Book Review: The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

Publisher: Henry Holt
Published Date: July 2014
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance
My Source: Library
Links: Goodreads
Review Also On: Amazon and Goodreads

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 Review

Plot

I’ve gotten into the routine of writing about the characters before the plot, but in this case, I’m going to lead with the storyline. When I read the summary, it really seemed interesting. A princess running away on her wedding day, stealing important docments and being hunted by her father’s men, an assassin, and the man she was meant to marry. How cool does that sound?

I’ll say the beginning was good. The pace was nice as I learned more about Lia’s world, why she did what she did, how it was going to affect her kingdom and the others. Even when she entered the village, I was still into the story. I wanted to see how she could adapt to her new surroundings, who would find out who she really was, when the prince and assassin would show up…I had tons of questions and thoughts that kept me reading the story.

But then things started to drag on. She’s still in the village. There’s a festival. She’s dealing with her maid/friend’s secret. It started to feel stagnant to me in that the major plot wasn’t going anywhere. I still didn’t know if Lia was special or not.

And than we get to the prince and the assassin…

Characters

The entire time I was reading this book, I had the prince and assassin mixed up. As I was reading, I was Team Prince, and then after around 200 so pages, I realized my mistake and that I really liked who I thought was the assassin. Well, that changed everything.

Because I realized I had been reading the story wrong from the very beginning, it ruined the book for me. I didn’t think it was clear on who was who. I wrote a previous post about going into more detail on my confusion, which you can find HERE, so I don’t want to rehash those thoughts. I was turned off from reading further. I’m sorry if that’s not a good reason, but while reading I had theories on the characters based on their titles (occupations?)

It would have been different if it was intentionally supposed to be confusing, but I don’t think it was.

Overall, kind of an okay book with a slower pace, but then the first big action scene ruined my foundation.

Rating: DNF