To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of. her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing sirens loathe most - a human. 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.

The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby - it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. 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 broker to eliminate humankind’s greatest enemy?

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A mermaid retelling you didn’t know you’ve been waiting for! Most books recently that focus on mermaids/sirens have been pretty juvenile/fluffy works. I think The Little Mermaid had way too big of an impact on some of us. Those retellings are great…. but the original lore of these sea creatures is that they are vicious and dangerous and I like how this book capitalized on that. They weren’t some innocent naive fish people, they were monsters of the sea and it got DARK in this book. It’s enemies to lovers but the love story isn’t the main focus of the book. It’s very character driven and the main theme is growth/character development which is the exact kind of story that I recently found out is my favourite! There were some small similarities to the original myth/movies on mermaids but only for some of the intricacies of the “species” otherwise the entire plot was very original and exciting.

We start off the book with Lira’s point of view as she revels in the slow sweet death of each prince that she kills. Once she gets a certain amount of hearts, she would be ready to be queen… this is a bit more of threat to whoever is currently in power than just passing on the throne after death…. so, of course, there’s some major tension between the Sea Queen and Lira. Lira of course goes too far and gives the Queen a perfect reason to punish her. Now she must take the heart of a human prince without her Siren powers. Meanwhile Elian revels in his expertise in murdering Siren’s and “cleansing” the ocean of their most vicious enemies. He comes off as a super cold killer at the start but you as you get to know him, you understand how this lifestyle has affected him and that his main goal is always to save the people of his kingdom. As he meets Lira, even not knowing what she really is, she teaches him slowly that maybe not everything is as it seems when it comes to sirenkind. Elian also teaches Lira that humanity can be beautiful.

The characters drove the book. There was a larger cast but the main focus was always on Lira and Elian and because of this, there was so much time to see and experience their character development with them. Elian grew into a more responsible leader but was also able to find a softer part of himself in this book he didn’t think existed anymore but the real treat was seeing the change in Lira. Lira starts as what seems like an unredeemable monster and we slowly watch her change into one of the most empathetic beings of this entire book. And in that journey, she doesn’t lose her hard edges. She’s still powerful and fearsome while being able to be kind and I think that was so beautiful to read. Usually we only get one or the other in powerful characters like that, it was nice to see a change. And it was cool to see truly horrible characters be able to change their ways yet still have to pay penance for their past actions, not just have it all swept under the rug.

All in all, it was an enjoyable read, especially for summer. It didn’t fully entrance me and immerse me like I would have liked but that didn’t take away from the enjoyability of the book. 3 stars.