To Kill a Kingdom

Gr 8 Up—Princess Lira is a siren and collects the hearts of princes. Having claimed 17, she is in search of another. She is ruthless in her approach—stealing the hearts with her bare hands. Lira was raised to abhor humans and finds it to be a cruel punishment from her mother, the Sea Queen, when she is turned into one. Her quest is to claim the heart of the heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world, Prince Elian, or Lira will remain human forever. After being turned into a human, she is rescued from drowning by Prince Elian, her prey. The Prince is one with the sea as well as charming and conniving. While a romance buds, can this pair learn to trust one another? This narrative is told with alternating points of view in the first person. At times, this might be confusing to readers, who have to consider who is speaking in the first paragraph of each chapter. Fantasy fans will like the idea of sirens and piratelike princes as the characters who are imaginative and well developed; however, the romance does clutter up the plot.