The Remnant Chronicles follows Princess Lia, the first daughter of Morrighan who is being forced to marry a prince from a neighbouring kingdom who she has never met. She is also believed to have ‘the gift’, a magical sight-seeing element passed through blood. She runs from her duty and unknowingly meets up with the prince she was meant to marry and an assassin sent from another kingdom to kill her.
This plot of the first book enticed me enough to go ahead and order the entire trilogy (The Kiss of Deception, The Heart of Betrayal, and The Beauty of Darkness). I had really high hopes as I’d seen a lot of positive reviews surrounding the books. But I hate to say that I was quite disappointed.
Mary E. Pearson has a great writing style. She did well at world-building and I was clearly able to see how each kingdom looked and what their morals and values were. She also did a great job at portraying emotions and feelings and I was clearly able to picture most scenes in my mind. I did like the snippets from The Last Testaments of Gaudrel, The Song of Venda, and so on at the beginning of almost every chapter as it gave more insight into how the kingdoms came to be.
But I didn’t really enjoy or understand the plot and storyline. At times it felt as if there was none. The first book was basically set in two locations, the first a slow-paced tavern and then her journey across the Cam Lanteux. And the second book was set entirely in the kingdom of Venda. I guess the third book was more interesting as they travelled through the three main kingdoms and prepared to stop a war. I did say previously that I enjoyed the snippets from The Song of Venda, but they were repeated a little too much. Most people would remember the prophecy-like Song of Venda and it didn’t need to be repeated almost every chapter.
Now, let’s talk about the characters…
Lia
I actually liked Lia. Pearson succeeded in creating a decent female protagonist which some authors struggle to do. She held strong on her beliefs and tried to protect others over herself. Her character development was pretty great too. She only annoyed me when she was winning over Rafe.
Rafe
Sad to say, I never liked Rafe. I do like how Pearson made it out as if he were the assassin in the first book and Kaden the prince. But he just seemed like a typical over-protective alpha male. I feel like he didn’t have too much of a personality or backstory. And when he practically locked Lia away to ‘protect her’ he could practically be compared to Tamlin from ACOTAR.
Kaden
Kaden has to be my favourite character. Throughout the first book, he was sweet and kind which made it seem like he was the prince when he was actually the assassin. His betrayal of Lia is only short-lived and he spends most of the time trying to protect her. I love how he was almost an anti-hero and spent time torn between two kingdoms. He also had a very interesting backstory and great character development.
Other Characters
Quite a few of the minor characters were quite good. Some of my favourites include Gwyneth and Calantha who I wished we’d gotten to explore more. The people of the Caravachi and Vendan clans were also interesting. Pauline, Berdi, Lia’s brothers and Rafe’s friends seemed like quite normal characters while Eben and Griz also had an anti-hero feel. The Komizar was also a very intriguing character who vaguely reminded me of The Darkling from the Grishaverse.
Overall I’d rate this book a 3.5/5. There were some great ideas, kingdoms and characters, but the overall plot and storyline were disappointing.
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Written by Brooke Belli
