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

Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Age Group: Young Adult
Page Count: 496
Rating: 7/10

Goodreads Blurb: 

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. 

Review:

First let me say that I usually don't like these kind of medieval books. Not because I don't think it's good but the medieval language kind of irks me because it's WAY too formal. Like the "we shall" and "to whom do we owe the pleasure?" (purely arbitrary terms)language. So when I saw this book, it was on my TBR list for quite a while before I got to it and I am so glad I did.

The first part of the book was amazing and pretty suspend-building. 
I love love love when books have different POVs and the author used the different perspective so well throughout the book. 

Also, surprisingly, the first sentence is amazing. Which is a rare occasion for most YA books. I mean, I love Divergent, but, is "There is one mirror in  my house" really the best way to start a book? Like I was super excited to read the book then I see the first sentence and I'm like: 



The kiss of deception starts like this:

"Today was the day a thousand dreams would die, and a single dream would be born."

and I was just like



and when they showed the two other POVs, The Prince and The Assassin, I was like "ooh, this goin' be good". Especially the Assassin. Like, what? So the book got me hooked from the beginning. But mid-way through the book, I kind of un-hooked.

Although I loved the book, there was a big drop from the start to the middle in terms of mood. So the start Pearson got the readers all psyched up and anxious with a fast-beat tempo in the book. Then it just slowed down to a soft piano song. It was kind of a big drop in mood and I don't know if it was intentional or not. If it was, it definitely worked well with the end-ish part(abt 70%).

Before reading this book, I've read a lot of reviews on it and they all said there was going to be a plot twist. So throughout the whole book I was mentally prepared with my suit and armor, but not even titanium could've prepared me for the plot twist. I'm not going to spoil the book for you because I want you to go through the same thing I did. But let me tell you this, you are not going to expect it even if you have read a million books. You're still going to go wide eye, mouth open and sit there like statue for at least five minutes before you recover and read back 5 times. I'm not being dramatic.

The plot twist was one of the things I loved about the book. I really admire authors that are willing to throw the thinking box down the Mississippi River and take the risk to make the readers go "wow". After awhile there's not many books that have such good plot twists. Wow.

The love triangle was amazing too. They each had their own set of secrets, past and agenda. In this book you get to see the romance blossom and honestly I thought it was sweet. Throughout the book I really don't know who I shipped even after the plot twist. It was one of those stories that you'd be happy whichever direction the book sailed the ship.

Lastly, the characters. The male characters were pretty much the same for the first part of the book and I often confused them together. Then, came the big plot twist and they just flew in different directions. It was when I really saw the core of their personality and started really caring for both of them. Then, there's Lia. Oh, Lia with the super long name... At the start, you didn't really care for her, but then came the plot twist. Wow, I've said plot twist a lot. When the plot twist came, Lia's being was tested and you finally see the true colors of her and it's hard not to like her. You're seeing her mature right along with her and see her for a strong woman and a bad-ass. Not in the violent kind of way but more through her pertinaciousness. All the characters were well crafted include Pauline's - Lia's best friend - story and her love life. Her brothers were too. In this story, the author made sure none of the characters were just there, she made sure each had their own purpose and that each and every one of them were unforgettable. She cleverly pieced all the character's agenda and trait into one perfect scheme. For the first time in a long time, I have no idea what will happen as the book progresses.

Moreover, there's a sequel that's out of this book called "Heart of Betrayal that'll come out on July 5th, 2015. I honestly can't wait! This book is amazing and I have high expectations for the next one.