To Kill a Kingdom
by Alexandra Christo
Macmillan USA
Publication Date: March 6, 2018
From Goodreads:
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 they 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 barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?
HUGE thanks to Raincoast Books and Macmillan USA for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. And to be completely honest, this was one of three books I was provided for winter releases. The Kill a Kingdom was my third choice out of the three, but the one I enjoyed the most!
Right off the bat, from the first chapter—the first page—I dug this book. Sirens were already pretty unique. You don’t see them very often, and when you do, they’re usually somewhat nameless, faceless bad-guy fodder. TKAK has them as real characters, with depth (ha ha) and a point of view.
Lira, our main Siren character, is fantastic. Flawed, exciting, often-controversial. She always seems to be standing between the ‘right’ decision and the ‘wrong’ decision, with seemingly justified reason to go either way. And what I mean by that is that even when she’s considering taking the ‘evil siren’ path, I’m thinking to myself, “Yup. I get it. Depending on the day, that might be the way I’d go, too.”
Our other main character, Prince Elian, I didn’t like nearly as much. Not at first, anyway. Sure, he was courageous in all ways physically, but emotionally (in his situation in life) he sure did a lot of bitchin’. “Poor me, I’m the price of a Kingdom. Poor me, I’m rich and don’t want to be.” By the end, he won me over, but he still doesn’t hold a candle to Lira’s awesomeness.
The plot was awesome and kept me guessing. I didn’t know where things were going to go. Even the few aspects I knew were coming, came with a twist that I didn’t expect. The climax was epic and full of scenes that are forever printed in my brain as these fantastic cinematic sequences!
The world was fantastic. It was familiar, but unique at the same time. A bunch of Kingdoms, surrounded by ocean. I couldn’t help but picture this massive ocean covered way more than 70% of the planet. In my mind, it looked more like Waterworld with small islands everywhere. Each place they went to (they weren’t really islands, that’s just what I was picturing) had its own dramatic flair. And Christo was able to show those differences without getting into heavy descriptions or info dumps. Really well done.
I would recommend this book to anyone. And I hope Alexandra Christo plans to write another book(s) with these characters in this world. I’m not sure that she will, but whatever she writes next, I’ll be waiting to read it!
Essentially, The Philosopher’s Flight is a story of overcoming discrimination. It was a novel idea that in the universe of this book, women were the true power, but the fact that the one trying to overcome discrimination was a white male made it ring false.
Each chapter opened with a passage from the Philosophical world. Some of the passages were even attributed to characters in the story, probably even that chapter. It was a nice touch, but at the same time, the passages were dated into the future. It took away some of the suspense. How can I be worried about ‘John Smith’ being in mortal danger when I already know he wrote a book three years from then?
The plot, and story, of The Midnight Front is wonderful. It’s full of magic and intrigue, twists and turns, heartbreak and triumph. And though I’m not sure if it qualifies as historical fiction (I’m really bad at deciding genres) it’s generously peppered with historical events from the WW2 timeline. Those of you who are old enough to be taught WW2 in high school will go, “Oh, I remember learning about that!”
I had a hard time connecting with some of them. And I don’t just mean supporting characters, I’m talking main characters. There wasn’t enough substance to them. Not enough reasons to care about them and what they’re trying to accomplish. They didn’t feel human, to me. They were people that showed up, did some things, and then went away.
Actually, some of the supporting characters I found to be more interesting than the main, because I could connect with them more. I knew things about them. I saw their emotion, their wants, their needs. I knew what their motivations were and when they had they heart broken, I felt for them. When characters I wasn’t connected to had a heart-breaking moment, I felt nothing.
Despite very rarely reading mystery novels, I enjoyed The Cuckoo’s Calling, but maybe not for the reasons most people enjoy mysteries.
Like most people in the world of books, I love the Harry Potter series. Magical, in so many ways. This book, however, left me with mixed feelings.
I’ve read comments from other readers claiming they really disliked Eldon; I couldn’t disagree more. I found myself relating to Eldon is just about every situation. No, my life wasn’t just like his, but at the same time, I’ve had the intense feeling of being alone in the world. I’ve felt like no one on the entire planet understands me, only to realize there are people who know exactly what you’re going through if you just talk to people.
As an adult, most of us would read this book and think, ‘why the hell doesn’t everyone wish for unlimited cash?’ Frankly, that’s what I would have done, but we’re talking about 18-year-olds here. When you turn 18, you think you’re so mature. Legally an adult! But thinking back, I was still a dumbass at 18. I might have wished for a can of Pepsi that was always full.
Even though I always read prologues—I’m paranoid I’m going to miss something—I do give a little groan when I see a book starting with one. So when I opened Steelheart, I sighed, but started reading anyway. It blew me away. It was packed with the unexpected. Surprise after surprise after surprise. The only downside to that was the level that the rest of the book had to live up to, but inevitably couldn’t. I don’t think any book could have.
This was my first Brandon Sanderson novel, but I’ll be looking to read another very soon. Not sure whether that next one will be the sequel to Steelheart, or another book from one of his other series, but I’m not done with Mr. Sanderson by a long shot!
This was by first Schwab, and it was easy to see why she’s so popular. She writes like someone who has already spent an entire lifetime honing her craft. Or like someone who found a magic lamp and wished to be made one of the best writers on the planet. Either way, I applaud her.
I’m no stranger to fantasy, but it’s been a little while since I read more of a classic, swords and dragons, kind of fantasy. I enjoyed fantasy books for a long time, and then they started to feel repetitive. Like there was some dude out there with a cookie cutter in the shape of a broadsword just pumping out tome after tome that involved a human, an elf, and a dwarf working together to blah, blah, blah. So jumping back into a more traditional fantasy felt like a tiny bit of a risk, but I can tell you that I was not disappointed.
I did the audiobook version on this, and allow to just gush for a minute on the narration. I don’t like to throw around the ‘A-word’ too much, but Pearl Mackie was AM-AZ-ING! As a big Doctor Who fan, I’m biased, but still… If I could pick one voice to read every audiobook from now until the end of time, it would be Pearl Mackie. So great. I mean, who doesn’t love an English accent? And she was able to put so much emotion into her reading.
I started reading this series because I thought the movie, I Am Number Four, was pretty cool. Actually, the movie was just okay. What really excited me about the premise was the promise it held for the rest of the story. Unfortunately for movie fans everywhere, it kind of tanked, and all plans for sequels were buried. Fortunately for me, the books were already written and published, and the whole story was available to me.
The first book feels very juvenile. It reads like it was written by a high school kid who wasn’t very popular, but dreamed of being with the prettiest girl in school. That girl, by the way, says things and acted the way that every love-sick pup dreamed about, but no girl ever did. But keep going.
By the third book, it’s full speed ahead. And it stays that way through the rest of the series, ending with a fantastic, explosive ride in the seventh, and final, book, United as One.