The Kiss of Deception

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearsons

The Skinny: In this timeless new trilogy about love and sacrifice, a princess must find her place in a reborn world. In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight—but she doesn’t—and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met. On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assasin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love. – From Goodreads

BFF?: When I first met Lia I knew she was gonna be awesome. Wasn’t quite sure what it was about her that drew me in, but she just seemed to have all the things a great fantasy heroine should. Strength, wit, spunk, courage… but these things aren’t super obvious. It’s not as if she expels these things in every word she speaks or action she performs. These traits come out kind of here and there and almost take you by surprise. Lia also isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and knows what must be done when it needs to be done. I liked that she wasn’t a princess who had trouble figuring out how to do simple tasks; yes, she found them difficult but had so much determination that she quickly overcame any difficulty.

Readability: I can’t say there was anything remarkable about reading this. The language was easy to follow, the dialogue felt natural, and things were explained well. But as for uniqueness…. not so much. Don’t think this is a negative point though. I think different types of prose would have taken something away from the story.

Crush Level: 6
We’re presented with a love triangle <gasp> but it’s not a bad one. There’s really no doubt for the most part who you should root for. Between a prince and an assassin? Clearly the choice is obvious. While I liked Kaden somewhat – he was a nice guy (minus the assassin part) – I felt like the fact that he was, you know, hired to kill Lia detracted from my adoration. I am interested to see more about him though; I feel like there’s more to his back story than we’re initially led to believe. I liked Rafe much better… mostly because he’s a little swaggery, a little hot headed, and um… a prince. Okay, not a real reason to like someone but still. He doesn’t act princely though in that he’s not stuffy and stuck up; he’s very conflicted about something and interested in finding out about Lia and what her motivations are. And there are super sweet kissy times. The. End.

Tattoos

The book opens up to Lia getting this massive back tattoo. Already this book is infinitely cooler. Then we find out what it’s actually for and it’s not so cool. But tattoos! Neato!

Coastal Living

Lia runs away to this small coastal village called Terravin. It’s initial description is so idyllic I want to go to there.

Hakuna Matata

I won’t give much away about this, but Lia has a major hakuna matata moment. She even says “zsu viktara” which I assume is fantasyese for hakuna matata.

Fantasy Religion

I absolutely love religions in fantasy novels. There’s always something so breathtaking about them, their origins, how people worship, the god(s). Which is funny because in all that I’ve ever written I haven’t included any religion. Hm..

Commencement Speech: I’m not sure I knew exactly what to expect from this one. I knew it would be a little fantasy, but didn’t know just how awesome it would be! It’s another one of those great “fantasy-lite” books that I like so much. Filled with well-written extraordinary characters, magical powers, fantastical religion, and epic adventures, there is no way I couldn’t help but love this story. My only complaint is that I spent the first half of the book trying to figure out which character was the prince and which was the assassin. Maybe it was just me, but I felt a little confused by it! Overall, fantastic book! Can’t wait for the next on in the series!

Yearbook Quote: None! ARC!

Superlatives – Most likely to use an alias

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