Review: Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

Book: Kiss of Deception, Mary E. Pearson

Series: The Remnant Chronicles #1

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.

Release Date: July 8^th, 2014

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.

When you’ve had a book on your TBR shelf for a long time, especially one as hyped as Kiss of Deception, you’re going to get expectations. My expectations of this book were a badass warrior princess, set in an epic fantasy world where many adventures await.

Maybe I’d hyped this book up to be more than it was, because, while it still featured a badass princess who didn’t take crap from nobody, and was set in a fantasy world with sword fights and assassins and horseback riding, I didn’t really get into the book that much. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to, and I'm actually really sad about that.

Our main character is Lia, our badass warrior princess, who wants a lot more from life than what she’s getting. She decides to flee from her home on her wedding day as she didn’t want to go through with an arranged marriage to a prince she’d never met. So Lia, along with her best friend Pauline, flee to a faraway village where they become waitresses in a tavern, living a simple life, but happy.

It’s in this tavern that Lia meets two mysterious and handsome strangers, living secret lives but searching for Lia. These men are called Rafe and Kaden, and both fall pretty heavily for our princess. One is a prince, and the other is an assassin. You’re guessing most of the way over who is who, and I guessed wrong, but finding out was a great plot twist. In terms of favourites, I like the prince a little more, but I also care for the assassin. They care for Lia in different ways but both are still quite powerful. And it’s hard not to smile at Lia’s interactions with them; with Rafe especially it’s so adorable.

In terms of characters, Lia’s a badass. She’s a great heroine, I loved her. She’s strong, stubborn, independent, and while she’s aware of her royal status and her comfortable upbringing, she never throws it in anyone’s face or acts as if she’s better than the workers or customers in the tavern. Her perspective was great to read about – how she handled situations and stood up for lesser people, and stood her ground no matter what.

Rafe and Kaden are two different characters with one thing in common – Lia. Kaden was a very complex character who had many secrets he kept hidden really well. While it’s obvious he cares for Lia, he’s also very loyal to his homeland, and you can see he sometimes struggles between his head and his heart. We’re going to learn a lot more about him in the next book, I know.

Rafe is a strong character, and it was great seeing him slowly fall for the princess-turned-waitress. He’s a complex character and I can’t wait to find out more about him. He’s strong, loyal and knows that Lia is capable of so much more than what she’s giving.

In terms of plot… there was none. Well, not an exciting one, anyway. The start of the book had great promise, but once Lia runs away, the majority of the book is just her day-to-day goings on in the tavern, and interacting with Rafe and Kaden. While the second half did get a little more action-packed and exciting, it still wasn’t enough to get me to stay up reading late into the night. This was similar to A Court of Thorns and Roses, where the first half doesn’t have an exciting plot either, but I still found that to be more enticing than this book.

I will still read the second book, as I'm still interested in certain aspects of the story. Such as a “gift” that Lia has, and the importance of the First Daughter. I just hope it’s got more action than this one.