Review: The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

From Goodreads: 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 Rating: 3 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson was a book that I was looking forward to reading until I started seeing mixed reviews for it. Since I still wanted to give it a try though, I decided to lower my expectations, and therefore ended up finding it to be an okay read.

Here’s what I liked and disliked about The Kiss of Deception: 

Pros:

• The setting was easy to visualize because the worldbuilding was very detailed.
• The perspectives of Rafe and Kaden were set up nicely so that not only did Lia not know who the prince was and who the assassin was, but they were a mystery to the reader as well.
• I liked that Lia wasn’t spoiled and was willing to – and wanted to – earn her keep. 

Cons: 

• Not only was there a love triangle, but both men fell in love with Lia fairly quickly. There was also a case of insta-love on Lia’s side when she finally picked one of her suitors. 
• I found the assassin to be a rather wishy-washy character. I wanted him to be badass and own the fact that he was an assassin! 
• I didn’t completely understand the point of the passages from The Last Testaments of Gaudrel and Song of Venda. I thought they were kind of unnecessary and skipped them whenever they showed up at the beginning of a chapter.  

The Kiss of Deception was released in July 2014 by Henry Holt.  

Comments About the Cover: It’s pretty and looks like the cover of a fantasy novel. 

In exchange for an honest review, this book was received from the publisher (Macmillan Children's Publishing Group) for free via NetGalley. 

Review: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

From Inside Jacket: Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a year-long coma, and she's still recovering from the terrible accident that caused it. Her parents show her home movies of her life, her memories, but she has no recollection. Is she really the same girl she sees on the screen?

Little by little, Jenna begins to remember. Along with the memories come questions - questions no one wants to answer for her. What really happened after the accident? 

My Rating: 5 hearts

Thoughts on the Novel: Owning a copy of Mary E. Pearson’s Scribbler of Dreams and having really enjoyed it, I decided to check out The Adoration of Jenna Fox from my local library.  I don’t generally read sci-fi – Scott Westerfeld’s work is an exception – but this book just blew me away.

Set in a future that sounds highly plausible given current medical research and technological advances, the story is written brilliantly with early chapters being short and having a confused undertone and later chapters becoming longer as Jenna begins to recover more of her memories. Two things that made Pearson’s writing even better though was the use of definitions of words that Jenna looks up and applies to herself and the questions Jenna poses to herself. The former lets the reader gain a deeper appreciation of certain words while the latter raises ethical issues that will linger with the reader.

Pearson also does an exceptional job with the creation of her characters. Jenna’s character slowly develops from an isolated and bewildered girl to one who is able to be assertive and create her own identity. The reader also learns about Jenna’s life before the accident as the “new” Jenna watches video clips of herself and so is able to empathize with Jenna’s parents’ actions. The other secondary characters like Lily, Jenna’s grandmother, and Jenna’s friends, Allys and Ethan, are also well-developed so that the reader understands their actions and motivations.

The Adoration of Jenna was released by Henry Holt and Co. in April 2008.

Comments About the Cover: I still think that the cover is kind of random but after having read the book, I at least know that the colour blue and the butterfly have some significance.