Book Review: The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles, #1)

Woohoo, first book review in two months! Can y’all believe that I’ve been away that long?! Did you miss me or not even notice my absence? I promise not to hate you if you didn’t, I’ll just be very, very angry…. Just kidding! I think you can blame my reading slump on this book right here, The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles, #1) by Mary E. Pearson. Seriously, it took over a month and a half to read 100 pages. YIKES.

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.

Plot-wise, this book fell a little flat for me. I found the first half of the book extremely slow and uninteresting. With Lia hiding out in the small village, nothing was going on except her being a tavern waitress while being stalked by two different guys. That’s it. Really. However, the action did pick up during the last 150 pages or so, which does lead me to believe that it will be worth it to read the next book in the series. It can only get better from here, right? The writing style was nothing fancy, but there were plenty of times where I found myself taking a picture of a really good quotable sentence or paragraph. I did enjoy the alternating perspectives between the prince and the assassin, and the mystery behind who was who. I was pleasantly surprised during the big reveal to find out that I had been completely wrong the entire time. Very clever, Pearson.

Oh, the characters… Lia did not impress me. I had a hard time connecting with her as a character, nor did I find her to be a very convincing MC. She came across as boring and the only thing interesting about her was that she ran away from being a princess. Luckily, she did show some character development towards the end of the book so there’s hope for her yet! As for our Assassin and Prince – welllllll, I don’t want to really comment on them or I might accidentally give you a hint as to who is who. I will say that one was probably the only major character that I thought had some depth to him. For me, this is one of those books that I found myself more interested in the minor characters than the main one. But, like I said, it is only the first book in the series.

Overall, I do plan on finishing the series since the ending did leave me wanting to know what was going to happen next. I have hope that the series will get better with each book, and that the journey will be worth it in the end. I do know that a lot of people really loved this book so I would encourage everyone to give it a go. Just let me know if you got the Prince and Assassin correct, because I sure as heck didn’t!

Final Verdict: 3/5 Stars