“They celebrate love as though it’s power, even though it’s killed far more humans than I ever have.”  

Elian is the prince of the golden kingdom, Midas. The ocean is the only place he’s ever felt at home and he spends most of his time hunting sirens on his ship the Saad. He has found a way to destroy the sirens forever and must go on a perilous journey to get it. Along with his crew and a foreigner princess he will travel to distant countries and try to unravel ancient mysteries.

Lira is Princess of the Sirens, every year on her birthday she kills a prince and steals his heart. After disobeying her mother, the Sea Queen, she is turned human as punishment. To be turned back into a siren she must take Elian’s heart without her song or siren strength. She accompanies the prince in his mission as she tries to figure out how to kill him in her human form.

Alexandra Christo’s To Kill a Kingdom fell a little flat for me. The idea of a dark retelling of The Little Mermaid sounded good but the end is somewhat anticlimactic. The climax comes at the very, very end so it feels like it stops very suddenly and other than that the action feels rushed. I did like the characters, especially Lira and Elian. Elian’s sense of adventure and how he struggles in his role as a prince is very well written. I did like reading about Lira’s struggles with becoming human; the way she struggles with learning to walk and be on land as well as her moral struggles were well written. 

If you enjoyed this book try Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller or We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizel.