To Kill a Kingdom (Hundred Kingdoms, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

May 27, 2021 Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, look-at-the-pretty-cover, romance, stand-alone, fantasy, borrowed-from-overdrive, young-adult, 2021, read-on-my-kindle, 3-stars

3 stars. Cool concept but I was not invested in the characters at all. They felt so generic and basic YA character like. The writing was fine, the pacing was smooth, and again the plot and setting were really interesting. If only Lira and Elian had been more developed this would’ve gotten a higher rating as it is a fun read. Their romance is fine though and I liked the way it developed. For what it is, this was a pretty cool book and I think it would be great for someone just getting into YA fan ...more

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Apr 16, 2018 Sona Via rated it really liked it

4.25/5 stars

To Kill a Kingdom is a great standalone retelling of the Little Mermaid, created by Alexandra Christo. It follows Lira who is the heir of the Sea Queen and Elian, a pirate prince with goal of his own. Lira is a siren who preys on princes' hearts quite literally; she collects hearts which earned her a title of Princes' Bane. Now Elian vouched to kill all the sirens and end the terror of Princes' Bane. While both characters are sworn enemies what will happen if their paths cross and th 4.25/5 stars

To Kill a Kingdom is a great standalone retelling of the Little Mermaid, created by Alexandra Christo. It follows Lira who is the heir of the Sea Queen and Elian, a pirate prince with goal of his own. Lira is a siren who preys on princes' hearts quite literally; she collects hearts which earned her a title of Princes' Bane. Now Elian vouched to kill all the sirens and end the terror of Princes' Bane. While both characters are sworn enemies what will happen if their paths cross and they become an unlikely team with a one goal.

The book is in dual perspective which gives us an opportunity to see the world through Elian's and Lira's eyes. Both characters are twisted and dark with questionable morality. That part was really fascinating for me as I saw them in more realistic light. The beauty of this book was that it discusses the intricacy of human heart and the importance of accepting ones' mistakes. No-one is perfect and no-one is exempt from forgiveness.

The things I liked:
1. Lira is a badass character and she has the sharpest tongue. She is someone who is not afraid to speak her mind even though it will earn her a glare. She is a free-spirited siren who knows her shortcomings very well.
2. Elian is an awesome, witty and sassy character who has met his match in Lira. The interesting dynamics between Lira and him leaves you gasping and wanting more.
3. The crew of Saad is one of the best squads in YA literature. Madrid is the only female sailor of the crew and she represents a very bright spot and complements her partner's (Kye) personality.
4. We have a definitive ending with no cliffhanger hence making it a great standalone book.

Things I didn't like:

1. Little background on the supporting characters. I understand that this is a first person read and it is hard to follow up with all the characters. However, it would have been nice to know more about the awesome crew member. I was really hoping the author could come up with more books telling us about the crew of Saad.
2. More background of the Sea Queen, the sirens, the Land Kingdoms.
3. It was easier to connect with Lira as she was more explicit with her emotions and feelings. However, I would love to see Elian accept and express his emotions freely. Sometimes even though we were supposedly in the head of Elian's it was really hard to connect and decipher through his emotions.

All in all, I really enjoyed To Kill a Kingdom and found it really gripping with minor issues. I highly recommend it if you like retellings with realistic characters. ...more

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