The Kiss of Deception

One of my favorite reads from 2015 was actually The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson, a book that I took a deep liking to from the first chapters and put away sadly, longing to hold the sequel in my hand. I’ve had to wait for it but in preparation for that I decided to reread the first book in the Remnant Chronicles and these are my thoughts now:

Lia is seventeen and as the First Daughter of the King she’s set to be married off to a prince in the neighboring kingdom of Dalbreck. But all Lia want is a true love and so she flees her wedding day in search of a life were she is the one who decides her own destiny. Together with her maid Pauline the both girls move to a town near the sea a long way from the capital and there they plan to stay, working as bar maids. But not long after they come into town two strangers appears at the inn were Lia works. One is an assassin sent to kill her. And the other is the prince she left at the altar.

I really liked this novel when I first read it and I was interested to see how I felt about it now. A year changes a lot in how you view things and I noticed that some parts of the novel didn’t feel quite as good as they did the first time I read it. I still love the plot, about the princess trying to take charge of her own life and getting tangled up with an assassin and the man she was supposed to marry. A sort of love triangle appears between the three of them which isn’t a very big surprised and at times I found it a little dull since love triangles have been used so much in other books. This is, however, a book were the love triangle concept definitely works and it would’ve been more fun had it not been so well-used in most YA books from the past few years.

What is fun is that Pearson tells the story in alternate chapters given to Lia, the assassin and the prince, sometimes mentioned with their names Rafe and Kaden. However, you don’t know which guy is the prince and which is the assassin and that makes you sit on the edge while reading, watching Lia fall for one of them but not being certain who it is. I thought this brought a nice bit of tension to the story since I found it difficult to guess myself.

What I did find a bit lacking when reading The Kiss of Deception this time around was actually the writing. It wasn’t bad but it was far from good. It lacked smoothness and wasn’t very poetic which I think is sad. The novel would’ve been great if the writing had been better. As it is I almost felt like it was a bit childish despite Lia being seventeen and dealing with a lot of “grown-up” problems. The lacking in the writing is part of why the last portion of the novel feels long and boring. Had the writing been better I, as a reader, would’ve felt more part of the story and therefore not been bored by what should’ve been an exciting part in Lia’s story.

The not-so-good writing also contributed to the love story not being the greatest. It was sweet in its own way and not rushed, which is a big plus for me. But like a lot of other things in the book, I didn’t feel part of it. Lia tells me and I see it but I don’t feel it and that’s crucial when readin but especially when it comes to love. I would’ve wished that to be better but hope Pearson has grown more in the sequel.

I can’t say I love this novel as much as I remember doing but I still like it very much and continue believing in the story. I have hopes that the next book, The Heart of Betrayal, will be better and I still can’t wait until I have it in my hands. The Kiss of Deception is not a bad book in any way and a lot better than many novels I’ve read this year so I will still recommend it. The plot certainly has potential!