The Kiss of Deception

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.

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