Reviews tagging 'War'

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

33 reviews

what_is_a_name's review against another edition

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funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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lexizee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

3.75

not gonna lie, the first few chapters were kinda okayyyy for me but then i continued reading and we went on to the good stuff and i could not put this book down 😩 i adore elian and lira so much. and the banter!!! the banter is so good ahh!! the best pair you could ask for: elian wanting to obliterate lira's race and lira wanting to take elian's heart 😮‍💨 anyway, the interaction is mwa! the only reason this doesn't get a 4-5 rating is because of the beginning (kinda meh) and ending (felt like it was rushed).

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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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deannab's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Truly amazing writing. I was hooked from the very beginning. A great retelling with enough differences that it felt like a whole new story. It is tense, high-energy, and adventurous. Yet, has funny moments/dialogue between the characters to lighten the story up. Every word pushes the narrative forward and pays off later in the story. I would absolutely love to see more of these characters in the future. This is definitely a book I could read over and over again!

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caitlin033's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.0

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c45p1n's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

(4 stars, truly)

ok, basics: i loved this book. It had phenomenal world building, amazing descriptions for everything and everyone, it truly is a great book. but it felt like everything was so dragged out during descriptions or things were raggedy: for example, Lira's memory retellings. Granted, there probably weren't any smooth ways to put in what Lira was forced to do, I feel like where it was inserted was just on a whim.

This is a morbid and bloody twist on my favorite "Disney Princess" from when I was 6, Ariel from the Little Mermaid. (for anyone who cares my favorite today is Tiana (Princess and the Frog)). Definitely not for the faint of heart with everything that goes down and it's descriptiveness it ends up being, but it takes an interesting line of sirens V mermaids, and sirens V humans/pirates and morphs it into something more. It's an action-packed, sword-wielding, heart-clenching, screaming-into-your-pillow type of read.

SPOILERS BELOW (PROCEED WITH CAUTION?)

pros and cons
extra too descriptive with every little thing and sometimes got repetitive

CLEAR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!!!!!!

you can see Lira go from killing, purely because she *can* and because she's bloodthirsty to killing because she *has* to. you see her and Elian) grapple with their fates and what they're expected to do, what they were bred and forced into and then you see them fight for themselves and push back against the Sea Queen.

STRONG LEADS!!!

Lira and Elian both have clear goals they're working towards and it's clear what is at stake for them both. Lira is a strong, ruthless, lead and she doesn't back down for anyone. She thinks things through and she plans ahead and she disregards what anyone thinks of her. Christo fought the typical damsel-in-distress feel for her.

fight scenes were all clear and grueling and brutal and descriptive!
Elian's response to the betrayal.

we all knew it was coming but I felt empty after reading the betrayal and the fight from his POV. It could've had so much more depth and him grappling with the truth, with Yukiko, with literally anyone and it didn't. It showed him force Lira out the chamber, it showed him explain his marriage loophole with Yukiko and then--BAM--went straight into Lira's POV and after her POV went back to his POV only for it to be of the fight scene and the action. I wanted to see more how Kye or Madrid felt about the truth of Lira and what she is but we didn't get that until.. i don't know.. ten(???) pages before the book ended? His point of view for that betrayal really felt rushed over and like he didn't even *deal* with it aside from kicking Lira out. I was just disappointed immensely by that. ALSO: THE CASUAL BRUSH OVER SAYING LIRA JUST IS THE SEA QUEEN AND ELIAN IS SHIPPING THE SEAS WHILE HIS SISTER IS RULING THE KINGDOM??????? hello?????? we're just gonna overlook and swing by that???

how did they fall in love????

the romance aspect of this book was so rushed and i felt really weird about it honestly. This book is more adventure than romance, but was advertised (to me at least) as more of a romantic enemies to lovers type of thing. there was very very little romance in that book. it was 30% war, 20% sarcastic banter 3% child/emotional abuse and 45% blood and talking abt ripping hearts out and 2% fancy names and words i skipped over anytime i saw them.

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charhollyx's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A fun read, a little different in the fantasy genre.
Though it was a little too YA for me in terms of the romance, the gore elements (which I loved) made me feel as though the romance could have been a little more realistic of their ages.

Though I don’t care if characters have sex or not in books, Elian and Lara only kiss and for 20+ year old individuals who are ripping hearts out or slicing throats, a kiss or two felt a little high school drama.

The world was great - though I wish I had a map. With such an extensive world, I would like to have learnt more about it rather than a brief 2/3 kingdoms.
The ending was a little rushed. A great battle and a happy ending which were great,

I didn’t expect them to battle on the mountain, yet I don’t know what I imagined with like 30 pages left.

The romance took a while to get going or begin in general which made it difficult to sink my teeth into. Although it wasn’t an overly “enemies to lovers” and more “strangers to flirting because he doesn’t realise you’re enemies”
All in all, it was good. Not mind-blowing, but good and well written!

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durrareadsstuff's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted 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

4.0

I loved this book! Normally I'm not too fond of slow-paced books, but I felt like it was necessary to build up tension and sort of provide a backgrounds for the conflicts. Most of all, I like how the characters are so well developed in here cause I feel like in the case of stand-alone novels, usually authors don't get that much room to develop their characters. But I love these characters so much!! Lira is such a strong and tenacious (girl?siren?) and despite growing up and primed to be a ruthless monster, she's learned to embrace the "humanity" inside of her and found out it's not so bad being human. I mean, CHARACTER ARC YALLSS. I also really really appreciate the dual pov in here. Prince Elian is also a well-constructed character; he's charming, brilliant, confident and he's a prince/pirate which I'm sorry, but he reminds me a tiny bit of Nikolai. I LOVE Madrid's character and also her "relationship" with Kye. Cracks me up. And I love the loyalty and the respect and love between Lira and Kahlia, however I do think she was just left out of the picture after the "happy ending". I mean, WHAT HAPPENED TO KAHLIA?? I need more family love content.

I think the enemies to lovers trope was executed quite well in here, I'm not too crazy of the trope but I really liked it in here. The romance was slow burn and at times a little heartbreaking, although, did they really have to make out during a war?? I mean, that scene was weird. But I do love the banter between them. The writing was okay, it was not above average I guess, but not that beautiful. But yeah, it's easy to read. For me, the plot twists weren't all that shocking, but I still enjoyed it. The whole world building and how it's sort of surrounded by legends was so cool. I loved the whole pirate-y atmosphere.

Overall, loved reading this, but there were some parts where I was like, um okay. Maybe not? But those were not common occurrences across the book, so good read.

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honeyboyxo'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
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

God I love this book. I’ve never seen the pirate fantasy so beautifully adapted before. The little mermaid inspiration doesn’t feel cheap or gimmicky at all and all of the characters are rich and captivating. Lira is an incredible protagonist who is KICKS ASS and really breaks the mold for female leads. She’s snarky and flawed and struggles with genuine issues like her humanity and morals. Elian is burdened by responsibility and duty from his two lives and is a great leader. Their ETL arc is incredible and I loved every page.

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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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