The Kiss of Deception

By: Mary E. Pearson

Narrated by: Emily Rankin, Ryan Gesell, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne, Ann Marie Lee

Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

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 Deceptionis the first audiobook in Mary E. Pearson's Remnant Chronicles

©2014 Mary E. Pearson (P)2014 Listening Library

WOW!

I never really write these reviews but always read them. There were some iffy ones that made me a little hesitant to purchase, but man am I glad I did.
There aren't many books that I hadn't figured out at least half way thru the listen- this book was the exact opposite. The author really keeps you guessing until the end.
When I realized with one hour to go there would not be a solid ending I purchased book two! The narrators were fabulous- all in all great book! Thank you!

30 people found this helpful

Absolutely Loved!

Any additional comments?

Oh, the love that I have for this book.

I put off reading this book for ages for two reasons, 1) hype and b) its Fantasy. If there is one thing to know about me, is that Fantasy and I just don’t always get along. That isn’t to say I don’t like, or even love the genre; I do. But we have a weird relationship, one that I am frequently taking a break from.

Yet, when I saw it available on Audible I decided to take the plunge. And I am so glad I did.

This book is brilliant. It has every element that I love and look forward to when heading into a Fantasy novel. Strong heroine. Beautifully crafted world building; with writing so descriptive I can picture myself right along side the main characters(s). A history was isn’t bumped and a love interest(s) worth swooning over. Even my boys’ listened to the book (quietly) and they would often beg me to go back or explain in detail what they missed.

Told mainly from Lia’s POV, we follow her as she flees to a remote village on her wedding day. She is remarkably crafty in her last-minute escape, and her planning into it made me admire her more. I loved her strength, her witty and snarky attitude. Although fleeing could potentially put her kingdom at war – and one might think this a selfish act – I admire her brazen act and her dreams for more. She is far from a weak, prissy princess and it was so refreshing to have a bold yet likable character that goes after what she wants.

The love interest(s) twist was quite interesting and entertaining. We have The Prince – the one Lia was slated to marry – who admires Lia’s bravery for leaving yet wants answers. And then we have the assassin – who is sent from his own kingdom of Venda (I THINK that is how you spell it, I don’t even know) sent to kill Lia to stop an alliance between the surrounding kingdoms.

Aaaaand, then you have Kaden and Rafe. But who is who!?

Quite honestly, I figured it out pretty quick – but that didn’t mean I wasn’t questioning this until the reveal. (The kids were shocked, haha) Both Kaden and Rafe are very complex characters, who both genuinely care for Lia. I don’t find this to be a “typical” love triangle. It has the feel of one, because you don’t know who is who. And while Lia is attracted to both and cares for both, she only loves ONE. I can’t say anymore than that though!

Setting aside the romance aspect of the novel, there is so much more going on. Between all the perilous journeys, there are secrets that Lia is in the wake of uncovering about herself, her kingdom and those that are closet to her father. I loved the chapter headings with the stories and “history” too.

The Narrator

It’s slightly confusing that only Emily Rankin is listed as the narrator. Not only is there a male that does the voice of The Prince, assassin, Kaden and Rafe, there is also an older woman who narrates the small parts before the beginning of each chapter. And I just want to KNOW who these people were! Anyway – Emily was perfect for the role of Lia. I loved her voice, and i think she did an amazing job. I often find myself searching for audio’s narrated by the ones I love and Emily is definitely on my list to search!

And the ending. PURE PERFECTION. Meaning, only slightly cliff-hanger. ;)

My Peeve

I feel like there was a bunch of random stuff thrown in, as a way to give us clues to the bigger picture.. Yet, there were never talked about again. Like, a tiger for example. What the freak was that? There is more, but this is driving me insane. Anyway – I am 99.99% certain that anything left unresolved will be handled in book 2.

Overall

I loved this book to pieces! It’s a such a beautiful book, truly. I can’t wait for book 2.

35 people found this helpful

Confusing story line but great over all book

Even with a bit of confusion on which male character spoke it was a good story. I don't know if the author was lazy or was intentional in causing the confusion by being as vague as possible when it came to them but once you figure out for sure which is which its easy to follow. Great story and lots of surprises

5 people found this helpful

Great Book!!

A friend recommended this book to me and I wasn't disappointed. Will be purchasing the second one soon. Keeps you guessing and has an amazing storyline.

5 people found this helpful

I couldn't stop listening.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Kiss of Deception to be better than the print version?

Never read the print version of the book.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Kiss of Deception?

The book was excellent overall. It kept your attention throughout.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I would love to listen to this book in one sitting. I was listen non-stop every time I was in the car.

4 people found this helpful

great young adult novel. expertly performed.

Narrators were excellent. Wonderful time and cadence.
Characters are intriguing and story moves along.

Plot is engaging and I loved sharing this with my teenage daughter.

3 people found this helpful

Took too long to get to the point

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Yes. This book could have been better, but it was too drawn out and I was waiting for something that never happened. Instead of breaking this into multiple books, there should have been more happening in this one book. By the time I cared what happened, it was almost over. I felt like this book was just a lead up to get me to buy the next book. If the next book was available now, I'd probably get it to see what happens since I invested so much time already. I think that I won't care anymore by the time the next book gets released.

The other thing that bothered me was that you didn't know which guy was talking for a good part of the book. Some of the sections would say they were the assassin, or the prince, or Rafe, or Kaden, but you don't know who is who. Some sections didn't say anything about who was talking, and both guys had the same voice. I couldn't keep track of what was going on, so I read through the reviews on Amazon to figure out which guy had which name. It helped me follow the book a little better.

14 people found this helpful

Character consistency

The author's consistency when writing/narrating this story are poor. In the beginning, the reader has to figure out who is who based on the clues about each character, but once identities are confirmed in the last third of the story, the identities seem to be reversed.... This is rather poor practice.

13 people found this helpful

amazing story.

definently worth the read if you like romance, action, and drama. best book ever. yay

1 person found this helpful

Great book with fantastic narration

great narration made this book so good. I couldn't put it down and finished in two days

1 person found this helpful

i wanted a warrior female and got a cheerleader

im so disappointed to not enjoy this book. i think the idea for the story is great and the cover work really seduced me. i enjoyed the first 15 mins of the audiobook then rapidly became mortified at certain aspects.
1 the lack of depth at the princess's mind set (no deep emotions? she comes across as a silly teenager, giggling and leaving the world in threads at her choice, shes poilt and destroys items work huge amounts of money in a land where many are poor, and acts like the world owes her a lot of favorites. shes of weak mindset, and not a strong minded hero i hoped for)
2 lack of action. this book feels like we are waiting for something to happen, that never does.
3 a dumb donkey joke. the princess makes a joke about the smell of fish. the friend says she smells of fish, the donkey makes a noise in reply. its all HA HA HA.
(or maybe no. maybe its all scooby do in the 80s) i had to stop after that.

i decided to return the book and not continue, perhaps its because im in my 30s and need another type of fantasy book but some of the best books ive read are YA so this one was a surprised.

i know some will hate this review, but thats my take on it and believe me i really wanted to like this book!

3 people found this helpful

A mixture of romance and fantasy

This book is told from several different points of view, with a different narrator for each character which helps to follow the story as it's easy to get confused about who is who. I enjoyed the story overall, it was different to most of the other YA fantasy I have read as it was more heavily focused on the characters relationships and development, less on the fantastical elements of the world it is set in. The protagonist, Lia, starts off as a willful, reckless teenager, but over the course of the book she grows and matures into a strong and independent, admirable young woman. Her character development is done beautifully, and the relationships between her and the other characters, such as Pauline, also develop naturally and realistically over time. The narrators were excellent, they really brought the story to life and gave the romantic or action scenes the right tone. I will definitely listen to the sequels, hopefully there will be more about the world and history in the next book as that is what I felt was missing from this one.

3 people found this helpful

Fantastic

This book gripped me. For once not a sobbing weak female ! Can't wait to find out more !

3 people found this helpful

Wonderful!

This is a wonderful book and the narration is remarkable. A truly captivating, beautifully crafted story with deep, complex characters. Thoroughly enjoyable to listen over and over again. #teamKaden

2 people found this helpful

Chic-lit but with something interesting to come

When I started listening to this book I was nearly put off. It seemed to be largely chic-lit/YA in genre, and nothing much happens until about half-way through. Then the pace picks up and the action starts to put the chic-lit approach into the background (though not entirely). From about the 70% mark, the fantasy genre elements start making themselves present, and these have a reasonable amount of intriguing interest about them. At the close, we are left with the heroine's future in a cloud, and many unanswered "fantasy" elements dangling! It's a bit of a cliff hanger, so I've purchased Book 2 in the series.

1 person found this helpful

Voices too similar

I found the two female voices and the two male voices to be too similar to each other to be able to easily identify who I was listening to. Pauline doesn't speak much in the book as it's mostly from Lia's point of view, so it wasn't really an issue most of the time. However the Assassin and the Princes voices were just to similar, to the extent i some times had to rewind to find out who's story was identified in the chapter title. Took from the performances in my opinion.

1 person found this helpful

okay

I found it difficult to finish and was bored with the story line for the most part. The story line had so much potential but wasn't my cup of tea as I was expecting a little more fantasy and action, rather than a love story. However the narrator of the book did a good job.

1 person found this helpful

So good!

Loved this, so exciting! Probably best execution of a love triangle I've ever read - they're normally a bit annoying but I really enjoyed this one and honestly I like both Rafe and Kaden! Can't find anything bad to say about this awesome book.

1 person found this helpful

great read

i really enjoyed this book
recommend this to all.
now on with the second book