Review: The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

Genre: YA Fantasy
Publication: 07/04/2014 by Henry Holt
Series: The Remnant Chronicles
Pages: 492 Pages
Format: Overdrive Audiobook
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Goodreads Summary:
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.

My Thoughts:
I have been waiting to read this forever! When I saw that it was available on audiobook through my library, I grabbed it. I wasn't as impressed by this book as I wanted to be. I did enjoy this book but I wasn't completely blown away. I really liked the concept: princess runs away, and is followed by an assassin and the prince she was suppose to marry. I do think that this was done very well, and I didn't guess who was who until it was relieved. It always kept you on your toes, especially when she was with these guys. However, this set up does end up creating love triangles which I felt strange about. I knew going in that it would happen but I just wanted Leah to be with one of these guys. I think she only truly has feelings for one and not the other. 

Leah was an awesome character. I really enjoyed her character development and I really enjoy that her strength isn't a physical strength. She isn't a total badass, but she still is very brave and intelligent. She understands the repercussions of her actions, and allows them to shape who she is becoming. 

I found the pacing in this book to be slow. There wasn't as much action as I expected, it's mostly character driven story with lots of politics between different nations in the world. The world building was interesting but not much different than other fantasy books I have read. I think I was even getting it confused with other worlds in different books. I like my fantasy worlds to be distinct, sure there are going to be some similarities but I don't want to confuse worlds. 

Conclusions: Enjoyable story with a very interesting premise. I can see great things coming from the sequel, but I was slightly underwhelmed by this one. If you like fantasy with some romance, check this one out. 

Quote: "Once upon a time, there was a man as great as the gods…
But even the great can tremble with fear.
Even the great can fall"

No comments :

Post a Comment