In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight–but she doesn’t–and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom–to a prince she has never met. On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. … village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive–and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets–even as she finds herself falling in love.
The Kiss of Deception is the first book in Mary E. Pearson’s Remnant Chronicles.
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This review MAY contain spoilers.
I liked this story. I did. But I think that my expectations were set a little too high after all the hype for this series.
Okay, this book really had to grow on me. What do I mean, you may ask? Well, this book and I had a love/hate relationship from the beginning. I think the last book that part of my loved and part of me felt bleh about was Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen. Not as much bleh as Red Queen was to me, but I still had some issues with the book. Not enough to overpower me or make me hate the book, but enough to take note. Yeah, I know that was probably super confusing. Let me explain. (Hopefully!)
I think that the thing that threw me off at the beginning was the characters. They just did not resonate with me one bit. At first, the only thing that I really liked about them was the whole love triangle business. My first impression of Lia was that she was selfish and self-absorbed. Pauline felt way too naive to me. Alarmingly so. I honestly didn’t feel too strongly about Rafe or Kaden. I sadly didn’t have a preference as to which one she would fall for. And that just shouldn’t happen with a love triangle. Rooting for your ideal pick is half the fun of reading about it! I honestly almost stopped reading altogether, which I rarely do. But lo and behold, I kept at it and I am thankful that I did. The characters really grew on me. They may have felt obtuse at the beginning, but it gets better. It really does.
Okay, now that that unpleasantness is out of the way, onto the things that I enjoyed. First of all, the world building. The first thing that you will notice about this book is the religious scriptures placed throughout the book. They don’t make much sense, but they add a lot to the world building. I liked this strange religious structure throughout the book and how it seemed to build off of an ancient apocalyptic event. I adored the concept of “remembrances” instead of “prayers”. It was truly unique. The world building does not stop there. I loved the structure of all the different kingdoms and the rifts between them.
I really liked that the book is written from different perspectives, but you don’t know who is the assassin and who is the prince. It adds a lot of mystery to the story as you are trying to piece together who is who.
I felt that this may be a dystopian story, but it was not confirmed. There is the talk of ruins and of the ancients that leads me to believe more may be revealed in the series.
The writing in this book was easy to understand and not jumbled at all. It flowed perfectly. I think that may be why I continued on in the beginning when the characters were not to my liking. =P
There is so much to keep you wanting to know more about this world. Lia’s “gift”, the ancient texts she stole, the mystery of why someone would want her dead. It’s all wrapped up nicely, in the end, leaving you wanting to know more!
Overall, the romance wasn’t nearly to my liking, and it seemed forced. The world building was good, but confusing at times. I think that some things could have been elaborated on a bit more. The story is strong, and I like the characters well enough. We’ll see what happens in the next book. I would definitely recommend giving this one a shot. I had some trouble with it in the beginning, but I am glad that I stuck it out and gave it a chance. Everything falls together nicely in the end. This series has so much potential and I am excited to continue it.
Love triangles can be great when they’re done well! This book is a perfect example. Throw in a strong-willed princess who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and you’ve got a great first book in this trilogy.
Quotes:
“I will find you.
In the farthest corner, I will find you.”
“If I could only reach out and touch the stars, I would know everything. I would understand.”
“Maybe there was as many shades of love as the
blues of the sky”
“There were two ways to approach the inevitable—being dragged to meet your fate or taking the offensive.”
Overall:
WOW!! What a roller coaster!!! This book was so much fun!! I loved trying to guess which guy was which!! Although I was spoiled on who she ends up with (or prefers rather), it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I still didn’t know who was the assassin and who was the prince. I would constantly go back and forth trying to figure out who was who. I loved the twists and turns in this book. It was very entertaining.
This book had so many great characters to it that it’s hard to pick out a favorite. I also loved the friendships in this book. Pauline, Gwyneth, Lia, Berdi, etc. You could just feel how deep their bond was!! I would love to have these ladies at my side!! I really enjoyed Lia’s character the most. She was raised as a princess, so she did have some issues BUT I felt once she was shown more than the 4 walls of her castle she really became aware that not everyone lived the way she did. This is a girl who could become a tavern maid and not bat an eyelash. She was such a strong woman and if she set her mind to it, she could handle anything.
Lia’s relationship with her brothers was another part that I adored in this story. They had each other’s backs no matter what. They only wanted the best for their siblings. When one of them was hurting, they all hurt. It was so nice to see their strong attachments to each other.
Let’s talk about the guys. Kaden and Rafe. I won’t go into details because spoilers, of course, BUT I will say I enjoyed both guys. They each had their own pros and cons but overall, I really fell for both of them. I loved the detective work in trying to figure out their roles. I would say “oohhh, look at that…he’s definitely the prince…..” “yup…that right there seals the deal for me” etc. I had a blast let me tell you!!
Overall, I really enjoyed the story and cannot wait to read book two!!
P.S. Can I just say that I want to visit Terravin?!?! It sounded like this magical place!! I may even move there, whose with me!??!
Excellent series! Worth re-reading!
No need for reading the review, just dive into it. You won’t regret.
Princess Lia is a strong and independent young woman who is running from a forced future, in order to follow her dreams. Her parents have arranged a marriage to a Prince whom she’s never met in order to secure his country as political allies. Before running away, Lia tells her father she is just a soldier in his army. That statement tells much about her relationship with her parents.
The Prince she ran from on their wedding day is torn between despising her and respecting her. He sets out to find her because he is curious about the Princess that had more bravery than he did.
The Assassin is assigned a job. To him, that is all Princess Lea is, a job. He grew up despising all royalty, and she is a Princess.
But both the Prince and Assassin are surprised when they meet Lia. The Prince is even more curious than before, and the Assassin finds Lia to be a different type of Royal than he’s ever known.
“Today was the day a thousand dreams would die and a single dream would be born.”
“No one would know you, except perhaps the swine back home.”
“A sharp knife, a careful aim, an iron will, and a listening heart, Those were the only things that mattered.”
“Which truth was more cruel? His deception and betrayal or his death?”
“If one can’t be trusted in love, one can’t be trusted in anything. Some things can’t be forgiven.”
“May the gods grant you a still heart, heavy eyes, and angels guarding your door.”
I didn’t know what to expect when I first started this book. The title and description all sounded so intriguing. And as I read on, I was more and more captivated by the world and fascinating characters. The author did a wonderful job at pulling at my heart strings and I kept flipping the pages to find out more. At one point I did take a double take and had to go back and reread some passages from the beginning. But I believe it was meant to be that way. I am satisfied by the ending, I was smiling when I closed the book. But at the same time, I also felt cheated. It felt like a big build up to not much of anything. The climax and resolution were so close together I didn’t get the proper closure. But all in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to continuing the series!
Mysterious and Captivating!!!
Well, I’m screwed.
I read this in one night, forgot to eat, ditched my own manuscripts, and didn’t bother to scrub the mud from my son (who was delighted about that as we were camping). Before I even finished it, I ordered the next book in the series. It should arrive today, which means I won’t be sleeping ALL NIGHT LONG.
I’ve never read Mary Pearson’s books before, but I’m a total addict now!
Like I said – I’m screwed because until I finish the next book in the series, AIN’T NOTHING GETTING DONE IN MY HOUSE OR IN MY OFFICE.
So freakin’ good!
This book was a lot of fun – romance, intrigue, kingdoms on the brink of war, and a mysterious magic system with lots of layers and implications. It’s a classic first-in-series YA fantasy, and if you like love triangles and strong female narrators, you’ll easily get lost in Mary E. Pearson’s lush writing.