The Kiss of Deception was one of my most anticipated titles of 2014. I bought it as soon as it came out but unfortunately only got the chance to read it in January of 2015. I ended up buddy reading this and I must say that without the buddy read, it might have taken me ages to get through. It wasn't that it was slow.. per say.. it was just that once you find out who the prince and the assassin are (which I guessed correctly), it got boring. You find out halfway through the book.. and throughout the last half.. nothing significant happens.. and all you're waiting on is the next exciting chapter that the book promised. I was disappointed in the twist (which I don't think was a twist) in regards to who was who.. and I was disappointed in the direction the author took after that was revealed. 
 I think the main protagonist, Lia, is selfish. There i've said it. romanticizing her situation and making her appear sympathetic isn't really going to deter my opinion. I get that she got the short end of the stick.. but an arranged marriage to keep two kingdoms at peace and not begin a war seems like a good enough reason for the sacrifice. It is like saying her happiness is equalled to the deaths of hundreds of people (soldiers, innocents, etc). It just frustrates me that she wasn't even asked to sacrifice her life.. it is an arranged marriage that may lead to love. And since we know one of the two handsome men is the prince... which she thought were both potential partners, I don't think it is far fetched to believe that. This whole plot was built on the selfishness of Lia and if I only rated the book on the character, I would have given it a 1 or 2. 
 I did enjoy the first half of the book.. while I felt there was too little dialogue and we were told everything about the world either through Lia's memories or her just telling the readers. I wish the pacing of the book was more fast paced. However, I did enjoy it overall and I think many people would like the format of the book.