Mark This Book Monday: The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson!!

Hey there guys!

Today is not a common Monday for me, because after working the weekend I have the day off, and I'm going to choose the right colour for my kitchen, have breakfast with my co-workers, get a pair of parcels in the mail and work on some bloggy things! And read too!

To start this Mark This Book Monday I have the Alyssa Recommends book for March up for review! This one was another success for Alyssa since I loved it! And since I made a category of Alyssa Recommends books for 105 Challenge, it is counted that way too!

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had been wondering about this book for quite a while since before it came out last year, but because my bloggy friends were quite torn about it, some hating it and others loving it, I couldn't decide whether to read it or not.

But then Alyssa added it to the Alyssa Recommends list and since I'm in such a fantasy-reading kick, I felt it would be the perfect book for March.

And it very much was! I love that it was medieval fantasy with a touch of postapocalytpic (and possibly dystopia, though I cannot be sure, maybe once I read the sequel). Our main character is Lia, her Royal Highness, Princess of Morrighan and First Daughter, that decides to run away from the shackles of tradition & court.

She's impulsive and stubborn and given her temperament and the way she was raised... I'm not surprised she just decided to give the middle finger to everything and run away from the palace just before her wedding. Yes, the marriage was very important to ensure the alliance of the kingdoms and probably their survival, but I can understand how she just wants out, how she's tired and sick of being told what to do like she's useless, and she decides that she needs to take control of her life in any way she can.

We follow Lia in her flight with Pauline, he attendant and friend, and we see them both establish their new home far away from Civica, the kingdom's capital. I loved how Lia threw herself into her new simpler life with gusto, not shying away from hard work and always being a good friend to Pauline, even when things got hard.

And then we get to two guys and the other two POVs in the book, Kaden and Rafe, the prince and the assassin, and we don't know who is who till well close to the end of the book. And it kept me guessing all the way till the end of the book and I decided to stick with my very first guess... and I was wrong. Which if you think about it makes very much sense, so yeah, there's that.

And this leads me to the part of the book that I liked less... the sort of love triangle! Both prince and assassin go on a search for Lia, for obviously very different reasons and both then decide to stick around and get to know her better because she's intriguing. Fair enough, I'll be very ready to believe that when it comes to the prince, because well... she was supposed to become his wife and she run away, and he wants to know why, and he can be intrigued about why she run away and started working in a tavern. But the assassin?? His job was to kill her, and instead of doing his job he decides to stick around, getting to know her which could lead into making it harder for him to kill her in the end! What pitiful, sort of crappy assassin is that one?? Hmph!!

And Lia clearly is more attracted to one of them than the other from the start, and when I say clearly, I mean clearly, she only flirts with the other guy to make guy #1 jealous because of his warm and cold (that could be understood for once) moods towards her. So I don't understand why we need the other side of the triangle to make things muddy, mostly because I don't understand why the assassin has to stick around to get involved!!!

Okay, enough with my big pet peeve that costed this book one star, because I absolutely adored Lia, with her temper, her very necessary growth as a character, how she sees her kingdom from the very foundation that it's the common people, how she struggles with finding herself and her worth and deciding that she needs to face her responsabilities. She's a fighter through and through, and I loved her for that, flaws and all.

The world building was fantastic, the descriptions are so visual and they never felt overwhelming or boring with details, instead they were woven into the narration flawlessly, changing and moving with the plot. And I loved how some details and mentions here and there hinted at this world maaaaybe being something more than just a medieval/epic fantasy. I loved the mentions of the Ancients, the lore of the Remnant and how their religion is slightly different from one kingdom to another.

A fantastic first installment in a new series that I'm completely hooked on already. It would have had 5 stars if not for the love triangle and uncomprehensibly incompetent assassin! Well deserved 4 stars though!



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