The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

I received The Kiss of Deception as an ARC for an honest review. Thank you to Miss Pearson and McMillan Corp. for this opportunity.

I am going to do something a little different. I am going to give my synopsis of this book.

This is about Lia, a princess who is a "first daughter" of a first daughter of Morrighan. Every first daughter of Morrighan is supposed to have the gift of "sight", the ability to see what is going to happen in the future. Lia's mother had the sight, but Lia does not. Her father, the King of Morrighan, has made an agreement with the king of a bordering land. Lia is to wed the prince in exchange for a truce. Lia is not happy with this arrangement. She wants to marry for love. But she also does not agree with her parents deception. They are letting the other king believe she has "the sight". Unhappy with her fate, Lia runs away on her wedding day. She and her maid run to a faraway village to live. They stay with the woman who raised Lia's maid. Lia gives up her life of luxury and becomes a barmaid. She is happy that she is her own woman. 

One day two handsome men ride into the village. Unbeknownst to Lia, one is the jilted prince and the other is an assassin from a land of people enemy to her people and the prince's people, sent to kill her. Both men show interest in her. She is somewhat torn between the two men, but leans more towards one.

When one of her brothers comes rushing into the village where she is hysterical, telling how his beloved, pregnant wife was murdered in his arms, she sets off to go back home to fulfill her duties. She has quite an adventure, as she is kidnapped by the assassin and taken to his land far away to be turned over to his leader.

I enjoyed this book. It was not what I expected. I was expecting a story about a princess who runs away and is found by the prince and they fall in love. Well it was so much deeper than that. For me it was intriguing. Miss Pearson used a multi-voice approach. She told the story form different characters' points of view. At times she took each chapter and used it to tell the story from a different character's voice. But it never got confusing, instead she would back track a little from the previous chapter to tie the story together and then go forward. I enjoyed the way she wove the relationship between Lia, the prince, and the assassin without letting you know which male character she was talking about. It kept me trying to figure out who was the assassin and who was the prince. 

I also liked the way she made Lia human. She didn't create a typical spoiled, little rich girl. She developed a fighter and survivor. She made it easy to connect with each character. Her writing is so effective that I found myself rooting for all of them. Miss Pearson's ending was a good cliffhanger. She definitely makes you want to get the next book so you can find out what happens next.