The Kiss of Deception Review

Quick Summary:
Princess Lia is arranged to be married to a prince she has never met. He's from a neighboring kingdom who has always had tensions with her own and Lia is extremely unhappy. The day of her wedding, she and her handmaiden flee to a small city. While there working at an inn, she meets two boys: Rafe and Kaden. Lia is unknowing but one of them is the prince she was meant to marry and the other is an assassin sent to kill her from a barbarian kingdom. However, we don't know which is which and Lia finds herself falling in love, only with constant secrets.

Mary E. Pearson's The Kiss of Deception was recommended to me multiple times by a friend, telling me I would love it. She was absolutely correct in her prediction. I started and finished it yesterday but didn't get the chance to do a review last night as I still had homework to do... Stayed up until 3 a.m. doing that. Anyways, I really enjoyed reading it, it's high fantasy which is one of my favorite genres. On the other hand, I did not enjoy the cliffhanger which killed me. I was left crying and wanting more.

Lia is a very strong and independent character who never fails to stand up for what she believes in. I admired her for taking the chance and risking everything because of how against the marriage she is. However, she also gains an understanding of duty later on which I really respected, as it was her growing up in a way. I found it to be funny, romantic, and tragic. Even though Lia is a princess, she's not afraid to do hard work and she fights through all of the difficult circumstances she finds herself in. I loved how many twists and turns there were in this book, as I was constantly being thrown off from the mystery. It made it all the more thrilling in my opinion.

I suppose my only real complaint was that the magic aspect wasn't completely explained. In their world, the first daughters are often graced with the gift. However, it took me a really long time to start to understand what the gift actually was. I don't know if it was intentional because I can see it being made mysterious on purpose. It confused me though and is explained a bit more later on in the book but never fully. Maybe it will be in the next book.

The second book is called The Heart of Betrayal and it comes out July 7th Here's the cover which looks beautiful and very ominous!