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The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles, #1)

Mary E. Pearson

Start date: September 1, 2019

Finish date: September 30, 2019

Discussion: Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

Apr 28, 2018 Jenn rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2018, new-author-to-me, young-adult, fantasy, 3-star-reads

This is a book that had been on my tbr for awhile and the author is coming for a singing so I was like, let's check it out.

I wasn't disappointed to be honest, but I wasn't also in love with it. It was all right. Interesting. But not really stand outish.

Lia is a runaway princess. Leaving on the day of her arranged marriage, she sets off for a life without rules, finding work in a little pub as a waitress. But of course, she can't stay hidden for long. Two mysterious boys arrive shortly after she ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Nov 17, 2013 Tammie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-hard-cover, young-adult, trilogy, series-completed, favorites, fantasy, high-fantasy, fantasy-romance, favorite-covers

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. So she flees on her wedding day. 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.

I don't usually like love triangles in YA novels, but this one was different. The Ki ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

May 07, 2020 Susan rated it it was amazing

I now understand all the hype that surrounds this book. It's so incredibly good and addicting. I couldn't stop reading this book. I just got the next book and will start it shortly. Why do I wait on books that I always hear nothing but high praise for. I think maybe I think the book won't stand up to the hype. This was so worth the wait and was so easy to read. I flew through the pages.

(view spoiler) ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 23, 2014 Trisha rated it really liked it

"Turn your ear to the wind," she interpreted. "Stand strong."

This was a wonderful book. Full of lore and strength and strange gods, customs and faith - the story just carried me along and I loved it. Pauline and Lia were easy to follow from the beginning.

The assassin and prince were hard to piece through and it was hard to decide who was good and who was bad.

This easily could have been a 5 star read for me. Except...it gave me no answers and only ended with a huge cliffhanger. We have multiple p ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Mar 17, 2025 Tbirdplanstoread rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own-paper-back, 2025-03-mar

Wow...this was really good. What an ending! Can't wait to read the next book!! ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Nov 05, 2014 Lizz (Beer, Books and Boos) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I loved this book so much

3 likes · Like · see review

May 27, 2017 Vanessa Gayle ⚔️ Fangirl Faction rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, dystopian, fantasy, wish-list-physical, own-ebook-read, reviewed, romance, cover-love, young-adult

This review MAY contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

I liked this story. I did. But I think that my expectations were set a little too high after all the hype for this series.

Okay, this book really had to grow on me. What do I mean, you may ask? Well, this book and I had a love/hate relationship from the beginning. I think the last book that part of my loved and part of me felt bleh about was Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen. Not as much bleh as Red Queen was to me, but I still had some issu This review MAY contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

I liked this story. I did. But I think that my expectations were set a little too high after all the hype for this series.

Okay, this book really had to grow on me. What do I mean, you may ask? Well, this book and I had a love/hate relationship from the beginning. I think the last book that part of my loved and part of me felt bleh about was Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen. Not as much bleh as Red Queen was to me, but I still had some issues with the book. Not enough to overpower me or make me hate the book, but enough to take note. Yeah, I know that was probably super confusing. Let me explain. (Hopefully!)

I think that the thing that threw me off at the beginning was the characters. They just did not resonate with me one bit. At first, the only thing that I really liked about them was the whole love triangle business. My first impression of Lia was that she was selfish and self-absorbed. Pauline felt way too naive to me. Alarmingly so. I honestly didn't feel too strongly about Rafe or Kaden. I sadly didn't have a preference as to which one she would fall for. And that just shouldn't happen with a love triangle. Rooting for your ideal pick is half the fun of reading about it! I honestly almost stopped reading altogether, which I rarely do. But lo and behold, I kept at it and I am thankful that I did. The characters really grew on me. They may have felt obtuse at the beginning, but it gets better. It really does.

Okay, now that that unpleasantness is out of the way, onto the things that I enjoyed. First of all, the world building. The first thing that you will notice about this book is the religious scriptures placed throughout the book. They don't make much sense, but they add a lot to the world building. I liked this strange religious structure throughout the book and how it seemed to build off of an ancient apocalyptic event. I adored the concept of "remembrances" instead of "prayers". It was truly unique. The world building does not stop there. I loved the structure of all the different kingdoms and the rifts between them.

I really liked that the book is written from different perspectives, but you don't know who is the assassin and who is the prince. It adds a lot of mystery to the story as you are trying to piece together who is who.

I felt that this may be a dystopian story, but it was not confirmed. There is the talk of ruins and of the ancients that leads me to believe more may be revealed in the series.

The writing in this book was easy to understand and not jumbled at all. It flowed perfectly. I think that may be why I continued on in the beginning when the characters were not to my liking. =P

There is so much to keep you wanting to know more about this world. Lia's "gift", the ancient texts she stole, the mystery of why someone would want her dead. It's all wrapped up nicely, in the end, leaving you wanting to know more!

Overall, the romance wasn't nearly to my liking, and it seemed forced. The world building was good, but confusing at times. I think that some things could have been elaborated on a bit more. The story is strong, and I like the characters well enough. We'll see what happens in the next book. I would definitely recommend giving this one a shot. I had some trouble with it in the beginning, but I am glad that I stuck it out and gave it a chance. Everything falls together nicely in the end. This series has so much potential and I am excited to continue it.

More reviews on my blog: Novel Nerd Faction ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 28, 2018 Kylara Jensen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: annoying-main-characters, did-not-finish

I think I'm giving up on this one for now. I read the first few chapters and WAS NOT IMPRESSED and further reviews don't make me care about finishing it.

THE ONLY thing that sounds interesting is how when both boys show up in the town we don't know whose pove is whose. SO I might come back and read it for that. ...more

1 like · Like · see review