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.
I really enjoyed The Adoration of Jenna Fox and I love high fantasy, so I was really looking forward to reading The Kiss of Deception. Unfortunately, despite its strong start, The Kiss of Deception didn’t quite meet my expectations.
The Kiss of Deception started out quite strongly, however once Lia fled her kingdom, there wasn’t much plot progression. There were scenes of her travelling, scenes of her working as a barmaid in a tavern, scenes of her picking berries… and this carried on for ~300 pages. To add to this, the prince and the assassin didn’t live up to their promised roles; instead, they became hopelessly infatuated with Lia as soon as they set eyes on her, creating a love triangle that quickly overshadowed the main plot. Furthermore, the assassin possessed a secret delicate nature and was reluctant to kill his target, rather than creating gruesome murders and general tension/intrigue like expected.
Lia, herself, was an alright heroine. She wasn’t quite the badass I had expected, though I did appreciate her sharp tongue and willingness to stand up for herself and others. I didn’t agree with her decision to flee her kingdom, especially knowing the importance of the alliance, however I understood her need to create a future on her own terms.
The romance was interesting at first, as it wasn’t revealed which party member was the assassin and which member was the prince. Unfortunately, once the romance weighed down the plot progression, I no longer found myself invested in its outcome and became irritated by how Lia had chosen one boy but continued to lead on the other.
Overall, I likely would have enjoyed Kiss of Deception more if the love triangle wasn’t so heavy, and if the plot had more substance.
Even though I did give it a higher rating I agree, it had such a strong start and then the same things kept happening over and over until finally the action started again. I think the sequel will be better, hopefully