Reviews tagging 'Torture'

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

19 reviews

trishnasaha's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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lexi_readsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I always hear people saying this book is over hyped but honestly it’s so good. However the reason it doesn’t get a 5 is it’s like the author was trying to make a slow burn romance and ended up with only a few chapters of space for the actual romance. But other wise just amazing
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sarah_cameron's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I took a while to get into this book but I really enjoyed it once it got going! The end was a little quick but overall a satisfying read 
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godswarriorgirl's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I know that we all know that the trend right now is the enemies-to-lovers trope, and a lot of authors try to incorporate that trope into their romances in YA fantasy books, but damn. This is an enemies-to-lovers couple done right. It wasn't like how in some books where the female lead is like "Oh I was sent to kill you but now that I have seen how hot you are I have changed my mind and forgot my entire mission". This book made me think that the girl was actually going to kill her man at several points of the book. I also loved how fleshed-out the underwater society was. It was mermaid-world-building to rival Jennifer Donnelly's Watersong series (which I also recommend if you are looking for some more underwater fantasy romances featuring some ladies with fins and gills, but that is beside the point). Anyway, I have read a lot of fantasy retellings but this one has stuck out as one of the most memorable.
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vici24kl's review against another edition

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adventurous funny slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This Book took me 3 Months to read. Anyway Elian was basically Nikolai with black  hair. 
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nicole_m's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful inspiring tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I loved this book. <Spoiler> The enemies to lovers between Lira and Elian is great and the betrayal Lira put him through was better but the fact that he couldn’t kill her after is even better. The story line includes adventure, theft, lying, etc which is my cup of tea
. I gave this book 4.75  because I enjoyed it but the ending felt a little anticlimactic to me. Overall, great book and you should give it a try. 
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seasickkkkk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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sianbaird's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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arttichokedipp's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

I rate books 1-star for two reasons
1) I wish I weren’t alive by the end of it or
2) I think the book is genuinely dangerous
To Kill A Kingdom, unfortunately, falls into the latter category. It’s a nice story, and I enjoyed it. Would have liked to see more diverse characters in terms of sexuality and disability, but it was overall a fun spin and I liked the distinction between sirens and merpeople and wished the classism was explored there more. But the way this book glorifies self-harm is dangerous. The protagonist is a masochist and the author does not let you forget it for a single chapter. When she is injured she enjoys it, but worse is that she self-harms in potentially fatal ways for stress relief and then gets that relief. That’s a dangerous message to send, and if I had to pick only one trigger warning for this book it would be that.

Tl;dr if you have any history of depression or self-harm, or if you’re under 16 or so, this book is dangerous for you. Don’t read it.
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