The Kiss of Derception by Mary E. Pearson

Summary from Goodreads:

A princess must find her place in a reborn world.

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 flees 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.

Review:

This is one of those books I’ve had for a million years, and for some reason I kept pushing it further and further back in my TBR piles. Maybe it’s the size of it that was daunting? 486 pages is pretty big, even for a good fantasy. Though, the summary sounds like total and utter book addiction material, so I don’t know what my problem was.

Regardless, I’m so glad I finally did read this. I was in a bit of a slump (DNF’ing 2 books in a row!) and I’m so glad this was what called to me and pulled me out of it. One of the things I kind of hate admitting to is that I love a good love triangle. And this book had an amazing one. I loved not knowing which guy was the prince and which one was the assassin. I actually guessed wrong! That happens so rarely for me in books, that my jaw literally dropped, and I knew I had found a winner. I want books that can still surprise me.

I can see people not liking this book if they are not so into love triangles…because that really was the focal point of it all. I loved the different points of view in this book too. Prince and assassin had their own chapters too, and I actually loved reading from their unique viewpoints. The author did a good job of keeping me interested in each character this way.

I also loved the world building. I loved seeing everything fresh from Lia’s point of view. The towns, the traveling, and the world in general was just classic fantasy stuff at its finest. And I love Lia. I love how fierce and determined she is. I love how she values others and never underestimates anyone. I love that she admits to needing to learn a lot about the world she was so sheltered from.  And I love her friendships.

There’s also this deep-rooted mystery behind everything. There’s the stolen book, hidden languages, and almost prophetic sort of history coming to the surface that I know gets explored more in further installments.

For such a big book with little action in it, I read it remarkably fast. Like I said, most of the story is in the love triangle. Having already read book 2, I can say that book 2 is all about action. So, I know the writer can do it all. I really enjoyed this book, and I can’t wait to finish the series up soon. I give it a 9/10.