The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson.

The Kiss of Deception (Remnant Chronicles #1) by Mary E. Pearson

This book is: promising, especially in the last few chapters.
Other elements: runaway princesses, assassins, princes in disguise.
Read it: if you like YA love triangles. If you’re okay waiting 3/4 of a book for the main characters to become truly interesting.
Overall rating: 6.5/10

Good morning, my dears! I have been super into the reading lately, but less into the book reviewing. This is good news really, because it means I have lots to share with you. Bad news for me, because I keep looking at the calender on Tuesday nights and thinking “Oh no! I need to have book thoughts!”

I read The Kiss of Deception as a DRC – that means that it’s not due for publication quite yet; the publisher let me have a sneak peek. It’s the beginning of a YA fantasy series, which you know tends to be precisely my cup of tea.

I enjoyed this book. The universe is creative and intriguing. The characters are interesting enough, if a little simplistic. There is an impetuous princess, a lovesick servant girl, a rebellious prince, and an assassin. For the first 3/4 of the book, the characters bumble around, doing somewhat interesting things. A love triangle develops. Both of the young men in the love triangle introduce themselves to their lady love with fake names, and it took me several chapters to figure out which was which; the handsome, brooding young men weren’t distinctive enough to distinguish one from the other right away. The main character – the princess who runs away to seek a new life – is a bit empy-headed, and it’s hard not to get frustrated with her fluffiness from time to time.

Doesn’t sound like it should have a 6.5 yet, does it? I was expecting to give this book a lower rating too. But then, about 3/4 of the way through, things suddenly got awesome. Basically, the shit hits the fan, and the main characters all face the fact they’ve been selfish and immature for most of the book. The heroine – our erstwhile silly princess – begins to wake up and become a powerful character who takes responsibility for her actions. By the time the book ended, I was genuinely excited to see what the characters were going to do next. My least favorite person (the princess) had become my favorite person.

I wish the introduction to the heroine’s self-awareness had been a shorter, but getting to see her as a silly, selfish teenager for a couple hundred pages did make it all the more meaningful when she started to grow up. If the introductory portion of this book had been 25% shorter – or 25% more interesting – I would have been happy to give this a higher rating.

That said, I’m still going to keep an eye our for the sequel. I want to know what happens next.