Book Review | The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles #1) by Mary E. Pearson 👑

Title: The Kiss of Deception

By: Mary E. Pearson

Series: The Remnant Chronicles #1

Pages: 492

By: Henry Holt

Published: July 8th, 2014

Genre: Young Adult – Fantasy – Romance

Purchase Links: Book Depository | Amazon

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 assassin 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.

| Goodreads |

“It can take years to mold a dream. It takes only a fraction of a second for it to be shattered.”

I can safely say that this book exceeded my expectations, and despite the rating, which always ends up being a simple number, I have many positive things to share today in this review, because despite being a bit cliché at times, I was surprised with a very addictive plot and an intriguing magic system, also a world that I found worthy of going through, so super excited not only to have read it but to continue with the series, as the author made me want to know what will happen.

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The Plot Explained in My Words: In The Kiss of Deception we follow three characters, but mostly we focus a lot on our main character, Princess Lia, who’s under a lot of pressure at her young age due to what’s expected of her being the first daughter of a royal family. Being the first daughter means that Lia should begin to manifest her powers soon, but that’s not happening and that along with the burden of having to marry a man she doesn’t know so that two kingdoms can create alliances, leads her to run away on her wedding day, looking for her long-awaited freedom. But as Lia begins to settle into her new life, two men begin to search for her, the prince she should have married with and an assassin sent to kill her.

The Plot: The plot itself is quite entertaining to read, I won’t say it’s something unique and original because it might not be, but it still kept me intrigued wanting to know what would happen, which is supremely successful in itself. I really like the touch that besides having Lia’s POV, we also have the POV of both “mysterious” boys, both the assassin and the prince, without knowing at any point who is who. This adds a certain mystery, something new and interesting to the reading, personally, I really enjoyed this aspect, and I found it very ingenious how the author makes you believe that you’re sure who is who and then turns it all around, I must confess that I was surprised by the revelation of the identities of each one, which made me appreciate the reading even more, even though this happens after the middle of the book.

It’s a book that’s also quite focused on adventure, and travel, as it also focuses a lot on friendship, as well as family, and we explore those sides of Lia for whom many aspects of normal life are new, and it’s also a fantasy book with a focus on romance, which you know when you get into it just by reading the blurb. Was this a hindrance to my enjoyment? Of course not, it’s been a while since I’ve read a romance fantasy, and I enjoyed it quite a bit despite the obvious love triangle we get.

Characters: the characters were fine, nothing out of this world for me, but they’re still characters with a lot of potentials to grow as this story progresses in the next book. Lia for her part is quite indecisive and can fall into making more irresponsible decisions, but I understand that this kind of character should start with a more carefree tone in order to develop and become stronger and wiser, which I think happens very well in this single book, as towards the end we can see a more determined and almost somber Lia having already lost loved ones and learned not to trust people so much. So she’s a character I’m definitely interested in following.
Then we have the mysterious men that I must say are pretty flat, I understand we still don’t know their true personalities since the book decides to focus more on their relationships with Lia rather than them individually, so I hope to see more of them in the following books, especially of Rafe. On the other hand, the secondary characters I liked a lot, especially Pauline who’s the best friend a person could have, she seemed so strong even though she has had to go through a lot of disappointments, so I respect her a lot and it makes me want to see more in the future.

Setting & Writing: I liked the setting a lot, we don’t go through so many places, but we get to know some of them little by little which I liked a lot, this is a world with a lot of mythological stories and interesting religions to know, as well. On the other hand, I also liked the writing style, although I wouldn’t say I fell in love with it, I do think it’s good, though, and it keeps you reading in a quite fluid way and despite being a book of almost 500 pages it doesn’t feel heavy at any time, I think it’s also a book that has the perfect amount of descriptions and a lot of dialogue, which I love lol.

Book’s Weaknesses: I think that as a negative we could talk a little about the love relationships, that although they’re addictive for some moments, for others they become a little cringy, especially the parts of Lia with Kaden, it feels a little uncomfortable and forced for me, it’s not my favorite relationship, that’s for sure. There are some very warm and good moments that I really feel are ruined by some senseless situations that are only there to make the characters live “special” moments that end up subtracting from the story instead of adding something to it. On the other hand, since it’s an old book, it can fall into being a bit cliche with the whole incredibly beautiful princess who doesn’t know she’s beautiful, and the extremely handsome boys who fall in love at first sight, the romances, the love triangle and all that, you know, I won’t lie and that’s part of this book too.

Book’s Strengths: I really liked how the author gave an interesting twist to a high-fantasy story by not revealing too much information. Already from the beginning, we have a lot of things going on, and it’s entertaining. But, I also feel there’s still a lot more to know, and I’m glad that the author knew how to measure how much information to give so the reader wants to read more to know the whole story, a lot about the beliefs of the people, and how much is true and how much isn’t, I found it all very intriguing. Also, as I mentioned before, I really liked the idea of hiding the boy’s identities, as I think it’s a fun plus that even if you guess quickly you can still appreciate it. I also really liked the royal dynamics and the positions within the royalty, and all that drama is always very entertaining for me, so I’m excited for more.

To conclude this book is a good book, and I’m glad to have read it, I feel that there was a lot of negativity around it, which made me lower my expectations a lot, which maybe was a good thing because I was pleasantly surprised. This is a clear example that you shouldn’t get too carried away with opinions. Sharing our thoughts is great, but if you’re curious about a book go and read it, you might be surprised.
The story, in general, is entertaining, it keeps you wanting to keep reading all the time, trying to figure out what will happen and how everything will turn out. A plot that, in my opinion, despite being quite heavy on romance, has more factors to highlight, and already being able to see the main character’s growth in just the first book, make me happy as I love to see how the main female characters become their strongest and sassiest versions, I think this was one of those times, so I’m super excited to continue reading the trilogy very soon.

Do I recommend it?: If you don’t mind the focus on romance and some clichés, I think it’s worth it and has a lot of potential as a plot… so my answer is, YES!

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