Title: The Kiss of Deception
Author:Mary E. Pearson
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Release Date: July 8th 2014
Series: The Remnant Chronicles
Source: Hardcover
Number of Pages: 492
Synopsis: A princess must find her place in a reborn world.
She flees on her wedding day.
She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor's secret collection.
She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father.
She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.
The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry someone she's never met to secure a political alliance.
Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself falling in love.
She flees on her wedding day.
She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor's secret collection.
She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father.
She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.
The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry someone she's never met to secure a political alliance.
Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself falling in love.
Arabella is a first daughter and a princess of the kingdom of Morrighan.
A tomboy at heart, Arabella misses the days when she used to run around
the country side after her older brothers. In the years since that
time, the barbarian kingdom of Venda has grown in size and strength
forcing her father to make an alliance with the Kingdom of Dalebreck. To
secure the alliance between the two kingdoms, Arabella is forced to
marry the crown prince of Dalebreck, a man she has never met. Not
wanting to marry someone she doesn't love, Arabella along with her
maid/best friend, Pauline, flee to a distant village. Though Arabella
doesn't realize the price she will have to pay for her actions.
Mary E. Pearson crafts a strong heroine in Arabella or Lia as she is called. Lia is smart and clever, but is also hot headed at times, a fact that most women would be able to relate to. For me, the most refreshing part about Lia was that she didn't lose her head when she started having feelings for two of the boys. Unfortunately, this happens way too much in YA novels. I'm looking at you Twilight. Though Kiss of Deception might have avoided one of the common traps, it wasn't able to avoid another.
I'm talking about the dreaded love triangle! The whole "who will she fall in love with" and all the indecisiveness that comes along with it. Arabella is torn between two boys Rafe and Kaden. Though what she doesn't know is that one is an assassin sent to kill her, and the other is the prince she ran away from. For the first half of the book the author did a masterful job of not falling into the many cliches of a love triangle. This was aided by the fact that the author never flat out revealed who was the assassin and who was the prince. There are many clues, but even I ended up guessing wrong . The second half of the book is when it became more cliche. The princess is kidnapped and the prince must race to save her but slowly the princess starts to fall in in love with her captor. I must admit I don't have a ton of patience with love triangles, for I tend to want to yell at the character about what a stupid choice they are making. So hopefully, for my sanity, the sequel chooses one boy and sticks with him.
One problem is that the book never found its pace. At times it was fast paced and exciting, where other times it was slow and I struggled to get through it. Full disclosure... I ended up skipping a few pages to a more exciting part when the book got really slow.
Even for all the issues this book had, it was still a really good book because of the author's ability to make you connect with the characters, particularly Lia. You feel for her when she has to decide to tell her best friend the truth or a lie when the truth would crush her. And then when Lia sees her brother Walter you get drawn into her excitement, for that is how infectious Lia's moods are. Even Walter, who you only meet briefly, is written so well that when he shows up after a huge tragedy you feel his pain and sadness for what has happened. In the end, this part of Pearson's writing was what kept me interested in the book.
Mary E. Pearson crafts a strong heroine in Arabella or Lia as she is called. Lia is smart and clever, but is also hot headed at times, a fact that most women would be able to relate to. For me, the most refreshing part about Lia was that she didn't lose her head when she started having feelings for two of the boys. Unfortunately, this happens way too much in YA novels. I'm looking at you Twilight. Though Kiss of Deception might have avoided one of the common traps, it wasn't able to avoid another.
I'm talking about the dreaded love triangle! The whole "who will she fall in love with" and all the indecisiveness that comes along with it. Arabella is torn between two boys Rafe and Kaden. Though what she doesn't know is that one is an assassin sent to kill her, and the other is the prince she ran away from. For the first half of the book the author did a masterful job of not falling into the many cliches of a love triangle. This was aided by the fact that the author never flat out revealed who was the assassin and who was the prince. There are many clues, but even I ended up guessing wrong . The second half of the book is when it became more cliche. The princess is kidnapped and the prince must race to save her but slowly the princess starts to fall in in love with her captor. I must admit I don't have a ton of patience with love triangles, for I tend to want to yell at the character about what a stupid choice they are making. So hopefully, for my sanity, the sequel chooses one boy and sticks with him.
One problem is that the book never found its pace. At times it was fast paced and exciting, where other times it was slow and I struggled to get through it. Full disclosure... I ended up skipping a few pages to a more exciting part when the book got really slow.
Even for all the issues this book had, it was still a really good book because of the author's ability to make you connect with the characters, particularly Lia. You feel for her when she has to decide to tell her best friend the truth or a lie when the truth would crush her. And then when Lia sees her brother Walter you get drawn into her excitement, for that is how infectious Lia's moods are. Even Walter, who you only meet briefly, is written so well that when he shows up after a huge tragedy you feel his pain and sadness for what has happened. In the end, this part of Pearson's writing was what kept me interested in the book.
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
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