The Kiss of Deception - Mary E. Pearson [Review]

Title: The Kiss of Deception

Author: Mary E. Pearson

Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy

Publisher: Henry Holt

Publishing date: July 8th 2014

Pages: 492

Rating

★★★★☆

Hello! It’s been a while since my last review but here I am with a review of the first book in the Remnant Chronicles trilogy, the Kiss of Deception.

Lia.

The Kiss of Deception tells us the story of Lia, a princess who runs away with her friend Pauline the day of her wedding. They escape to a small village to start a new life. Meanwhile, Lia's father has sent the army to search for her. The Komizar has sent an assassin. And the Prince of Dalbreck, the man who she was supposed to marry, is looking for her too.

The book has an interesting premise. We follow three points of view, Lia’s, the Prince’s and

the assassin’s. Both the prince and assassin are given a name and presented to Lia, but you don’t know who is who, so it was fun to try figure it out.

The book is fast paced until Lia and Pauline get established in the village and start their new life, I felt the book pace slowed down and then the romance part started and it was kinda boring because it was insta love, both guys, the assassin and the prince, fall for her right away.

The pace accelerates again after the revelation of who is who and remains like that the rest of the book, keeping the reader engaged wondering about the fate of Lia.

New cover.

Out of all the characters, Lia and her female friends were my favorite, a group of very interesting people. I liked the friendship between Lia and Pauline it felt genuine. I also liked her relationship with her brothers; it was interesting because in most YA siblings and parents never play a role in a protagonist’s lives.

Out of the boys the assassin was my favorite, I mean I disliked him, but he was more developed and fleshed out with a complete backstory.

The book has action, romance and some glimpses of fantasy elements that I hope will be explained in the next book.  The world was the average medieval fantasy kingdom; I don’t have much to say about it.

The Kiss of Deception is a good first book that engages the reader with politics, romance, action and an interesting set of characters. I really enjoyed it.