What do you think?
Rate this book
344 pages, Hardcover
First published March 6, 2018
Lira: In one move, I plunge my fist into the prince’s chest and pull out his heart.
Elian: Technically, I’m a murderer, but I like to think that’s one of my better qualities.
“That’s the thing about risks,” Kye says. “it’s impossible to know which ones are worth it until it’s too late.”
“I’ ve made a mistake. It started with a prince, as most stories do.”
“So many hearts. You'll soon run out of room to bury them all.”
“Maybe. But a princess must have her prince.”
“Be the queen we need you to be. ”
“In my heart, I’m as wild as the ocean that raised me.”
“He has eyes like vast pools and a jaw made from shipwrecks and broken coral. Every movement he makes is as quick and fluid as a tidal wave. He belongs to the ocean. He is made from it, as much as I am.”
I HAVE A HEART for every year I’ve been alive.
There are seventeen hidden in the sand of my bedroom. Every so often, I claw through the shingle, just to check they’re still there. Buried deep and bloody. I count each of them, so I can be sure none were stolen in the night. It’s not such an odd fear to have. Hearts are power, and if there’s one thing my kind craves more than the ocean, it’s power.
“It’ll enchant them all, but if you lay your focus on one, they’ll fall in love with you so resolutely that even as they drown, they’ll scream of nothing but your beauty.”*snickers*
“Normally the enchantment is broken when they start to die,” Kahlia says.
The thrill of it never stops, even when the seas become deadly. Even as I hear the familiar song that strikes my soul and makes me believe in love like it’s the first time. The danger only makes me thirstier.Lira, 17-year old siren princess. Through a mistake, she "saves" Prince Elian and gets turned into a human.
With a shuddering breath, I look down and see legs. Sickly pale things that are crossed awkwardly beneath me, dotted by bruises. Some in big patches, others like tiny fingerprints. And feet, too, with toes pink from the cold.It was a really good book. The setting is beautifully woven and explained so that it doesn't feel like a textbook. The characters are vibrant and fun and likable. There are no longing glances and pained flushes and beating hearts, just a slowly developed friendship and alliance that blossoms. I was entertained.
My fins are gone. My mother has damned me. I want to die.
“I’ve made a mistake. It started with a prince, as most stories do. Once I felt the thrum of his heart beneath my fingers, I couldn’t forget it.”
“I have a heart for every year I’ve been alive.”
“Two kingdoms that come with responsibilities we each have trouble bearing. Him, the shackles of being pinned to one land and one life. Me, trapped in the confines of my mother’s murderous legacy. And the ocean, calling out to us both. A song of freedom and longing.”
“Love is a word we scarcely hear in the ocean. It exists only in my song and on lips of the princes I’ve killed. And I have never heard it from my mother’s mouth.”
“How strange that instead of taking his heart, I’m hoping he takes mine.”
“Technically, I’m a murderer, but I like to think that’s one of my better qualities.”
"The thing about taking something that's not yours is that there will always be someone out there ready to take it back."
“If your only instrument is a sword, then you will always strike at your problems.”
Elian says. “When I marry, it won’t be about power.”
“What will it be, then?”
“Sacrifice.”
“You’re right,” I tell him, trying to shake the melancholy from my voice. “Spending a lifetime with you would be a sacrifice.”
“Oh?...What would you be losing?” he asks.
“If I married you?” I stand to tower above him, pushing away the unraveling thing inside me. “I suppose it would be my mind.”
“How strange that instead of taking his heart, I'm hoping he takes mine.”
"Technically, I'm a murderer, but I like to think that's one of my better qualities."
✨ You can now find my full review here! ✨
“I can’t help but be mesmerized. Such beautiful creatures. Such bewitching, deadly things. Even as they sharpen their fangs on their lips and run taloned hands through their liquid hair, I can’t look away. Everything about them is awful, but nothing about them is hideous.”
“It feels like the worst thing I’ve ever done and the best thing I could ever do and how strange that the two are suddenly the same. How strange that instead of taking his heart, I’m hoping he takes mine.”
It’s the princes who hold the allure. In their youth. In the allegiance of their people. In the promise of the leader they could one day become. They are the next generation of rules, and by killing them, I kill the future. Just as my mother taught me.
Technically, I’m a murderer, but I like to think that’s one of my better qualities.
In my heart, I’m as wild as the ocean that raised me.
Royalty cannot be unmade. Birth rights cannot be changed. Hearts are forever scarred by our true nature.
“I’d be flattered,” I say, “that you would look for an excuse just to hold my hand.”
“Perhaps I’m just looking for an excuse to shoot you.”
Every queen began as a siren, and when the crown passed to her, its magic stole her fins and left in their place mighty tentacles that held the strength of armies.
The truth of what I am has become a nightmare.
I’ve become so used to being brutal, that I almost forget it didn’t begin as a choice.
“I’ve made a mistake. It started with a prince, as most stories do. Once I felt the thrum of his heart beneath my fingers, I couldn’t forget it.”
“Everyone is a blank canvas, waiting to be filled with the color of discovery.”
“I let it all fall away. My mission, my kingdom. The world. They exist somewhere other than in this moment, and now there is only this. Me, my ship, and a girl with oceans in her eyes.”
”Pirates are liars by trade and royals are liars by blood.”
“Technically, I’m a murderer, but I like to think that’s one of my better qualities.”
Rating: 5/5 stars
Sirens. Princes. Betrayals. Oh my!
Have you ever read book before that you could describe as delicious? Because that is the first word that comes to mind when I think about this book. From the very first page until the very last I was hooked.
First of all, if you give me any type of Little Mermaid retelling it's pretty much guaranteed that I will be on board with it. But pair it with Alexandra Christo's storytelling and you have one of the best YA fantasy/retelling novels I've read in a long time. Second of all, if you give me any type of prince who could be Nikolai Lantsov's long lost brother, who also happens to be a pirate, you better believe I'm dropping everything to read it. Third, if you give me any type of lethal female MC with a tongue sharper than any sword, I'm waiting outside the bookstore weeks before the book comes out. Not really, but you get my point. So it's really a no brainer that this was a five star read for me because it had not one of these, not two, BUT ALL THREE.
The story follows Lira and Elain. Lira, one of the most lethal sirens, also known as the Prince's Bane, happens to be the daughter of the evil Sea Queen. She hunts princes and rips their hearts out every year on her birthday saving the hearts for power. Elain, is the Prince of Midas, who would rather spend his days out in the sea hunting sirens, especially the Prince's Bane, rather than one day ruling a kingdom.
Do you see where this is going?
One day Lira and her cousin happen to get on her mothers bad side (as if she even has a good one 😔) and Lira's punishment is to return to her mother with the siren-killer prince's heart. Except Lira is now human, with all of her powers lost. Elian, finds a human girl drowning in the middle of the ocean with no other ship in sight and pulls the girl aboard his ship. She tells Elian she knows the secret to ridding the sea of all sirens. And so begins our story of a dangerous tango between a siren hunter and prince killer.
P.S - Sorry if that sucked but I hate writing a synopsis of stories HOWEVER I want you all to see how amazing this one is because I love you all so much.
Things you can look forward to in this:
-Phenomenal world-building
-Banter like you've never read before, seriously, Lira and Elain are a riot together even during serious battle scenes they were still sarcastic assholes to each other, it's amazing
-Romance that is NOT insta-love, it was the slow burn type of love that fuels my soul
-Top notch battle scenes that will have you ripping through the story
-Side characters that you are actually invested in
-THE FACT THAT THIS IS A STANDALONE. SO MUCH YES!!!!
-Lira's character growth was really fun to read about
Also, Elain said in the book to the Sea Queen "sorry, I don't speak bitch", and I'm pretty sure I have never loved a character more in my life.
All in all, if you loved the Little Mermaid read this. If you like betrayals, forbidden romance, pirates, sirens, and epic battles READ THIS. Matter of fact, stop reading this review and go get yourself a copy of this, you won't regret it.
Blog | Twitter | Instagram