I really enjoyed To Kill A Kingdom and the twist on the Little Mermaid story, particularly the references to the Disney version. I think anyone expecting similar references to Rapunzel may be disappointed: there's a tower, the heroine has long, but not crazy long, hair, and there's multiple mentions of climbing up her hair in a jokey way, but they felt more like the characters were mocking fairy tales in general, and the idea of the character being a trapped princess, than an actual reference to Rapunzel.
This is a standalone story, and, while the story is set in the same world as To Kill A Kingdom, the events and characters are separate, so this book can be read without having read To Kill A Kingdom first. I had a good time reading this, and read it really quickly, but the enemy-to-lovers aspect didn't work as well for me in Princess of Souls as in to Kill A Kingdom, the enemies aspect wasn't that well established, and it really only took a conversation or two for the characters to realise that they were wrong, and that therefore romance would swiftly follow. Maybe I was suffering from YA fatigue at that point, but it fell a bit flat for me. I still really enjoyed the world though, and loved the idea of the soul magic and foretelling of death, the sinister edge is what I really like in both To Kill A Kingdom and Princess of Souls, I kind of wish we could have a little more of that, and a little less of the characters wondering to themselves if or why they like the other.
This is a standalone story, and, while the story is set in the same world as To Kill A Kingdom, the events and characters are separate, so this book can be read without having read To Kill A Kingdom first. I had a good time reading this, and read it really quickly, but the enemy-to-lovers aspect didn't work as well for me in Princess of Souls as in to Kill A Kingdom, the enemies aspect wasn't that well established, and it really only took a conversation or two for the characters to realise that they were wrong, and that therefore romance would swiftly follow. Maybe I was suffering from YA fatigue at that point, but it fell a bit flat for me. I still really enjoyed the world though, and loved the idea of the soul magic and foretelling of death, the sinister edge is what I really like in both To Kill A Kingdom and Princess of Souls, I kind of wish we could have a little more of that, and a little less of the characters wondering to themselves if or why they like the other.