Series: The Remnant Chronicles #1
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.
3.5 Drink Me Potions
It took me a while to finish The Kiss of Deception. I’m not wholly sure why, but I had to pause for a time and set it aside before I could come back to it.
It may have something to do with the fact that this book is surrounded at its centre on a freaking love triangle .
But I did enjoy many aspects of the novel.
For one, Lia is a superb protagonist. She’s no spoiled little princess, the type of girl that assassin Kaden would easily hate. No, she’s willing to get down and do some work in the new place she settled in after fleeing her home. She’s willing to do what she must to spare another’s innocence. She’s willing to lie to protect those whom she loves.
I admire her ability to adapt to harsh conditions and to never back down against those who wish to crush her spirit. She had the patience to time her responses, even when it’s hard to bite back insults that would feel momentarily good. I totally understand and I am with her in those POVs. I wish I had a Lia in my life like that.
But, there are those parts that weren’t so great. Those parts split between Kaden and Rafe. I will get back to this.
I liked the world building. For most of this book, we get to explore the great kingdom of Morrighan, plus a few uncharted areas between kingdoms as Lia travelled. The backstory to how the world was devastated once and the Remnant that survived were charged to remember is still a little unclear to me and I’m not sure if it’s just me but I hope it’ll clear up with more things that Lia learns in the next book.
And lastly, there was plenty of excitement and things going on with Lia and crew that helped me through 3/4 of the book quite quickly. The pacing got a little slow around the 75% mark and I think this was one factor that made it hard for me to finish it completely.
But mostly, it was the love triangle. I always seem to side with one guy and it’s annoying when the girl just can’t seem to figure out who she likes more. Like, come on. Toying with two different guys isn’t fun. I can’t stand it.
Here, Lia isn’t so bad. Necessarily. It seems she prefers one guy more over the other (and come on, one’s an assassin – albeit a cool factor, but he wants to kill her, kinda – so why not choose the prince, hmm?) but sometimes these things throw me off when the author suddenly does a 180 and chooses the other guy. I’d hate to see Pearson do that to me, but I suppose I shall see.
It took me some time to get over how little time there was with Rafe, and that’s why I stopped. But here I am, all finished. Overall, it’s still a good story. The romance was just a little rushed and there’s the thing with a triangle, but hey, it works for some people.
Overall Recommendation:
The Kiss of Deception was a fun book to start off a new series, albeit a little confusing with the world building. With a strong protagonist such as Lia who represents women who are cunning and flexible without having to be a skilled warrior, who could ask for a better story? Only having to hurtle through the obstacle of a love triangle taking up a large picture of the novel, this book probably would fare well with most people if you enjoy love triangles on top of your fantasy cravings.
Down the Rabbit Hole 