The Kiss of Deception

Starred review from May 5, 2014
Lia is a young princess doomed to an arranged marriage with an unknown prince in another kingdom, their union an instrument of a needed alliance. On the day of her wedding, Lia flees with a trusted friend, Pauline, traveling until they reach a seaside town where Lia assumes a life as a barmaid at a local inn, reveling in her newfound
anonymity. After two handsome young men, Rafe and Kaden, arrive at the inn, Lia is taken with both, and they with her; readers, unlike Lia, know that one is an assassin sent to kill her, the other, the prince she jilted. 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. Peppered with excerpts from sacred texts and traditional songs, the novel has a formidable heroine at its core, who is as quick with a knife as she is to laugh or cry. Pearson maintains the mystery of Rafe and Kaden’s identities, pulling readers through this masterfully crafted story. Ages 14–up.

June 1, 2014
There are two sides to every story-unless there are three.Unwilling to marry a foreign prince she's never seen to secure a treaty between nations, Lia bolts from her father's castle on the wedding day. She's the king's First Daughter, but she won't tolerate an arranged life, no matter how old the tradition. She settles in a fishing village and works, mostly incognito, at an inn. Lia narrates in the first person, but so do two others: the jilted Prince, intrigued by and resentful at her flight, and the Assassin, sent from a third land to kill her. The boys converge on the inn and enter posing as friends, neither knowing the other's identity, each using the ruse to his own ends. As the text shifts to labeling each boy's chapters by name rather than noun, Pearson plants more red herrings than truthful hints about which boy is which; some readers may guess right, while others will have it wrong until the explicit reveal. Post-reveal, the novel shifts to classic fantasy fare: travels across rough terrain; death, danger, kidnapping; romanticized Romany-esque wanderers; epic love; a magical gift of "listening without ears [and] seeing without eyes." A bold ending whets appetites for the next installment, in which, readers will hope, the assassin will become a less cryptic character.Slightly uneven but rich and exciting throughout. (map) (Fantasy. 14-17)

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Starred review from July 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-This genre-bending novel begins with 17-year-old Princess Lia, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan, about to undergo a ceremony of preparation for her wedding to the prince of Dalbreck, a man she has not yet met but already loathes. Rather than follow the demands of her father and the expectations of her mother, Lia and her maid, Pauline, slip away before the wedding can take place and travel to the coastal town of Terravin. Disguised as tavern maids, the teens manage to remain hidden until two strangers come to town; young men, each with their own agenda-one the prince Lia should have married, one an assassin bent on killing her. Pearson, author of the popular "Jenna Fox Chronicles" (Holt), has created the first in 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.-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* She is a princess, and it is her duty to marry into an alliance. But 17-year-old Lia has her own opinion about that obligation, one that she puts into action when she escapes her wedding with her lady-in-waiting, Pauline. Determined, confident Lia thinks that she knows how to cover her tracks, and soon she and Pauline are working as barmaids in Pauline's hometown. Now two new voices enter to help tell the story. One belongs to the prince whom Lia was supposed to marry. He is curious about his fled fianc'e and angry that she thought of a way to get out of the marriage first. The other voice belongs to an assassin who is sent by the Komizar of Venda to make sure that Lia doesn't change her mind and return to initiate an alliance that will harm their country. Pearson offers readers a wonderfully full-bodied story: harrowing, romantic, and full of myth and memory, fate and hope. She never compromises her charactersespecially the multifaceted Liafor plot; each element motivates the other. There is also a richness to the descriptions that makes readers feel that they can see and even smell the changing landscapes. This has the sweep of an epic tale, told with some twists; it's a book that almost doesn't need a sequel, but readers will be thrilled that it continues on.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2014
Rather than submit to an arranged marriage to someone she's never meet, Lia, the seventeen-year-old princess of the House of Morrighan, escapes to a distant outpost, where she is tracked down not just by her would-be husband but also by an assassin from a rival nation. Both young men--who are staying at the inn where Lia now works--fall in love with her. Pearson brilliantly headlines their interspersed first-person narratives as "the prince" and "the assassin," whereas we know them from Lia's narrative only as Kaden and Rafe, keeping readers guessing which character is which. Eventually, the assassin kidnaps Lia (rather than killing her), and the prince follows in hot pursuit, leading to a cliffhanger ending. As the story unfolds, it gradually comes to light that Lia is a child of destiny, although what that destiny is specifically remains to be spelled out in subsequent volumes. After her strong Jenna Fox series, Pearson adeptly switches gears here from science fiction to fantasy, but her ability to write a romance featuring complex characters and a strong plot remains constant. jonathan hunt

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2015
Rather than submit to an arranged marriage, seventeen-year-old princess Lia escapes to a distant outpost. She's tracked by her would-be husband--and also by an assassin. Pearson brilliantly headlines their alternating first-person narratives as "the prince" and "the assassin," whereas we know them from Lia's narrative only as Kaden and Rafe, keeping readers guessing which character is which.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)