#Action/#Adventure #Romance, #Erotic, #Ménage or #more, #Paranormal, #UrbanFantasy, 4 out of 5 (very good)

SUCCUBUS SOUL: VERAS ACADEMY is the third book in the Succubus Sirens series, and we meet Bry, along with Derek, Zeke, Rio, and Trey. Three of the men are princes, and one is her best friend.

This was an easy read, with most of the drama coming from Bry as she resented being 'forced' to meet with the princes with a view to marriage. Of course, that changed once she actually met them. As for Derek, she thought she shouldn't be having the feelings she was for her best friend. There was a slight twist to it as Xerxes (from book 2) made a reappearance and tried to mix things up a bit.

With a great storyline, a bunch of brilliant characters (both main and supporting), plus some very steamy bits, this was a great book to read to while away the hours. Definitely recommended by me.

Today, we are diving underwater and then traveling through a dystopian world in Siren's Calling a new release in The Cursed Seas Collection by Alyssa Breck & Anna Santos! Enjoy and don't forget to add the book to your shelves!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Framed and disgraced by her ex, young siren Alayah needs to restore her honor and prove her valor. When the elders announce that there’ll be a contest to choose a commander who will leave on a quest to find a Legacy Stone, Alay jumps at the opportunity and signs up.

Only the strongest of all participants will have the honor to search for the stone. The elders aren’t taking things lightly, and all the games are difficult. Plus, something dark is killing the participants and trying to stop the quest from being completed.

The warrior siren’s young shoulders carry the burden and hopes of the region when she leaves with a team of warrior sirens to recruit a mage to stop the total destruction of the earth’s habitat.

Recruiting the mage won’t be as easy has the elders foretold. Yet, in a turn of the events, Alay finds herself with two gorgeous mages vying for attention and willing to help her on her quest.

Bonds will be forged, and trusts will be betrayed in this epic quest that leads sirens, humans, mages, and dark creatures into a race against time to find the powerful Legacy Stone and use it for either good or evil.

Siren female warriors, sexy mages, and dark creatures live in this dystopian world where the Black Magic threatens to destroy an already dying world. If you are a fan of Hunger Games, The 100, and Divergent, you'll love this one!

Siren’s Calling is a stand-alone, full-length, Reverse Harem, Dystopian novel in The Cursed Seas Collection.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This enthralling reverse harem romance keeps readers glued to the pages with lots thrilling suspense and a sense of adventure as sirens, humans, mages and dark creatures race against time to find a powerful stone. The characters in this romance are bold, vibrant and easily draw readers into their story which has them on quest to save the siren’s world and eventually the whole world. The story takes place in post-apocalyptic future with black magic threatening to destroy what is left of the dying world and the authors brought it to life and sparked readers’ imaginations which make it easy for readers to feel as if they are partaking in the quest as well. The plot is fast paced and flows smoothly throughout with lots of adrenaline pumping and suspenseful events including creatively described magical battles, emotional turmoil, betrayals, spine chilling events, exciting meetings and life altering changes.

The romance of the story is sweet and pretty much clean even though this is a reverse harem romance and it kind of unfulfilling in that respect with the way the relationships come about. Alayah leaves on the quest but has to leave her love at home and while on the journey she discovers two more men along the way. The story has some intimate scenes between Alayay and each of her lovers but there is something missing from the whole process but that does not take away from the enjoyment of this story as readers can’t stop turning the pages of the non-stop explosive action and suspense of this story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41887027-siren-s-calling

BookLikes - http://booklikes.com/siren-s-calling-alyssa-breck-anna-santos/book,13995173

Riffle - https://www.rifflebooks.com/books/1032783

BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/books/siren-s-calling-a-reverse-harem-dystopian-romance-the-cursed-seas-collection-by-alyssa-breck-and-cursed-seas

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/series/245141-the-cursed-seas-collection

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Cursed-Seas/e/B07JL3HQ5V/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_3

Siren's Stone - Miranda Hardy
Dark Ocean Princess - Nina Walker
Stone Obsession - Julie Morgan
The Viking Throne - J.B. Michaels
Siren's Calling - Alyssa Breck & Anna Santos
Sordid Depths - Heather Marie Adkins
The Spelled Stone - Natalie G. Owens
Siren Awakened - Elle Middaugh
Siren's Curse - Carly Fall
Mage's Legacy - Rebecca Hamilton
Stone Heart - Pauline Creeden

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AVAILABLE in ebook

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HD69JT8/

Amazon-CA - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07HD69JT8

Amazon-UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07HD69JT8

Amazon-AU - https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B07HD69JT8

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ALYSSA BRECK~

Alyssa Breck is an award-winning author of horror, paranormal romance and erotic fiction. She grew up reading Stephen King and V.C. Andrews. The Shining changed her life and sparked a love of all things scary, spooky and spine-chilling.

Add some romance to that and she found her niche weaving paranormal and erotic romance stories. Alyssa lives in the south with her family and myriad pets.

Website - http://www.alyssabreck.com/

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8391189.Alyssa_Breck

BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/authors/alyssa-breck

**************************

~ANNA SANTOS~

Anna Santos is a Best Selling Paranormal Author, who builds worlds of undeniable beauty, with funny and enchanting characters. Anna always keeps the readers on their toes with her adrenaline-fuelled adventures, suspense-filled cliffhangers, and steamy love scenes.

When she isn't writing, Anna is considering plot twists for her next novel or delving into the world of her favorite authors. She loves superheroes, and she’s a geek at heart. She grew up watching Star Wars and plotting a way to become a Ninja. She has a fascination for Chinese Kung Fu movies and cherry blossom flowers.

She also enjoys writing poetry, watching a good movie, and spending time with her husband and family.

Website - http://www.annasantosauthor.com/

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13485530.Anna_Santos

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AnnaSantosAuthor

Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnneSaint90

InstaGram - https://www.instagram.com/annasantosauthor/

BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/authors/anna-santos

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This book was one of my most anticipated releases of last year. The Little Mermaid is one of my favourite fairy tales (and my favourite Disney movie). So a sea witch origin story? Hell yes! I pre ordered as well and was so excited when my review request was approved.

Only…I can’t say I was overtly impressed. It was almost 70% of the book before anything resembling The Little Mermaid cropped up into the story and the first half was slow and kind of boring.  The setting was beautiful – inspired by the original tale not the Disneyfied version, the Danish kingdom by the sea sounds absolutely beautiful.

The heroine, Evie, is interesting as she is not the most likeable of characters. She’s kind of blunt at times, an outcast. Her mother is out of the picture (can’t remember why) and her father is away a lot working on the fishing boats. Evie lives with the local witch, and is learning her magic. And sneaking glances at magic she’s not supposed to know.

Already looked down upon because of where she stays, she also feels the stigma of the death of her childhood best friend Anna. They were both playing in the sea, something happened, Evie survived, Anna did not.  Evie also has developed a close friendship with the Crown Prince and his handsome cousin, all are about the same age. Many of the nobles don’t like this, another reason Evie is frowned up on.

Yet despite this she keeps a strong outlook and doesn’t let people’s disdain of her stop her from being friends with the Prince and hanging out with him and his cousin whenever she can. She’s also not opposed to using magic she’s not supposed to.

The first half of the book focuses on how Evie deals with day to day life, her friendship with the two princes, the upcoming festival. The hints of her darker nature just showing through. It is beautifully written, but it is very very slow. And despite showing hints of a strong character, Evie spends a fair bit of time mooning over the Prince’s cousin who she may or may not have feelings for. The dude is a known player yet seems to give her special treatment more than any other girls he’s supposedly courted.

When a strange new girl arrives in town looking almost identical to Anna, Evie’s world is thrown. She’s convinced the girl IS Anna, but the girl is firm she is not. She and the girl develop a close friendship and Evie learns the girl’s secret – she is in fact, a mermaid and needs to find her true love in order to stay on land and keep her legs. This new girl also develops a close friendship with Evie’s prince and his cousin. The cousin is convinced there’s something not right about this girl.

The girl has some unusual magic of her own, Evie is determined to help the girl, she failed one friend she won’t fail another. But things start unravelling as the girl’s history and secrets are slowly revealed and truths are learned. Things take a drastic turn and change for Evie in ways she never imagined.

The latter half of the book was much more fast paced, but as I said earlier it’s almost 70% before the pace finally picks up and things start happening – fast. It almost seems rushed. The characters of Evie and the mysterious new girl were quite well fleshed out, but the two princes just felt like generic YA love interest characters. One nice and friendly with good honourable intentions, the other a charmer with a not so good reputation. It’s been done a hundred times.

There was enough of an interesting narrative to want to know what was going on – but it was still a little bit disappointing.

It appears there is a sequel, I can’t honestly say I am that interested in continuing this story, though I would definitely read something else written by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK Children’s books for approving my request to view the title.

Beware the sea queen, she'll squeeze the pitiful human life out of you.

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.

 

I am still torn between loving this book wholeheartedly despite its flaws and being honest with myself by openly pointing out the things I now regret to have noticed.

Inner me: Choose the latter and deal with the comments later.

People labels this as a retelling of The Little Mermaid but I still think of it as its creepy pasta version. Reading the first page mentally unprepared – when Lira was casually talking about her freaking heart collection hidden in the sand of her room – legit sent shivers down every nerve endings in my body. Talk about collectibles and siren trends.

To Kill A Kingdom is a creatively dark and vicious story of two people who each have their own goal to make their worlds better. Narrated by two point of views, we are introduced to Lira, the renown Princes’ Bane who aims to out-power her mother by claiming the Crystal of Keto and to make a better Sea Queen. And Elian, the heir of the Midas throne who chooses to sail with his crew over the throne and become the heroic stray prince in children’s storybooks who hunted down the Princes’ Bane to stop the siren madness.

Well I think you get the gist. Lira and Elian ought to loathe each other from the very beginning yet we all know where this leads the two only characters to have switching point of views in the entire book. Hence, the enemies to lovers trope butts in.

I admit the romance aspect was a bit awkward if it weren’t for the snarky comebacks that flows all too naturally from our main characters’ mouths. I also wish Elian could have fell in love with Lira not just for seeing the ocean in her eyes. It only convinces me that there was no real bond between them at all. They were just two strangers who used each other to achieve their goals and along the way – they might have mistaken their curiosity for the foreign as actual love.

In spite that, you know what made me love  To Kill A Kingdom so much that I’m ready to shut down my own criticisms on this book is the world building and Alexandra Christo‘s straight forward and addictive writing. I love how nothing was out of order. Especially in distinction between cities: Midas the city of gold, Eldyllio land of romance, and Kleftes land of thievery. I just wish she did the same for the undersea. I really want to know what caused the barrier between mermaids and sirens.

Moving on to the characters, I know there are a lot of essential characters who contributed to 1/3 of the plot but these three characters are the ones I’m pretty sure who will stay with me for a very long time.

1. The Sea Queen. The best epitome of a villain who stays in-character the entire book. Cruel to the vulnerable side of Lira and physically and emotionally abusive to her own family. Ursula is nothing compared to this Sea Witch and I love how she made this book more thrilling.

2. Lira. Full of bad assery – number one attribute I am looking for a female character. She’s smart and clever. She strategizes first before making a move. I love her so much.

3. Elian. Really didn’t made an impression on me. However, I still enjoy his point of view especially when he’s in the mood of ticking off the people around him. Aside from that, nothing really. I also think as an experienced siren hunter, he could have already tell Lira is a siren given the fact that she was floating naked in the middle of a vast sea with no other ships in sight, she can barely use her legs, and she used a language to speak with the other siren they caught. [shakes head in utter disappointment]

Things went smoothly as planned and a fantasy is not fantasy when it does not have an epic fight scene near the end. This book offered that and the battle between the Sea Queen’s armies and Elian’s crew was certainly very gripping.

It should have ended there though because the next chapter was absolute cringe-worthy. Sure, I like how things got better for both worlds – treaties signed and goals achieved but when Lira emerges from Diavolos and the crew putting on their wetsuits, I can’t help but to laugh out loud. After all that brutality in the beginning and the snarky comebacks – the ending is so off and cheesy. I felt like I was watching a Disneyland theater play finale with all the singing and fireworks. It was a very happy ending and I’m also happy that I was done with it.

It was a great read considering it’s a debut standalone but I just did not love it as much as the majority here. These are my sole thoughts and opinions only and it won’t matter if you love this book and think it’s perfect. Anyway, I will surely check out the future works of Alexandra Christo because her writing is really 5 star worthy.