To Kill a Kingdom (Spoiler Free) Review

Title: To Kill a Kingdom
Author: Alexandra Christo
Rating:  4 /5 stars
Date Read: 9/20/18

I knew going into this book I was going to love it or hate it. I heard so many mixed reviews and they were all love or hate. I am so glad I am part of the side that really did enjoy this book. Though it is not my favorite book that I read ever, it was a fun and entertaining read and I had to know what happened next even though it was predictable. The predictability did not affect my enjoyment of the book.

To Kill a Kingdom is a Little Mermaid retelling. This is partially the reason why it is predictable. We follow Lira who is a siren. She does something that causes her to be punished to the land as a human without her song and has to take the heart of (the organ not love) of prince Elian. Elian is a siren hunter and the heir to the most powerful kingdom.

We do follow both of their perspectives in this book. The chapters are labeled so it is easy to know who's perspective you are reading from.

I absolutely love retellings and I actually never read a Little Mermaid novel retelling. (I did read the Little Android which is part o the Lunar Chronicles short story collection Stars Above.)

I really enjoyed reading from both character's perspectives and for once I did not mind who's perspective I was reading from. I did not prefer one over the other.

I do wish we had better world building in this book. I felt like there were times in the book where I was confused on where they were and who was part of what kingdom and where the kingdoms lay. I also want a map because that would help so much. The world building was not bad though, it just could of been better. The character development in the book was much better than the world building. Both characters became stronger beings and Lira was a strong female character who made her own choices.

This is a fantasy standalone which was a lot shorter than I expected. I do recommend this book and it is perfect for those who love retellings!

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Daughter of the Burning City (spoiler free) Review

Title: Daughter of the Burning City
Author: Amanda Foody
My rating: 3/5 stars
Date Read: 9/08/18

This is a book that is hard for me to rate. There were times that I was so bored that I wanted to DNF the book and there were times that this book was so good that I could not put it down. I decided to settle with a 3 star rating because of this.

For me personally, I found the beginning of the book to be the most boring. DNF boring. After maybe 150 pages, the I found the story to be more interesting and entertaining but sprinkled in the entertaining parts were more boring parts. Does that make sense?

Daughter of the Burning City follow Sorina and she is an illusionist in the Gommorah Festival which is very similar to a traveling circus. As an illusionist, she can create things that people and see, feel, and touch and they all have different personalities. These illusions create the cast of the Freak show and also are Sorina's family. One day, one of the illusions is murdered. But it is an illusion, not a person, so how can a illusion be murdered?

Mystery plays a big part of this book. You are constantly thinking about who could of murdered and who would be capable of murdering an illusion. I did enjoy that aspect of the book and it kept me interested throughout the story because I had to know if my prediction was right. But there were some parts of the book that were just boring, like long conversations ish (I cannot really explain that much due to spoilers) that just took away from the story in my opinion.

The setting of the book is very unique. I always love when books take place in a world that is not like every single fantasy or made up world. I am terrible at explaining, I know. I am trying. But I did really enjoy the setting of the story.

I was not a fan of the main character Sorina. There is no real particular reason why. She is just not my favorite and I found her more on the I do not like you side than the I like you side. I wanted more character development for the main character and her illusions. There are 7 (I think) illusions and I kept forgetting some of them so when they were mentioned I was like who are you?

Overall I did enjoy this book. There were the I love this book so much moments and the this book is so boring moments but I am glad I read Daughter of the Burning city and I do plan on reading Amanda Foody's books in the future.

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Books I Need to Reread

Today I will be taking about some of the books I need to reread so I can continue on with the series. Sometimes I wait way to long before continuing on with a series or I just forget what happens in the previous book and I need to refresh my memory so I can enjoy the sequel more and other times, the last book is coming out and I just want to reread it. Sometimes I just love the first one so much that I want to binge read the series. These are just some of the books I want to reread since there are a lot more than I thought.

The first book I have to talk about is Truthwitch by Susan Dennard. I really enjoyed this book but once the sequel came out, I was not in the mood for fantasy and ended up putting off and now I remember barely anything other than I enjoyed it. This book follows a girl who is a truthwitch which means that she can tell whether people are lying or telling the truth. That is all I know. I am so excited to reread the book though because I really want to continue on with the series! I hope that is soon!


I am also in the middle of rereading all of the shadowhunter books in preparation for Queen of Air and Darkness, also known as my most anticipated book release of 2018. I am currently on City of Heavenly Fire which is my favorite TMI book so I am so excited to start it! I am a huge Cassandra Clare fan and I do not need to reread all of these books but I just want to because I miss the world so much and the ones that I did already reread I fell in love with the world and characters all over again especially the TID trilogy.



I also need to reread A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. I read and loved the fist two books but I want to reread them before jumping into A Conjuring of Light in hopes I will enjoy it more since I do not remember that many details. The first two books were so good and I really hope I enjoy it just as much the first time as I did the second time. Writing this is making me so excited to reread it now!



I really need to reread the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas since Kingdom of Ash is coming out. I still have not read Tower of Dawn (I will) but I do want to reread all the books before reading Kingdom of Ash and probably also Tower of Dawn. I am that type of person who likes to reread all the books in a series in preparation for the final book and same thing goes for movies. I do need a refresher on what happened in every book before Empire of Storms as well.



I am dying to reread Warcross by Marie Lu as well. Wildcard came out recently and I cannot wait to read it! Warcross ended up on my top 10 reads last year and I do remember what happened in book one, I just want to reread the book and dive into the world before reading the conclusion. Again, me and final books in series. This book was one of the books that pulled me out of a slump last year so it is going to be a quick fast reread and I will hopefully dive into Wildcard by the beginning of next year.



The final book (technically series) I want  to reread that I am sharing in this post is The Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes. The last book came out a few months ago and I still need to read it but I want a refresher on what happens in the previous books. This is one of my all time favorite series. The hardest part of rereading long series is finding the time to reread it since so many new books are also coming out. I might just dive into the last book and read a spoilery summery for Crystal Storms  (5th book) since school is currently limiting my reading time.

Those are just some of the books I want to reread and probably will do a part two since there are so many others that I can think of that I did not include in this post. Yes, most of these are multiple books since they are part of a series but again, I love rereading books in preparation for reading the last book. Thank you for reading this post and I hope to see you in the next  one!

Love, Life, and the List (Spoiler FREE) Review

Title: Love, Life, and the List
Author: Kasie West
My rating: 4 /5 stars
Date Read: 9/02/18

This book was exactly what I needed to read at the moment. Something cute, fluffy, but also has meaning. Love, Life, and the List is definitely my favorite Kaise West book I read so far and I am excited to read her other ones.

In this book we follow Abby Turner who is an artist. She loves to paint. Abby get's rejected from an art show because apparently her art has no heart. As a result she decides to create a summer to-do list to try to gain experiences like facing a fear.

The to-do list in a way sort of reminded me of Morgan Matson's book Since You've Been Gone except that the main character made the to-do list for herself in this book and in Since You've Been Gone it was given to her by a friend. Both books have similarities but they are both very different stories. However if you liked one of them you will probably like the other.

Abby also has an unrequited crush on her best friend Cooper so the trope friends to lovers takes place. It is not my favorite trope but I did really enjoy it in this one.

I did actually like almost every character in the book except for Iris. Lacey and Elliot are great side characters. I really liked Abby and Cooper as well. Abby goes though some character development throughout the story learning some lessons along the way.

I will say this is a summery read but I read it in September (still technically summer but brain says fall) and still really enjoyed it. I personally think this is an underhyped read and I am very glad I finally read it.

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