The Kiss of Deception

Title: The Kiss of Deception (Remnant Chronicles #1)
Author: Mary E. Pearson

Initial Thoughts: too much romance.

So, I was kind of hyped for this to be some epic story of a girl fighting the system to gain her freedom but she got through that rather quickly and then over half the book is taken up by her slowly getting to know and falling for Rafe while Kadan looks on and starts falling for her, too, which was kind of disappointing. I was so happy with the fact that Kadan seemed friendly and protective, but for the most part didn't actually seem interested in her romantically. I didn't want a love triangle. I enjoyed the little contests and one-upmanship things they had going on (the log fight was brilliant), but I enjoyed them more because I thought it was Kadan being somewhat protective of Lia and Rafe showing-off for her and making it known that he'll fight for her but it didn't seem to have the animosity of two boys battling over the same girl; rather, they were both fighting for her so rather than a tug-of-war, it was more like friendly competition working towards the same goal of protecting her. Also, HOW DID I HAVE THEIR ROLES REVERSED THE ENTIRE TIME!!!!!!!!!! I thought I had caught onto a little detail that told me which one was the prince and which was the assassin and then when they made it official, I was caught totally off guard. I seriously had to go back and reread their chapters to check that they hadn't given something away and that they still made sense in the opposite roles. Honestly, I hadn't even realized that some chapters used their names while others only used their roles because I was so set on who was who that it didn't matter. I guess everything said in their chapters could have been either of them in those roles, but there are a couple points. Why was Rafe so offended when she mentioned Barbarians? Generally, Barbarian refers to the Vendans, not the Dalbreckians (?). Also, he was annoyed by her royal manner a couple times, which is strange because, he, too, is royalty. Really, it should have been Kadan who was annoyed by these things. I think that was what really threw me off. I was set in who they were and those little facts cemented it for me and then it turned out I was wrong and it just totally blew my mind. Well-played, Mary Pearson, well-played. There were a couple other details, and if I had been paying more attention I might have used those to find out the truth, but they were so small I just overlooked them until the reveal, like the thorn scratches on Rafe (pretty sure it was the prince who mentioned those in his search) and the fact that Kadan was apparently sending missives while the prince had said he wasn't planning on writing home at all. Aw well. I love a good romance, but honestly, in the first half of the book, it was all fluff and nothing really happened. I'll keep reading because the end has me curious about what will happen next but it was a bit too much fluff for my current mood. Not badly written and the world and its history seem interesting, but I was looking for a bit more action and adventure, not a princess prancing around as a barmaid in a quiet little town with two men fawning over her for half the book. Hopefully the other books in the series pick up a bit more.

Rating: 4/5 It was good, just not great.