book was EVERYTHING. That's all I can say without spoiling. Although I wish this wasn't a stand alone simply because I loved the world and the characters so much, the ending wrapped up in such a satisfying way that blew my expectations out of the park. This is the mermaid book I'd been waiting for. While I'll never stop seeking out retellings of this story, I'll never tire of this one in particular.

I gave this book five stars without question, and I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to read it. Please pick this book up from your local bookstore or library if you can, I promise you won't regret it. If you need more convincing:
- Murderous sirens
- Creepy mermaids
- Hot pirate prince
- Funny, mean, bad ass female characters
- Magic
- Ships and shipping ;)
- Did I mention SIRENS?! Who lure men to their deaths with their voices?!
- Pirates

Characters: ★★★★★
Atmosphere: ★★★★★
Writing Style: ★★★★.5
Plot: ★★★★★
Intrigue/Enjoyment: ★★★★★

Well, I was a little hesitant before I began this book, because sirens don’t seem to be my thing. I more of werewolf kind of a person. But color me shocked !! I actually enjoyed this book a lot. The pace of the story was decent, the plot was unique and it had all the right things at the right time. Both Lira and Elian are amazingly written. Both bad-ass, loyal and fierce in their duties.

The plot had everything from royalty – treasure hunt – secret agendas – unexpected feelings – loving thy enemy – standing up for the good to evil queen – dramatic fight in the end and so much more. The final scene was so well written and so grandeur !! It had politics too.. I enjoyed reading the camaraderie between Elian and his crew. I liked how humble he was even though he is royalty.

Another thing that impressed me was the flow of the story. Nothing rushed, so well thought out and not just strange from a paranormal point of view. No incident or character was excess or dragged. Lira was so misunderstood that my heart broke for her. Her conflicting emotions and her gradual change of heart was so endearing and genuine to read. Nothing seemed fake.

If you are a fan of paranormal, I will definitely recommend this book. It’s a complete story !

I felt really disappointed in this book. I loved the premise behind it, but the execution wasn't what I wanted it to be. I felt as though the ending was abrupt, and given the slow start to the book this made me feel like the pacing was completely off.

This is a wonderful fantasy novel that has everything you could ever want in such a story. I can't wait to share this with my students as it will be popular in my lending library.

I loved the relationship in this book and the characters were some of the more unique ones that I have read in YA recently. The story gripped me from the beginning and I never wanted to put it down,

I started this book at the beginning of the year, but after only getting 100 pages in, I fell into a summer slump... I picked it back up a week ago and I'm so glad I stuck with it!

It's honestly so gripping and intense, but layered with funny and heartfelt moments. I loved following Lira's inner battle through the story, and how her relationships with all the other characters changed and grew.

This has really inspired me to get back into my own writing soon, and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more books by Alexandra Christo 😍

Addictive from beginning to end. I couldn’t put it down and need more in this world! Elian and Lira have my heart completely and his was an incredibly unique take on the Little Mermaid tale. I cannot wait to see what the author brings out next!

When I first heard about To Kill A Kingdom I wasn’t sure I wanted to read it. I like fantasy but I prefer it to not be too far-fetched. However, I had heard amazing things from both Becca and Gem so I took a gamble and downloaded it from NetGalley – I am so glad I did!

It’s told from a world with many Kingdoms; some on land and some under the sea. Those on land have been at war with the sea dwellers for many years and have lost many sailers, most noticeably Princes, to Sirens who lure them to their death.

Lira is one such Siren, and next in line to take her mother’s throne. Lira likes to take the heart of a Prince on her Birthday every year and this year would have been no exception – had she not defied her mother. Forced to become human until she meets her mother’s demand, Lira ventures into a world she has only ever seen from the Sea.

The Sea Queen, Lira’s mother, is a vicious monster (read: nastier than Ursula from The Little Mermaid) and although she isn’t a main character she is utterly fascinating. I felt physically tense from any part of the story that involved her. The imagery that surrounds her and her minions is fantastic; it’s dark and vile and makes your skin want to crawl.

Lira herself is such a fantastic character. I hate to watch female leads wither and melt under the male gaze but she doesn’t flinch. She’s incredibly strong, sometimes to her own detriment, but you cannot deny she is a force to be reckoned with. If you’re looking for a book with a kick-ass female lead then your quest ends here, and you won’t be disappointed.

Her male counterpart, Prince (and self-imposed Pirate) Elian is also a refreshing character. Where Lira shows us the perilous underworld, Elian swirls us into the glitz and glamour of the palaces of various Kingdoms. He’s not interested in settling for tradition and instead chooses to live the life of a Siren Hunter with a crew of loyal sailors, trying to rid the seas of vermin he considers them to be.

What I love the most about the two of them together is not that there is gender subversion by role reversal, but they are equally balanced, and I think that is what makes To Kill A Kingdom is a brilliant and visually stimulating book. Everywhere you look there are pirates and monsters and murderers and there is a true sense of traditional Fairytale horror too – do not expect beautiful mermaids or handsome princes. Everything is twisted in it’s own way.

To Kill A Kingdom will sweep you away on a tide of viciousness and never truly let your feet back on to solid ground.

I'm the type of person that loves to hate a slow burning romance but THIS BOOK, made me love everything about slow burning romances and just this book in general.I honestly adored the way alexandra constructed this book and went between the views of the two characters allowing us to get deep into their thoughts

Quite frankly, I feel like my childhood has been stolen from me. This story is a bewitchingly dark retelling of The Little Mermaid, AND it’s a standalone fantasy novel which is full of rewarding chapters.

To Kill A Kingdom follows Lira, the daughter of the Sea Queen and deadly siren known as the Prince's Bane. She’s a murderous siren, but also with a soft streak. Then you have Prince Elian, reluctant royalty and renowned pirate. He is captivating and asserts his power without being overbearing or vile, smart with a bit of smugness showing through, and as dashing on a ship as inside a palace.

Naturally, their fates get intertwined and we get an outstanding story about overcoming trauma, a fondness for family and there’s also a brilliant romance. (This makes my heart happy.)

I loved the dialogue in this novel. There were some great sections which could be called banterous, along with sections which will have you chuckling to yourself throughout. I loved the world-building and I was able to envision the locations in my mind.

Sadly the fight scenes weren’t as good as they could have been, but definitely not bad. I felt like certain parts that needed more pages were rushed and the opposite. A little more balance and the pacing would have ben nailed perfectly.