The Kiss of Deception

Mary E. Pearson

Oct 2014 · The Remnant Chronicles Book 1 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Emily Rankin, Ryan Gesell, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne, and Ann Marie Lee

About this audiobook

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 audiobook in Mary E. Pearson's Remnant Chronicles

Ratings and reviews

So after an initial slow/overly descriptive beginning, this book was really good! Most days I didn’t want to put it down. I’m giving it 4 out of 5 stars. I really enjoyed the audiobook on this one; the narrators were great. If this is your first read, you might want to read the physical copy first. There’s a guessing game of who is who, and the narrators ruined the surprise reveal before most people would have found out. I didn’t mind much since I was right, but it still kind of sucked. Lia was a pretty great character, although some of the things she did kind of made me shake my head at her. She’s smart in some instances, but then throws her brains out the window sometimes too. Like if I was running for my life, I’d be a little more careful about things I said, did, etc. Now onto the boys. I really loved Rafe’s character. There was just something about him that drew me in. That being said, I also enjoyed Kaden a lot too. But if I had to chose, I’d chose Rafe in this instance. He’s definitely going on my book boyfriend list. For secondary characters, I adored Walther, Pauline, and the ladies we got to know in Terravin. The friendships in this book were fantastically written, so major props for that. The last half of the book was good, leaving me on the edge of my seat, wanting to know what would happen. And that ending…I want to know ASAP what’s next for our group. I can’t believe I waited this long to read this series, but I intend to catch up on the other books in the next couple of months with the fantastic readalong group. There was one part that had me actually tearing up, but no spoilers as to what happened. The poems and passages at the beginning of some of the chapters were confusing, plus a few other things throughout the book kind of lost me. I know we’ll learn more as the series continues, but I don’t really like being out of the loop and confused. Overall, a solid start to this series!

Best thriller ever read

About the author

Mary E. Pearson is the author of several award-winning books for teens, including the bestselling Jenna Fox Chronicles. She is a native Southern Californian and writes full-time from her home in Carlsbad, California, where she lives with her family.

Her awards and honors include the Golden Kite Award, ALA Best Books for Young Adults, the Andre Norton Honor, and The South Carolina Young Adult Book Award.

Her newest series, The Remnant Chronicles, kicks off with THE KISS OF DECEPTION, the first in a trilogy about a defiant princess living in the ruins of a bygone world.