DNF Review: The Kiss of Deception

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 Review

Author: Mary E. Pearson
Publication Date: July 8 2014
Pages: 492
Source: Library Ebook
It was a bad sign when I could barely remember the title of this book. It was a bad sign when, after devouring a book every day, I took a one week pause in the middle of this one. It was a bad sign when I did literally anything other than read.

There were a lot of signs, and maybe I should have listened to them.

I've watched paint dry before. It was an interesting process. The length of time was fascinating, but it was moreso to watch the colours change into darker versions. Even imagining the future, finished product was fun. Basically, I'm saying I've enjoyed watching paint dry more than I'e enjoyed reading The Kiss of Deception.

I don't understand what the draw is. I thought the story was so wholly uninspired that I got to the point where the assassin and prince's identities were revealed, and I was still bored out of my mind and decided that this story would never be for me.

Lia and I lack a relationship. I understand she ran away because she was abused and ignored most of her life. She wants to be valued for who she is rather than her title. She does not want to be a princess. Her family was willing to marry her off to a man she had never met, and all in all, I could theoretically understand the rationale of Lia's character and her friend, Pauline. I appreciated that they had a strong friendship, and in general, the friendships were something I did cheer on. I just couldn't give a damn about any of these characters. None of the characters captured my imagination. I suppose I've just had enough of the "I want to be normal" storyline, regardless of how reasonably justified it could be.

Maybe the story was doomed because this fundamental storyline has never interested me.

And then, there was the love triangle. I'm not one to indiscriminately bash on love triangles. I think they can be fascinating, if done well. But this one felt more ridiculous than normal to me. I mean, of course she is immediately interested in two people in town for her. One of them is an assassin, the other a prince. I thought both were terribly boring, I could not think of a single thing I thought was unique to either dude. Both seemed nice-ish, but there was a lot of marvelling at Lia.

I don't know why this book is almost 500 pages long. It makes the fact that I got more than halfway through even more impressive to me, in my eyes. Screw you Kobo, making me think this story was 350 pages. I would have stopped a hard copy ages ago. I feel like I gave this a fair shake and got through the boring intro bits until um, stuff finally happens. And it was amidst this stuff happening that I decided, definitively, that I didn't care.

Why wasn't this book condensed? The characters don't merit this kind of long set up, and I was reading about people doing chores all the time. I would have been far more satisfied had I started doing my own. Then, there was a certain scene that pushes Lia to action and frankly, I thought this was such a terrible plot device that I decided I couldn't continue. I couldn't.

I'm probably missing something because somehow, The Kiss of Deception has over 4 stars on Goodreads. I can see some parts are promising, like the friendships, but I personally was unbelievably bored. I think it's best if I just cut ties with this series and move on.

-P.E.