Series: The Remnant Chronicles
Book 1: The Kiss of Deception
Book 2: The Heart of Betrayal
Book 3: The Beauty of Darkness
Goodreads Description of book 1, The Kiss of Betrayal:
A princess must find her place in a reborn world.
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 the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry someone she's never met to secure a political alliance.
Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in 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 feels herself falling in love.
My thoughts:
(I have divided my thoughts under the three titles so no need to worry about being spoiled for later books in the series! I tried to keep them as spoiler free as possible anyway!)
1.The Kiss of Deception:
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed The Kiss of Deception. It was good; like really good. I wasn't expecting to be so into it as much as I was. I had so much fun reading about Lia, the prince and the assassin.
I loved the mystery of trying to figure out who was the assassin and who was the prince. I was constantly theorising who was who and analysing they Boys every action to figure it out! I kept swapping back and forth, it was so mind boggling but so much fun.
Our main character, princess Lia is a daydreamer, she is constant thinking about love and the life she wants to have. She is a bit naive which was a bit annoying but she is also strong willed and witty which made her fun to read about.
I really liked Pauline, Lias maidservant who accompanies her on her escape. Pauline is super devoted to looking after the princess. She is a kind caring spirit I really liked reading about. I loved her friendship with Lia.
I loved how neither main female characters were physically badass, it was refreshing to read about in a genre that is filled with warrior type female characters such as Celaena Sardothian and Isabelle Lightwood.
My only problem was that the world and magic was very undeveloped. The Kiss of Deception is pitched as fantasy and to be honest it did not feel like a fantasy novel at all. There was very vague mentions of magic and that was it, I was disappointed about this element as I love a bit of magic. There was also little to no world building; we stay in the same place for the majority of the time. I was disappointed at how underdeveloped it was.
I think The Kiss of Deception is a great book for those who are only starting to get into YA fantasy as there is very little fantastical elements and it is a super fast engaging read. The book is almost 500 pages long but seems a lot shorter when reading it!
2.The Heart of Betrayal:
Just as good as book one!
Lia spends the majority of this book in Venda. There is a bit more world building in this one compared to book 1; we get lots of descriptions of the city but not much about what's going on in other parts of the kingdom. I do think that Venda was developed perfectly though, I just wished we got more about the rest of the kingdom. Being in Venda with the Komizar resulted in readers getting a good bit of political backstory for the city and it's people.
The Heart of Betrayal had a few new points of view. Personally I loved Pauline's narration.
The plot was similar to the previous book- kinda slow but still engaging. There was not a lot happening action wise and I think this is definitely a book that is about building up the tension for the finale. It focused more on politics and mind games but that being said I was always engaged reading even though there wasn't any crazy action sequences I usually love.
There was a bit of magic, Lia's gift is mentioned a little bit more but not really explained. I would still say this isn't really a fantasy series.
The ending is insane and I'd definitely recommend getting the third book so you can marathon them back to back!
3.The Beauty of Darkness
Definitely my favourite book in the trilogy.
Character development in The Remnant Chronicles is subtle but it is there and Lia's development really shines through in The Beauty of Darkness. She is such a different person compared to where we started in books 1. She's such a strong, independent, well-spoken, young woman compared to the naive little princess she was in The Kiss of Deception. I loved her in this final book. She did frustrate me at time with some of her decisions in this final book but overall I really came to respect her.
The plot of this one was much more fast paced that the pervious two. There was a lot more about war and battles and such which I loved.
World building was a lot stronger in this one compared to previous books. I felt like having me so many characters from different places I really started to get a bigger picture on the kingdoms.
It was a nice conclusion; some things wrapped up but a good bit was left unresolved. Personally I would have liked a bit more at the end.
Overall/ series wasn't that big on the fantasy elements I was expecting but was a really enjoyable and fast read.
My ratings
The Kiss of Deception: 4 stars
The Heart of Betrayal: 4 stars
The Beauty of Darkness: 4.5 stars
Thanks for reading,
A :)
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