The Kiss of Deception is high fantasy at its' finest! Oh, how I loved it so. This book is almost 500 pages and I could not put it down. I finished it in one night. It was that good. I was that person that brought my book everywhere with me. I read at the gym, I read while people were talking around me, I became a hermit just so I could keep reading. You get the picture. 
 Mary E. Pearson did a fantastic job. I loved how she set up the chapters. This is what we know when we start the story. A princess runs away right before her arranged marriage. There is an assassin sent out to kill her, and the prince sets off to find her as well. The chapters are are told from different points of view titled Lia (the princess), the assassin and the prince. When Princess Lia gets to a town far enough away she acts as a barmaid, when two different guys come into town- Kaden and Rafe. Now we add chapters from each of their point of view to throw into the mix. We know that they are the assassin and the prince, but the kicker is that we don't know which is which. I loved how Mary E. Pearson did that. I had my guesses, but we don't find out who is who until pretty close to the end of the book. It was a brilliant writing style! 
 Each of the characters had such distinct personalities. It was easy to see why both guys were fond of Lia. She is strong, independent, spunky and a free thinker. I admired her bravery. Kaden and Rafe were each good in their own way. I am not going to go too much into them because the mystery surrounding their identities makes reading the book so much fun. 
 The action and adventure that you love from High Fantasy is very abundant in The Kiss of Deception. I enjoyed their adventures and learning about the history of the empires in their world through the prayers and songs. The world building was rich and detailed. This is a series that I know I will be continuing. It goes down in my book as one of the greats in young adult high fantasy. Fans of Maria V. Snyder and of fantasy in general cannot miss The Remnant Chronicles. The Kiss of Deception is easily one of the best books that I have read in 2014.