To Kill a Kingdom

by Alexandra Christo

[Kat @ Novels & Waffles]

“We are not naive little heirs to be molded as they wish. We are warriors. We are rulers.”

Swashbuckling pirates. Murderous Sirens. An epic, high-stakes quest to save the world. What more do you need? A little more fast-paced action, apparently.

To Kill a Kingdom was a great summer read. Descriptions of the gold-glittering ocean and the saltwater breeze made me want to go tan at the beach (okay, I don't tan so much as fry like potatoes in hot oil, but you get the idea). The motley crew of the Saad, a ship captained by a rebellious Prince, felt like they might have stepped right off the set of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I loved the idea of these rum-drinking, gun-slinging, siren-hunting pirates. It made me ask myself, "Why have I not read more books about pirates?" My next quest? To get some more books about pirates.

That being said, I liked the idea more than the delivery. The pirate ship Saad is manned by over a hundred crew members, and yet we only ever get to meet three of them. 3/100 is not a lot, my friends. The three we do meet don't propel the plot forward in any important way – they are minor characters who play minor roles. And ultimately, that's okay. This really isn't their story, anyways. This story belongs to Elian and Lira.

Ah, yes. Prince Elian and Princess Lira, our two main characters. Let's get to know them a bit, shall we?

Lira – "I'm a killer in every life."
Elian – "Technically, I'm a murderer, but I like to think that's one of my better qualities."

Charming, aren't they? Lira is a lethal siren princess known as the Princes' Bane. She hunts down princes like a bloodhound and steals their hearts. Literally. She just claws them straight out of their chests and adds them to her proud collection. Elian is heir to the golden Midasan Empire, but he doesn't want to be. What he does want is this: to hunt down and kill any siren that is unfortunate enough to get in his way. His next target? The infamous Princes' Bane.

Lira is not your typical doe-eyed princess, and Elian is no Prince Charming. And I liked that. We've got two murderers narrating the story, and their love/hate relationship was full of spite and cutting jibes. No insta-love here. No lengthy descriptions of chiseled jawlines or rose-petal lips. What a relief. I love me a good slow burn romance, and the author does a good job of gradually building up Elian and Lira's relationship, starting as mortal enemies and ending as a happy couple.

To Kill a Kingdom is a dark and vicious retelling of the Little Mermaid that features two twisted main characters, both of whom refuse to be stuffed into their respective stereotype boxes. With its slow pacing and pointless side quests, the book lags a bit in the middle, but makes up for it with fun and witty banter. The book is completely focused on Elian and Lira, and allows many other aspects, such as world building and the inclusion of well-rounded secondary characters, to be abandoned at the bottom of the ocean with some of its lost potential.