Addicted to YA discussion

What did you think of it? Favorite or least favorite characters? Favorite or least favorite part?

I loved this book so much! It was more than a retelling of The Little Mermaid! And the dynamics between Elian and Lira were entertaining!

I love this so much I can’t even write a coherent review. Like I loved everything about it.
Lira, Elian, and the crew stole my heart, and now I want a hundred stories starring them.

I’m halfway thru or almost and I’m so sad I haven’t developed any attachments yet. Kind of struggling to finish 😟

Jaguane wrote: "I’m halfway thru or almost and I’m so sad I haven’t developed any attachments yet. Kind of struggling to finish 😟"

I agree! It's not that it's a bad book, but it left me kind of cold and I don't seem to have the same enthusiasm as 99% of the other people who read it...

I'm sad to hear some of you didn't enjoy it that much...
I really loved it, however. I liked the world with the sirens as "monsters", I liked the plot, and I thought the characters were complex; they were both good and evil.
My favourite part was when Lira proved her worth and became a part of the crew. And of course all the teasing comments between Lira and Elian :)

I can see why some may not enjoy this book. It has some elements that are a required taste.

But this was definitely my kind of book! I absolutely adored the whole thing! I had no idea it was like a retelling, and that the style was meant to mimic the way old fashioned fairy tales were told. That was such a nice surprise because I love retellings. It also reminded me a lot like Pirates of the Caribbean. My only issue is that it needed to be longer! Much longer! I need more about the characters, their stories, and I need more adventures! The entire book was about one quest-a critically important quest, but still. I need a bunch of stories about Elian, Lira, and their crew going off on adventures around the 101 kingdoms. I bet it would make a great tv show. I'd watch it. It's a fantastic stand-alone, but it's a shame that the story ends there. It just wasn't enough for me!

I enjoyed this but I wasn't head over heels as I saw a lot of my friends were. It was very good, but I think the hype put it on too high a pedestal for me sadly.

This book was fantastic!! Best retelling of The Little Mermaid ever! I loved all of the characters, though Lira was my favorite of course, and while I would be hard-pressed to choose a favorite part, I loved the plot twist at the end as to why the sirens' song no longer affected Elian.

I was so excited, and I wasn't let down! It was quite predictable, which I didn't mind, because the characters were very interesting on their own! I enjoy retellings so much and this wasn't an exception!

Book: To Kill a Kingdom
Author: Alexandra Christo
Rating: 3 Out of 5 Stars

To Kill a Kingdom is one of those books that it seems like everyone is reading. It has all of the elements of a good fantasy book: a dark plot line, romance, a quest, and good writing. However, something was missing and I’m not sure what it is. I just found it really hard to get into this one.

This is a very dark retelling of the Little Mermaid or I think it is. Anyway, it really does remind me of the Little Mermaid, which is an okay Disney movie in my mind, but it’s not really my favourite. However, unlike all of the retellings that I have been reading lately, I really thought it was missing something. The world building really wasn’t there. I felt like it was really choppy in places and other places were really drawn out. Take the action for example. We would go pages and pages up to the build up, only to find that the battle lasted a few pages. What action we did get was very well written, but it just didn’t really fit.

I loved the characters though. Lira, Elian, and the others were very well written and developed characters. That is one thing that I think Alexandra is very good at: writing complex characters. However, with a rather unmemorable plot, I do think these characters will simply just fade away in my mind and probably never resurface. It is a shame though. I will say that the relationships really didn’t make sense to me and it took a lot away from the characters.

Overall, this is not a terrible book so to say, but it just didn’t blow me away like some other debuts that I have read. It really should had been a memorable books, but I am afraid to say that this one is going to fade away for me and never resurface.

I loved this twist on "The Little Mermaid." I thought it very well done, and I enjoyed how much character growth was demonstrated. It was obvious that the main characters changed a lot throughout the book, and I appreciate that element.

We love a hate to love relationship aspect. Lira was obviously my favorite. Her mother I hated, of course she was the antagonist of the book. It was such a great stand alone. I thought it lived up to the hype. The author did well at describing battle scenes as well! Highly recommend!

I love this book so much! At first I thought that it would be another ‘boring’ stand-alone book with so much hype, but after finishing it, I found myself to be satisfied at the end of the book! The plot may seem very cliche and expected, but the author manage to wrote them in a nicely packaged novel.

I enjoyed the book too! I found it fast paced and was able to read in a day. I love Lira and all her sassiness. She was my kind of protagonist.

El 🌹 wrote: "I enjoyed the book too! I found it fast paced and was able to read in a day. I love Lira and all her sassiness. She was my kind of protagonist."

Yes! I totally agree.

I think this book was so to the point that it wasn't so bored. I get the idea of the world so fast, there are no excessive details that I had to skim through. The plot was also there and very to the point but it was still so nice! I wish there were more banters between Lira and the ship's crew though, since Lira has a very snappy tongue her retorts are funny. I loved this book so much. YA Fantasy needs to have stand alones more.