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. 

Author: Mary E. Pearson
Date of Publication: July 8, 2014
Pages: 492
Source: Library
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.

GOODREADS

Review:
I’ve had quite a love and hate relationship with this one. At first impression I didn’t think it was my type of book, but after reading some positive reviews I started to reconsider. See the premise is everything I could ever want in a book, but once you’ve read enough book that you can compare ways a story can go wrongly, one become a little cautious. That’s what happened here.

I only got around 30% through this book when I could not see myself being able to finish it. I read Mary E. Pearson’s The Scribbler of Dreams in the 7th grade and it was one of my first YA reads. She is a great writer but I couldn’t see that translate well to a fantasy read such as this one. Everything felt unrealistic and weak. The initial chapters were to quick to jump from scene to scene without giving much information or explanation. I was quite annoyed at Princess Lia's decision to just up and leave “all of a sudden” after planning but not really planning for weeks and then dragging her loyal servant on the perfect, obstacle free escape.

My second problem was the prince and the assassin. Too quick to trust, too quick to talk. Both were so flat. I realize I should give it more time for development but in that first 100 or so pages, so much had happened but none of it was development. I didn’t like how the assassin wasn’t really an assassin in the way he acted. His “I’m scary and broody” persona bothered me as it had no real proof to it. He tells us that he scary but he can't deliver at all. Instead he just stares dumbfounded at a fool of a princess. I don't see what makes him hesitate. As for the prince, he just pined and then said he was thankful she ran away from the wedding and then pined some more.

Ughh.. I’m frustrated by this book. Many aspects scratched me the wrong way and when it comes down to it, I know this isn’t for me. I’ve over analyzed it and quite certainly killed any joy it could present me. I’ll pass on this one. I hope everyone else has better luck. Take it with a grain of salt and just enjoy the story, don’t think over it all too much.

-Mari