Reviews tagging 'Torture'

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

18 reviews

anastasia_raf's review

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

3.0

"Lira, a famous siren, must prove herself by stealing the heart of the man, a prince, threatening their race."

To kill a kingdom...more like to kill my time! Because that's what this book felt like. Fun time, a way to kill evening boredom. 

I felt nothing towards the characters to actually be scared for them or even care if they would survive or not. Still, I flew through it and I found the writing pleasant.

Honestly, the only reason I probably enjoyed most of it was because it was pirate-sea themed. The fast pace benefited the book and the almost constant action made it easier to follow. I couldn't help but cringe at the Greek used in the book. My first language is Greek, and I was disappointed that it felt like I was reading Google translation sentences sort of pieced together... Coherent enough to be cringy but also bad enough to be...well, cringy. I liked the way she used Greek words for the name of each kingdom. They were actually pretty well used! But the dialogues in Greek were, unfortunately, very poorly written. 
I appreciate the effort but  wish the author payed a little more attention to the grammar and translation of the dialogues.

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stepnic's review against another edition

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

2.0


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leahhmorriss's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

My first fantasy book and I absolutely loved it! This book is a dark retelling of Disney’s The Little Mermaid and it was done so well. I feel like this was a really easy story to follow, the plot wasn’t confusing at all and the characters actually had a lot of depth to them. The world building was really well done which made this such an immersive read, I was lost in the pages every time I picked the book up. 
I feel like the enemies to lovers trope was done really well. I read a lot of romance and it just never hits the same way that this did. Their romance progressed as just the right pace and the slow burn did not bore me one bit. 
I loved both Lira and Elian so much and the side characters were so fun. Lira’s cousin Khalia was so sweet and I loved the way they both fiercely defended each other. Madrid was an absolute queen and her and Kye are such a good match for each other. The way Elian’s crew eventually accepted Lira and decided to trust her was so cute, especially Madrid and Lira’s friendship. 
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It’s a quick, fun read and I’ll definitely be reading more from Alexandra Christo. 

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viireads's review

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

4.5


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mpbookreviews's review

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

3.0


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dorleness's review

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25


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kateyjay's review

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

3.0

This book was a dark retelling of the little mermaid with an added in slow burn romance, like every fairy tale there was an obvious direction to the plot right from the start. 

The character development in this book is what kept me reading, particularly that of Lira who’s story was one of self discovery however Elian was a little flat and two dimensional. 

The first half of this book was rather slow and I feel there was a lot more world and character building that could have been captured, having a world with 100 kingdoms and only touching on (not even really detailing) 4 of them seems like a missed opportunity and there were so many interesting secondary characters that could have been further explored to add intrigue 

After all the hype this book had on booktok it just felt a little bit flat 

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fujo_cat's review against another edition

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I really wanted to like this book and finish, but I decided to value my time and enjoyment of things. If I'm not enjoying it enough to want to see the ending, I'm not forcing it. So, yeah. What bothered me the most was how every paragraph felt like it could come straight out of Tumblr with its edginess and overall felt really juvenile, like it was trying to be dark and cool but just failed to be captivating. The characters felt like archetypes and the main characters felt too one dimensional - especially the prince, who was mostly a brat doing whatever he felt like because he has no consequences in life and thinking that is cool ("oh look at me I'm no prince charming cuz I kill sirens how cool is that"); also him calling himself a pirate is so, so cringe. 

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katanai's review

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

4.75

enemies to lovers. loved this honestly. an amazing book to get back into reading !  it left me wanting more of the main couple. 

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trishnasaha's review against another edition

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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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