Synopsis
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 stories of a by-gone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry someone she's never met to secure an alliance.
Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia escapes to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles 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 finds herself falling in love.
Loved
- I'll be honest, I didn't adore this book as much as everyone else I've talked to seems to. There were a lot of things I really enjoyed while reading it though.
- The world. The Remnant world is very complex, vicious and mysterious. It was overwhelming at first to figure out the different kingdoms, cultures and history, but learning it and how it tied to the present characters was fascinating. The world building is very thorough and detailed- I mean just look at the map at the beginning of the book and you know you better grab your passport cause this world is real.
- Rafe and Kaden. Whoa there is so much to be said here, but we can't talk about it until you've read it! *Read the spoiler at the bottom to read about all my thoughts about this. But I loved seeing Kaden and Rafe interact with each other and watch them both try to reconcile their feelings for Lia with their pasts and their duties. Also a little rivalry never hurt and always spices up things a bit :)
- Pauline. She is so loyal. I just love how she helps Lia through everything, and though naive, she is brave and has a strength of her own. It's also refreshing, for me at least, to have a character who is very pious and holds to her religion. I love that she frequently prayed and held to her beliefs to get her through challenges.
- The writing. Mary Pearson has lyrical writing that flows beautifully. Her ability to carry out one of the plot twists was mind-blowing to me and still, a year later, I've been trying to process how she wrote this book in particular so flawlessly. *Again, read the spoiler at the bottom to see what we're talking about here.
Didn't Love
- I really did enjoy this story, I did. There were just some big things that bothered me about it, but many of them resolved themselves through the rest of the series.
- The romance. *Sorry, I keep saying this! But read the spoiler at the bottom to understand this part better.* But because of a crazy plot twist at the end of the book, I didn't feel like I connected at all with the romance happening. I was reeling so much from the twist that the romance caught me off-guard and didn't give me a chance to catch my breath. I think if I reread this book, which I plan to do, I would enjoy it a lot more knowing this plot twist was happening.
- The plot twist! *I won't say what's happening but read at the bottom if you have already read the book. If you haven't read it, DON'T read the spoiler.* But there is a very intense plot twist at the end that was awesome in its shock factor, but was very confusing. I literally went back and read half the book again to figure out if I just read the whole book wrong or if this was supposed to happen. Like I said before, I really respect Pearson's ability to write this twist, but it just didn't work me for me because I felt like I was left in the dust reeling while the characters kept doing their thing. It almost felt like a betrayal because normally the reader knows everything that's going on while the character doesn't, but this time the characters just kept doing their thing while the reader, or at least this reader, was trying to keep up and flailing! Again, if I reread this I think I would enjoy it a lot more because I would be able to prepare for the plot twist :)
- Lia. Lia and I did not get along very well at first. I thought she was self-centered and stubborn throughout pretty much this whole book. Through much of this book I found myself screaming at her for doing selfish, silly things. However, throughout the rest of the series we became better friends and I recognize her stubbornness as strength :)
Content
- Language:
- Fairly frequent uses of whore, hell, damn, ass, and b****.
- Sexual content:
- Lia frequently flirts with men in the tavern, occasionally kissing them.
- Quite a bit of innuendo with many of the soldiers and men in the tavern making suggestive jokes about getting girls pregnant.
- One of the main characters becomes pregnant with a soldier. The encounter is not described. She finds out she is pregnant while away from him.
- Lia is sexually assaulted while kidnapped- involves a forced kiss and some groping.
- At the beginning of the book, Lia is nude while receiving a tattoo across her back for a religious ceremony.
- Lia kisses both of the main male characters. Most of the kisses are not described passionately.
- Lia has a passionate encounter with a main male character. She remembers him tracing his finger along her shoulder, pushing her shoulder strap free so he can kiss her back, and their "tumbling in a bed of leaves." (pages 171-172).
- After this encounter, the male character has a conversation in a tavern with his friends and one crude friend asks if he has "put a baby in her belly yet" and comments about him "finally polishing his jewels." (pages 393-394). The male main character reacts defensively to this and requests they not talk crudely about Lia.
- Violence:
- The Remnant world is very vicious, but we see the least amount of violence in this book out of the three.
- One of the main characters is an assassin, and he recounts some of people he has assassinated- how he killed them and how they reacted before they died.
- Many ambushes with townspeople dying. One pregnant character dies from an arrow going through her throat.
- Many descriptions of soldiers dying by being stabbed or hit with arrows.
- Story of a character who commits suicide after her son was executed.
- Lia remembers watching her cousin being hanged for treason.
- Lia is kidnapped, threatened and sexually assaulted. Some of her kidnappers are killed with arrows.
- Fairly frequent uses of whore, hell, damn, ass, and b****.
- Lia frequently flirts with men in the tavern, occasionally kissing them.
- Quite a bit of innuendo with many of the soldiers and men in the tavern making suggestive jokes about getting girls pregnant.
- One of the main characters becomes pregnant with a soldier. The encounter is not described. She finds out she is pregnant while away from him.
- Lia is sexually assaulted while kidnapped- involves a forced kiss and some groping.
- At the beginning of the book, Lia is nude while receiving a tattoo across her back for a religious ceremony.
- Lia kisses both of the main male characters. Most of the kisses are not described passionately.
- Lia has a passionate encounter with a main male character. She remembers him tracing his finger along her shoulder, pushing her shoulder strap free so he can kiss her back, and their "tumbling in a bed of leaves." (pages 171-172).
- After this encounter, the male character has a conversation in a tavern with his friends and one crude friend asks if he has "put a baby in her belly yet" and comments about him "finally polishing his jewels." (pages 393-394). The male main character reacts defensively to this and requests they not talk crudely about Lia.
- The Remnant world is very vicious, but we see the least amount of violence in this book out of the three.
- One of the main characters is an assassin, and he recounts some of people he has assassinated- how he killed them and how they reacted before they died.
- Many ambushes with townspeople dying. One pregnant character dies from an arrow going through her throat.
- Many descriptions of soldiers dying by being stabbed or hit with arrows.
- Story of a character who commits suicide after her son was executed.
- Lia remembers watching her cousin being hanged for treason.
- Lia is kidnapped, threatened and sexually assaulted. Some of her kidnappers are killed with arrows.
Overall Thoughts
As I said before, I enjoyed this story, but there were a lot of things that bothered me. Even though I didn't like Lia at first, I was still able to appreciate what she had gone through and why she reacted certain ways. It was definitely worth reading this book to be able to read the rest of the series, because I enjoyed it more and more with each book, although it was off to a rocky start for me with Kiss of Deception. I look forward to re-reading it though, and I think I will like it a lot better!
*****SPOILER!*********
***********************
Okay WHAT?! Can we just talk about this for a minute?
Did anyone else know who Rafe and Kaden were? I 100% thought Rafe was the assassin and Kaden was the prince. So throughout the book I thought Lia was falling in love with Kaden, so to have him kidnap and betray her threw me off so much. When he kidnaps her, I literally went back and read through much of the beginning of the book to see if I had read the whole thing wrong or misunderstood it. Because I thought Rafe was Kaden, I didn't feel like I ever connected with Rafe and Lia's romance, even throughout the rest of the series. It confused me too much and I never really recovered or enjoyed their romance because it felt too disconnected in my mind.
However, like I said before, Pearson's ability to write in a way to deceive the reader like that is phenomenal and I respect her talent so much. I think rereading the series I will enjoy this a lot more knowing who Rafe and Kaden are, and being able to absorb Rafe and Lia's romance because I will actually know which guy we are dealing with here :)
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