Title: The Kiss of Deception
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Series: The Remnant Chronicles #1
Genre: YA Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, 489 pages
Release Date: July 8th 2014
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Source: eARC provided by Publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

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In this timeless new trilogy about love and sacrifice, a princess must find her place in a reborn world.

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. 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.


This book was a surprise hit for me. I hadn't really heard much about it, but I was sucked in by the amazing cover and the synopsis. I am sucker for fantasy so I knew I needed to read this book. The Kiss of Deception is about a young girl who is forced into a marriage that she doesn't want, and therefore wants nothing to do with it. She runs away from her family and her kingdom and madness ensues. This book was full of rich detail and characters that I fell in love with from the very beginning.

I don't know if it was my mood while reading this book, or just the way it was written, but I found that the beginning lagged a bit, and I found myself waiting for the story to begin. After I got over the hump that was the beginning, I fell into this story and could not stop reading. I loved Lia more and more as the story ran on, I loved that she wanted nothing to do with her old life, and wanted to know what it felt like to be free of her kingdom and being a princess. I also loved reading her eagerness to have responsibilities that did not include looking nice and being diplomatic. I loved her character growth in this book as well. she started off a little winy, but really what do you expect of a girl who was given everything in life, but the more time she spent away from the kingdom the more she grew to love the small village she ran away too.

I loved that we got 3 POV's in this book, one was Lia of course, but there was also the Assassin and The Prince. We meet both of these characters through Lia as well, but she knows them as Rafe and Kade. What I think I liked the most about this book was that although we knew these two character, and we knew they were the Assassin and the Prince, we didn't know which one was which. Which made reading them that much more enjoyable. I wanted to know who was who, and I kept looking for clues as to who these characters really were and i have to say that i loved the way the author revealed it. It was great!

Now many people are saying there was a love triangle in the book and that it was too much too soon in this series. But although I agree that both of these boys had their moment in the sun with Lia and yes they both kiss her. I think there is a clear winner in Lia's eyes. I could tell with the way she talked and her actions that she clearly liked one more than the other (I will NOT say who!) and I think that doused my hatred for love triangles in this book. Since I knew that one was the favourite, and I totally support her choice btw, I was okay with these two boys fighting for her.

Everything about this book was amazing. The writing was brilliant and descriptive, the main characters were brilliantly written with depth and emotion that you loved to read on every page. The secondary characters were just as amazing and gave this book even more depth and character. They were what glued this world together and I loved reading them through Lia's eyes. I also loved that there were some fantasy elements in this book but they were not overwhelming, and I know that there will be more inclusion of fantasy in the next book, which I cannot wait to read!