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.
Let's just take a moment here...freaking WOW! I had heard good things about Mary E. Pearson's The Kiss of Deception, but still wasn't expecting the level of amazingness that I got! I was put off from this at first because I could smell a love triangle coming a mile away...but yet, it was quite that simple!
We open up to see Lia getting ready to run on her wedding day with her servant, Pauline. She's a literal runaway bride! Being forced to marry a prince she doesn't know, love or even have met has made her decision for her, she will just runaway from it all. Here's the thing, I commend Lia for her boldness, to live the life she wants to. This takes place in a different time, when women were basically told what to do and were only good for reproducing. True, I think Lia could've gone about a better way of doing this, but then when you think of the absolute stubbornness of the king, of the time she's in...well, maybe there wasn't a better way after all!
Little does she know the prince she shunned and an assassin are hot on her trail. They follow her into the town she seeks refuge in. The prince, oddly enough is simply curious about the girl he was supposed to marry and see why it was she who shunned him...when he really wanted to do the same thing to her. And naturally, the assassin is after her to kill her, for reasons unknown.
And like the previous reviews have said, you never know exactly who the prince is and who the assassin is! I thought I totally had it. I mean I was positive I had it down and I was oh so delightfully wrong! It was quite a shock too! What made it even more befuddling was that there were chapters titled "prince" and "assassin" but then we learn their names or the names that were dished out and we get their names above the chapters too, and then it occasionally reverts back to "prince" and "assassin". Mary does an impeccable job of keeping you on your toes in the guessing game, but I loved it! I loved that I was wrong too, I looked back on things and I was like...how could I have missed it?!
It's around the halfway point or shortly after that we learn who's who and Lia finds herself in even more danger from her enemies. There is tension between the kingdoms, I referred to the map that was on the ends of the book quite a bit. It was helpful in some sense with geography because Lia moves around quite a bit!
Now for the romance! While this starts out with a love triangle, we quickly see who Lia has her eyes on most! And while things do get pretty romantic with him, it was a gradual buildup! Which I loved! But then, the latter half of the book has a different path for Lia! It gets increasingly complicated to figure out who you want to root for. I still want to go with the first guy, but then I have a feeling guy #2 will be playing (possibly, this is just my guessing) a larger role in the second book!
I would say my only complaint with this book was that I had a hard time trying to grasp the history of the world. There are different countries and there's background to the way of things and all that. There are excerpts spread throughout and I couldn't quite make them fit into the puzzle. For there is a magical vibe to the story as well. I won't get into that bit, but you can pretty much guess said magical vibe has to do with Lia!
The Kiss of Deception was a remarkable and spine tingling read! I am ever so glad that I decided to chance this despite the love triangle vibe that wafts from it! It's not your typical love triangle...let's leave it at that before I get too carried away with my words! If you're looking for a Fantasy YA read with a strong, daring and brave heroine filled with adventures, action, and yes, romance, then The Kiss of Deception needs to make it your list right away! It was simply put, fantastic!
Overall Rating 4.95/5 stars--just a little knocked off for being confused with the history element, but I'm hoping that clears up as well in the second book!
