Mary E. Pearson's The Kiss of Deception
First of all, this title is TERRIBLE. Just getting that out of the way. Don't judge this by its terrible title. Actually, the description could go either way, too-- a princess, on the day she's supposed to marry a prince she's never even seen, runs away with her ladies' maid to make a new life for herself. Only the prince AND an assassin both come looking for her, leading to an inevitable love triangle. (This is the part of the description that worried me, but the material mostly rises above it.) Pearson does a clever thing here, not revealing which dude is which right away, which adds a layer of tension to the story. And it's a pretty solid princess-coming-of-age-and-learning-stuff story, for sure. There's also a whole thing with does she or doesn't she have a magical gift that looks like it'll come into play more in later volumes. I do wish the maid had become a POV character before the last 30 pages (it just feels awkward at that point, and she's interesting enough to have carried more of the story), but the other three balance each other pretty well. I mean, the assassin's motivations are dumb as hell, but it's still an entertaining read, and I really liked where it ended. I'll definitely be reading the next one.
A-.
