Mary Pearson

"On the morning of her wedding, Princess Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, 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. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets--even as she finds herself falling in love"--

On the morning of her wedding, Princess Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, intrigued when two mysterious, handsome strangers arrive. She is unaware one is the jilted prince and the other is an assassin sent to kill her. Book #1

The kiss of deception

Mary E. Pearson

The first book of the New York Times bestselling Remnant Chronicles. “Fantastical.” —USA Today 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 escapes 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. The Kiss of Deception is the first book in Mary E. Pearson's New York Times bestselling young adult fantasy series Remnant Chronicles. The adventure continues in the New York Times bestseller, The Heart of Betrayal, and comes to an epic conclusion in The Beauty of Darkness. Praise for The Kiss of Deception: “A deeply satisfying, intricately plotted fantasy where no one—no one—is quite what they seem. . . . A thoroughly engrossing read—I couldn't put it down!” —Robin LaFevers, New York Times–bestselling author of Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph “A sumptuous fantasy.” —Chicago Tribune “This is the kind of story I love—a heart-pounding tale of magic and murder, betrayal and romance set in a richly imagined fantasy landscape.” —Cindy Williams Chima, New York Times–bestselling author of the Seven Realms and the Heir Chronicles “Extraordinary . . . masterfully crafted.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “The Kiss of Deception has it all--beautiful writing, heart-pounding suspense, a fiery princess, and an epic romance that'll make you swoon. This is definitely one of my favorite reads of the year!” —Alyson Noël, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Immortals “In The Kiss of Deception, a new realm is masterfully created, featuring court intrigue, feuding nations, breathtaking landscapes, and the gift of sight. Fans of the Game of Thrones series will enjoy the magic and fantasy in this timeless dystopian world.” —VOYA "Gripping, urgent, and highly appealing." —School Library Journal "Pearson (the Jenna Fox Chronicles) is off to an extraordinary start with her fantasy series, the Remnant Chronicles, creating an alluring world and romance that's ideal for fans of Kristin Cashore and Megan Whalen Turner." —Publishers Weekly "Pearson offers readers a wonderfully full-bodied story: harrowing, romantic, and full of myth and memory, fate and hope. . . . This has the sweep of an epic tale, told with some twists." —Booklist, starred review "A marvelous new fantasy series that is sure to find an audience with devotees of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games and John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice books (Philomel). Romance, adventure, mysticism--this book has it all and it just may be the next YA blockbuster." —School Library Journal, starred review

The Remnant Chronicles, Book One

The Kiss of Deception

i cant keep doing this please keep the brothers alive 

alexys <3

 My lips lingered on his forehead trembling, unwilling to part from him, knowing it would be the last time my flesh touched his.

"Good-bye, sweet prince," I finally whispered against his skin. 

Kaden still held me from behind. He brushed the hair from my face and leaned close, rocking with me, whispering in my ear. "Lia, I'm sorry. There was nothing we could do."

His hand reached up and touched my hair. He gathered the strands in his hand and squeezed them, and then he whispered into my ear the same words he’d said in the tent—- and more.

Mariam Sy Faye

His bite will be cruel, but his tongue cunning, His breath seductive, but his grip deadly. The Dragon knows only hunger, never sated, Only thirst, never quenched. -Song of Venda

Elena M.

In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia's life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight—but she doesn't—and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met. On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love. The Kiss of Deception is the first book in Mary E. Pearson's Remnant Chronicles.

Alessia (Taylor's version) 

this is legit so good and so well written, like the first half being a twist where you don’t know who’s who is so masterfully done, and then the second half takes us from lighthearted romance to intense and more plotty fantasy things. I enjoyed this a lot and oddly got very emotional at the end. I’m excited to read on

fris🐝

Jennifer Gosnell

The first 40% of this book had me riveted. And what a premise! But the middle/end just draaaagged for me and kind of flopped. I was going to read this whole trilogy before starting Dance of Thieves… but perhaps I’ll read an overview of book 2 & 3 to get the gist. 

(view spoiler)[also. If that was supposed to be a love triangle, it did not work for me. I haaaaaaated Kaden. And felt pretty meh overall about Rafe. Also, I knew pretty early on that Rafe was the prince. Still a cool premise though, and fun to stay guessing for awhile.  (hide spoiler)]

Linara K.S

just realised why I love Mary E Pearson's books so much! It's BECAUSE of the characters and their relationships and NOTHING ELSE; 
The plot? i can't even remember it and the little i do remember was substancially meek. Lia, princess bethrothed to an enemy kingdom's prince, escapes her premeditated fate by riding off to a small village in the coutryside with the best friend. The whole book is just her daily in her new life accompagnied by meager chapters of an assassin and a prince both trying to either kill or report her to the authorities. However they both soon fall for the girl throughout the book and the internal turmoil is simply rellishingly devious as it is the only factor pushinh me to read furthor on in the night. Page after page, seeing these characters unravel and bond and discover themselves alongside the reader. I might be overexaggerating things, but truly, the remnant chronicles changed my taste in books/storytelling altogether. I thank the author for it since it was thanks to her that i got inspiration to start writing myself. (well, her and Leigh Bardugo with her riveting duology) 
Every single character from this trilogy made my heart yearn for entry to their world, for just a glimpse, a momentary time gulf in which i could meet the characters that shaped me as a person today. This may turn out to be an ode rather than a review but i do not care since words cannot describe how immensly thankful i am to Mary E Pearson's books. It's atrocious how underrated her books are, how unrecognised her work is. I solely wish to have more of her work to read, more of her lush world and soothing words, more, more and more.

Anna 

Království Morrigan je ponořeno v tradicích a příbězích o dávném světě, ale některé tradice princezna Lia nemůže překousnout. Například sňatek s princem, kterého nikdy nepotkala. To vše kvůli zajištění spojenectví. Lia v den své svatby utíká do vzdálené vesnice, kde se usazuje mezi obyčejnými lidmi a především dvěma záhadnými a muži – jedním princem, kterého si měla vzít, a jedním vrahem s úkolem jí zabít. Lia ale nic z toho netuší. Obklopena tajemstvími a lžemi musí odhalit nebezpečné skutečnosti, které otřesou celým jejím životem.
✩
Abych byla upřímná, od této knížky jsem žádná vysoká očekávání neměla. Myslela jsem, že čtu takovou tu klasickou YA fantasy s princeznami, které je všude plno. Ale tahle knížka mě mile překvapila. Hlavní hrdinka má velice silnou osobnost a jen tak ji něco nerozhodí. Většinu knihy nevíte kdo je vrah a kdo pric a snažíte se správně tipovat, zaměřujete se na každý detail, který by vám mohl napovědět. Romantika v knize byla moc hezky udělaná, žádný 'viděla jsem ho a na první pohled jsem se zamilovala', fakt se mi to tam líbilo. I když knížka byla místy utahaná, chápu, že tam ta místa být musela, aby ten příběh byl takhle krásně vypracovaný.
✩
Knížce dávám 5*/5*, protože i když tam ta pomalá a neakční místa byla, zbytek knihy byl fakt pecka.
Takže vám všem doporučuji, abyste si trilogii přečetli, než autorka přijede na HumbookFest, protože to za to opravdu stojí!

Monicap

Probably around 3.5

So, I love the idea for this book. 

But... I feel like I read it a little late which may have affected my liking of it somewhat. You know, you hear all this stuff about how there's a prince and an assassin and you don't which is which and EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD guessed wrong, so you're reading it and you have your guess. and you're impatient. And around page 150 you cave and go read the last page so you can figure out who is who and guess what? YOU WERE RIGHT. 

Seriously, I'm not sure how everyone else in the universe got this wrong. The only reason I would have guessed differently was because one name sounded more princely one sounded more assassin-y, but if you're paying attention to the ACTUAL characters... I don't see how everyone in the universe guessed wrong.

Now, admittedly, I guessed who the prince was, not who the prince AND the assassin was. This is because, out of the three character, the prince was my favorite.

Lia annoyed me SO much in the beginning. I mean, I could've gotten behind her "Lets-run-away-from-the-wedding" thing if only she hadn't been so whiny about it! "Oh no, I'm the only that's not allowed to fall in love normally and everyone else I know has such perfect, beautiful love, and I'm not sure if I'm even capable of being loved cux I'm a princess! Boo-hoo!"
Okay, that is an exaggeration, obviously, but still! Come on, Lia, you're living in, like, medieval-Europe-style fantasy-land. Arranged marriages are going on all over the place. Suck it up.
But, as I said, that was more towards the beginning. 

The assassin... I guess he didn't really know me so much as I found unnecessary. He has no agency in the story, I mean, he honestly did NOTHING for at least 300 pages, and then, when he did start doing something, he was so bitchy about it. It's like, dude. You spent procrastinating becuase you think she's hot, she was making out with the other dude, you've just kidnapped her and you're what went wrong here? I mean, I don't know. I guess he definitely did annoy me at the end, but throughout the actual story I kind of forgot he was there.

The prince... omigod, I am not the type of girl who falls in love with princes, but he was just so funny and smart and those are two main traits I look for in dudes. From his first chapter when he decided to go after Lia, I was gone for him. I mean, his chapters, his character wasn't whiny at all, never annoyed me, amused me... he really was the best character in the novel. 



Well. This has been a review, the first one I've done in quite some time. IT helped that I had a strong opinion on this book.

Oh, and I will definitely be reading the next one.

zatul 

Laura Rodrigues de Pina

é a quarta vez que leio esse é todas as vezes me sinto como a primeira, um dos meus favoritos pra sempre.

4 of 5 stars

----- 


 SPOILERS AHEAD!!

This trilogy has been on my tbr for the longest time and now I finally had a chance to pick this up. And I can proudly say that this book, The Kiss of Deception, is a great first book in a trilogy! I liked how the author had intentionally thrown a puzzle in the characterization of both the male love interest of the main female character in the first half of the book. Guessing who's the prince and who's the assassin added to my enjoyment (and I guessed right!) I loved Lia as a character and I strongly admired her determination and stubbornness. I also loved both Rafe and Kaden for having a very different character from each other but shared a similar interest and admiration for Lia. For male lead wise, I prefer Rafe more than Kaden and I was a bit frustrated because my OTP didn't have enough scenes together in this book. But being away from each other and having Lia spent her time mostly with Kaden, it only deepened my desire for her and Rafe to be together. I do like Kaden, don't get me wrong, but I can't avoid the fact that though he was saving Lia's life by bringing her to the kingdom of Venda (which I think was just the same thing as killing her but oh well, I understand his reasons), it seemed to me that he's pushing himself to her, forcing her to understand him. Not verbally, but that was what I saw through his actions. 

On the other hand, just by being a crown prince who also had no choice but to accept the forced marriage exchanged for an alliance both their kingdom needed, I think Rafe understands Lia better. They shared the sentiment of having a limited options and that alone served as a reminder that he and Lia are the same for some parts. I just loved Rafe's determination to bring her back.

I don't know if he could bring her back though because that cliffhanger at the end? Oh my goodness!! The odds of them getting out of the kingdom of Venda are very close to none! That is why I am very excited to pick the second book up! I just hope that there are more scenes for Rafe and Lia together in the next book.

chloe rae

This has been on my TBR for AGES and it just felt like the perfect time to finally pick it up. Unfortunately, I didn't love it as much as I'd hoped.
The first half? Amazing. I was hooked, I loved the element where we didn't really know who was who, I found the plot and characters interesting. But the second half? Super slow, and not very exciting. It kind of felt like two separate books to me. Once we had the 'big reveal' I thought it was over, but that was literally only the middle of the book!
It kind of picked up in the last 50 pages or so but I just thought the book was way too long. I've heard this series gets better as you go, so I might pick up the second in the series but I'm just not sure yet.

Zahra

My dress streamed behind me, now wedding me to a life of uncertainty, but that frightened me far less than the certain life I had faced. This life was a dream of my own making, one where my imagination was my only boundary. It was a life that I alone commanded.


PROS:
- The theme that is medieval fantasy. Kingdoms, royals, villages, you get the picture. I've always fascinated by this.
- The religion aspect. Most people in the book have quiet a strong faith in their Gods, there's even a yearly festival lasted for 3 days specially hold to worship said Gods. It is rarely found in YA and I am impressed.
- The world-building. All the places described so thoroughly and the author paid attention to details so it left me no room to be confused.
- The characters. I rooted for some characters from the very start, like Lia, Pauline, and Raffe. But throughout the story, all the characters grew on me and I felt attached to them on some levels (except Malich, because just no). I found myself actually cared about them and prayed they get their happy endings.
- Morrighan was rich with culture. It showed through the various traditions they have.
- The romance. The one thing that held me back from reading the book is the promise of a love triangle in the summary. But boy, was I so wrong in that matter. Yes, there was two boys who fancy Lia but she only truly cared about one of them. And I loved the slow-burn romance between them.

CONS:
- It was slow-paced at times. It could get reeeaally slow in some chapters.
- The story felt stretched at times. The author could actually cut down some parts and shortened this book.

AND THERE'S THE PLOT TWIST. One major plot twist that messed with my head that I have to traced back a few pages to make sure if what I just read is right.

The book is a solid story for a first book in a series, regardless.
Will I read the sequel? Yes because ain't nobody left me hanging like that.

Long, with a like able main character and interesting plot.

Charlie Winchester 

This book had a lot of promise in the idea behind it, and the plot twist definitely threw me off but I don’t know. Something felt… lacking? Maybe it’s just a me thing

sophie <3

2.75 stars

This book had a lot of promise in the idea behind it, and the plot twist definitely threw me off but I don’t know. Something felt… lacking? Maybe it’s just a me thing

Tifani Dyson

I didn't know what to expect with this book, and normally I don't like a story told from 3 perspectives, but IMO this was well written and left me ready for the next book. The cliffhanger always makes me irritable since I like the story to end. I really enjoyed this though, it made me cry twice, and the characters' development really worked for me. I'm not even sure who the heroes and who the villains are in all of this, because there are things I like and dislike about Rafe and Kaden.

Megan During

This book was in my TBR pile for a while and I am so glad I finally got around to reading it. I will admit that I mostly choose it because so many different blogs and websites recommended it and when I started it I couldn't even remember what the story was supposed to be about, but I am so glad I read it because it was awesome!
The story was fast-paced and I never got bored. I especially loved the little glimpses of what the guys where thinking. It really helped to keep the story interesting and bring about a lot of plot points and moments that would not have been as great coming from the main characters point of view.

the ending was so spectacular and such a cliff hanger that I am glad that the second book is already available on Amazon because there is no way I could wait months to find out what happens.

I was advised to read this series before Dance of Thieves to understand the characters.  This was definitely a YA book which included a love triangle.  While it was slow in parts and took me longer to read than normal, I will give it a three star review.

Lia is a first daughter and is betrothed to a Prince in another Kingdom to build an alliance.  She is under the misconception that the King’s son is old and decrepit.  On her wedding day, she runs away to start a new life as a bar maid in a fishing village until assassins are trying to kill her.

Barbara Williford

I was advised to read this series before Dance of Thieves to understand the characters.  This was definitely a YA book which included a love triangle.  While it was slow in parts and took me longer to read than normal, I will give it a three star review.

Lia is a first daughter and is betrothed to a Prince in another Kingdom to build an alliance.  She is under the misconception that the King’s son is old and decrepit.  On her wedding day, she runs away to start a new life as a bar maid in a fishing village until assassins are trying to kill her.

“Who was this girl who thumbed her nose at two kingdoms and did as she pleased?”

I was speaking to a friend about reading Dance of Thieves and they suggested I read the original The Remnant Chronicles series too, so I decided to read it first and I actually quite enjoyed this. I wasn't too sure what I was going to get going into this book because overall it has a rating of 3.9 stars (on Goodreads) but the top reviews I see on the page were all scathing 1 star reviews, so I was a little bit confused and apprehensive. Thankfully I found myself entertained by this story, if a little bit bored at times. The Kiss of Deception follows a young Princess Arabella of Morrighan - she goes by the name Lia with those who care about her - who has been betrothed to marry the Prince of Delbreck, of the neighboring kingdom, to form a hopeful allegiance between the two in the war against the kingdom of Venda. But Lia wants to marry for love and so she runs away with her handmaid, Pauline, and they start a cosy, quiet life in peaceful village where she meets friends and a sort of found family.

This was where I got a little bit confused because this book was labelled as a YA High Fantasy but for the first 50% of the book it was reading as more of a low stakes YA cosy fantasy romance. We spent a lot of the first half of the book following Lia in her day to day life as she hides from her duties and takes up the role of a waitress at an inn, for most of this portion of the book the only worries Lia has is which of the two handsome strangers she's flirting with she should kiss and hoping that her father and his soldiers don't track her down. As the reader, we know her troubles are actually greater through the use of multi-POV, one of these men is her assassin and the other is her snubbed ex-betrothed fiance, Prince Jaxon of Dalbreck. This is really what kept me reading at this point, because, I will admit, I was a bit confused who was who when the two finally gave their names and we got their description from the eyes of Lia. I will admit the twist in this book had me questioning whether the 'deception' in the title applied only to us as the reader or whether Lia would actually find out who is deceiving her. I've seen others say they were able to follow and work it out correctly, but I was honestly baffled. In the second half the stakes and deception definitely ups the ante, although then we are hit with many more laborious chapters of them simply traversing a barren desert and the story lapsed a bit again here until the end.

I think this book had all the beginnings of a really good fantasy story but fell a little bit flat in parts. I thought the characters themselves and the overall idea were both interesting and entertaining enough to keep me reading, but the actual development of the book lacked a lot of depth. The religion, the references to the Ancients and the Gods, the gift that Lia is said to possibly posses, the meaning of being a First Daughter, the deeper details of why there is a war between the kingdoms, the politics etc - the actual world building of this book seemed extremely superficial, these things were told to us and mentioned in passing but were never actually explained. It felt more like the plot of this story was focused on the romance and love triangle between Lia, Rafe and Kaden and unfortunately that meant the real meat of the plot was kind of lost or confusing. I am hoping some of this gets clarified in the sequel but I think this book could've done with some stricter editing, cutting out the tedious parts where mundane tasks and monotonous travel were overly drawn out and added in some more depth to the underlying fantasy elements and the actual story line.

Overall, this is a promising start, it definitely didn't blow me away and there were things I didn't love about this but it entertained me enough to want to read the second book and find out what is happening. I have felt this way about many books like this in the past and either been disappointed or relieved with the second book, so I'm really hoping the latter is true for this series. This is definitely firmly a YA story in the first book, a lot of the decisions Lia makes are very immature and entitled, the romance feels a little bit naive at times and it felt like the book was trying to achieve certain tropes rather than actually focusing on building out the story. But nonetheless I am looking forward to picking up the second book at some point and definitely recommend this as a fantasy-lite read, heavy on the romance.

Genevieve 

“Who was this girl who thumbed her nose at two kingdoms and did as she pleased?”

3.75 ⭐'s

I was speaking to a friend about reading Dance of Thieves and they suggested I read the original The Remnant Chronicles series too, so I decided to read it first and I actually quite enjoyed this. I wasn't too sure what I was going to get going into this book because overall it has a rating of 3.9 stars (on Goodreads) but the top reviews I see on the page were all scathing 1 star reviews, so I was a little bit confused and apprehensive. Thankfully I found myself entertained by this story, if a little bit bored at times. The Kiss of Deception follows a young Princess Arabella of Morrighan - she goes by the name Lia with those who care about her - who has been betrothed to marry the Prince of Delbreck, of the neighboring kingdom, to form a hopeful allegiance between the two in the war against the kingdom of Venda. But Lia wants to marry for love and so she runs away with her handmaid, Pauline, and they start a cosy, quiet life in peaceful village where she meets friends and a sort of found family.

This was where I got a little bit confused because this book was labelled as a YA High Fantasy but for the first 50% of the book it was reading as more of a low stakes YA cosy fantasy romance. We spent a lot of the first half of the book following Lia in her day to day life as she hides from her duties and takes up the role of a waitress at an inn, for most of this portion of the book the only worries Lia has is which of the two handsome strangers she's flirting with she should kiss and hoping that her father and his soldiers don't track her down. As the reader, we know her troubles are actually greater through the use of multi-POV, one of these men is her assassin and the other is her snubbed ex-betrothed fiance, Prince Jaxon of Dalbreck. This is really what kept me reading at this point, because, I will admit, I was a bit confused who was who when the two finally gave their names and we got their description from the eyes of Lia. I will admit the twist in this book had me questioning whether the 'deception' in the title applied only to us as the reader or whether Lia would actually find out who is deceiving her. I've seen others say they were able to follow and work it out correctly, but I was honestly baffled. In the second half the stakes and deception definitely ups the ante, although then we are hit with many more laborious chapters of them simply traversing a barren desert and the story lapsed a bit again here until the end.

I think this book had all the beginnings of a really good fantasy story but fell a little bit flat in parts. I thought the characters themselves and the overall idea were both interesting and entertaining enough to keep me reading, but the actual development of the book lacked a lot of depth. The religion, the references to the Ancients and the Gods, the gift that Lia is said to possibly posses, the meaning of being a First Daughter, the deeper details of why there is a war between the kingdoms, the politics etc - the actual world building of this book seemed extremely superficial, these things were told to us and mentioned in passing but were never actually explained. It felt more like the plot of this story was focused on the romance and love triangle between Lia, Rafe and Kaden and unfortunately that meant the real meat of the plot was kind of lost or confusing. I am hoping some of this gets clarified in the sequel but I think this book could've done with some stricter editing, cutting out the tedious parts where mundane tasks and monotonous travel were overly drawn out and added in some more depth to the underlying fantasy elements and the actual story line.

Overall, this is a promising start, it definitely didn't blow me away and there were things I didn't love about this but it entertained me enough to want to read the second book and find out what is happening. I have felt this way about many books like this in the past and either been disappointed or relieved with the second book, so I'm really hoping the latter is true for this series. This is definitely firmly a YA story in the first book, a lot of the decisions Lia makes are very immature and entitled, the romance feels a little bit naive at times and it felt like the book was trying to achieve certain tropes rather than actually focusing on building out the story. But nonetheless I am looking forward to picking up the second book at some point and definitely recommend this as a fantasy-lite read, heavy on the romance.

it took sooooo long to get into this book but towards the end i couldn’t put it down, so!

Briar's Reviews

Book Review
Book Title: The Kiss of Deception
Book Author: Mary E. Pearson

Introduction: Indigo sent me this entire series after I won a Twitter contest. I've been trying to read it for quite a while but life has been busy. Finally I was able to sit down one Sunday afternoon and binge read it!

Book Review:

Synopsis: Princess Lia decides to run away from her potential marriage, and runs off with her friend Pauline. She meets Rafe and Kaden, and some mischief and adventure pursues on. 

This novel follows your typical dystopia/YA novel trope storyline, but is quite beautifully written. As the title suggests, there is deception involved in this book, and some kisses of course (would it even be a YA without some teen angst and romance?!).

I enjoyed this novel, but it was not my favourite. I really had to force myself through the novel. Yes, Mary E. Pearson is absolutely fabulous as writing (every page was so beautiful) but it just wasn't fast enough for my likes. There were so many terms and languages that flew over my head and made me super bored, but I had to finish this book. I desperately want to finish this series, because I've heard amazing reviews about it everywhere.

Our lead female is quite strong, she has her moments but is a quality female lead. I was impressed with the building of all the characters, but Lia was by far my fave. Rafe is so kind hearted and Kaden (our prince) is also quite charming. Pauline seems realistic, Berdi is pretty awesome, and overall I found all the characters to be on point. They were all written and built over time, which is a nice change compared to some YA novels.

This book does slow down quite a bit - so readers beware. The first quarter of the book is fast and incredible, but then the pace slows down as if gravity is trying to pull it back from its super high speed chase of it's readers. If you love fast paced stories, this might not be the book for you. If you're okay with the speed changing and just want a super awesome, well developed, fantasy novel - then this is for you!

What I got out of this novel, and what I think readers should take out of it:
The world building is absolutely fantastic! The scenes and descriptions will take you to a whole new world and will have you hooked.
This book has a big focus on love/relationships/babies and all those fancy tropes you get in YA, so be prepared for silly romance, boy obsessed girls, and lots of day dreaming about kisses.
The story takes a while to build up, it picks up speed quickly, then plummets into a cliffhanger.
If you get into this book, it will pull at your heart strings - be warned.
This book is probably rated PG-13, but is a fine book for any pre-teen or teen readers.

Overall, three stars. It was hard to continue reading this knowing there were other fast paced books on my shelf, but I do want to finish this series! It's worth the read if you like a good fantasy novel and some fantastical descriptions.

Great job Mary. E Pearson!

Ana Clara Moreno

ITS THE BEST THING I'VE EVER READ, I DONT CARE IF Y'ALL THINK ITS BAD BC ITS NOT !! YOU MFS JUST DONT KNOW HOW TO READ A GOOD BOOK AND YOU'RE PROBABLY DEAD IN THE INSIDE

Chassity

SO GOOD.. the plot twists and the romance and the fantasy and the setting??? UGH I ate it uppp. the ending was so heart wrenching but so good I can't wait to read the 2nd book

okay so i thought i was the issue when i was reading this, bc it felt so slow and i kept waiting for it to pick up bc nothing was actually happening and i wasn’t liking it. but reading other ppl’s reviews i know i wasn’t the problem lolol. there was hardly any fantasy elements, and the worldbuilding was almost nonexistent too. i am rooting for rafe though 

Danyella Barajas

It was an okay book. I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Dance of Thieves.

Beautifully written, had me not wanting to put the book down.

Stefany Sandström 

Millie Roberts

no bc both the love interests were so good

The kiss of deception

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