Kate Farrell, my longtime editor, deserves a week at a spa and a royal scepter—this was a whole new animal for us and she never wavered in her enthusiasm, support, spot-on guidance, and supreme patience. I don’t deserve her, but I’m glad she’s mine. Kate, without a doubt, you are a true Gaudrellan princess. I want to be in your tribe every time.
My agent, Rosemary Stimola, has exhausted all superlatives, yet she still manages to surprise me. Besides wearing her amazing agent hat, for this book she also put on her linguistics professor’s hat and guided me through waters lurking with dangerous things like past participles to help me create a consistent Vendan language. Ena ade te fikatande achaka. Grati ena, Ro. Paviamma.
I am grateful to writers Melissa Wyatt and Marlene Perez for writing sprints, beta-reads, sage advice, pep talks, and regular water-cooler laughs. You two are better than chocolate. Many thanks also to Alyson Noël for offering eleventh-hour advice as I headed into revision—a much-needed beacon to remind me where I was going. My gratitude also to Jessica Butler and Karen Beiswenger for early reads, cheerleading, and many sessions of playing the idea-bouncing game with me.
I can’t leave out Jana Echevarria, who ventured into creating a private language with me at the grand age of seven, and also joined in playing endless rounds of the telephone game with me. Together we delighted in the loss of translation. Our games planted seeds I didn’t even know were there. A nod to Mr. Klein, my fifth-grade teacher—sometimes an assigned social studies report lingers in a kid’s mind for years. Yeah, just what did happen to those Mayans?
Big hugs and thanks to my children, Karen, Ben, Jessica, and Dan, who inspire me and keep me grounded in the things that matter, and to little Ava, who makes me smile just by saying her name. Every writer should have a dose of that on a regular basis.
To my on-the-spot adviser for everything from word choices to mapping out kissing logistics, my deepest gratitude goes to DP, the boy who took a chance. XO
AUTHOR BIO
Mary E. Pearson is the author of seven previous novels for teens, including the acclaimed trilogy, The Jenna Fox Chronicles. She writes full-time from her home in Carlsbad, California, where she lives with her husband and two dogs.
Copyright © 2014 by Mary E. Pearson
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pearson, Mary (Mary E.)
The kiss of deception / Mary E. Pearson.—First edition.
pages cm.—(The Morrighan chronicles; 1)
Summary: “On the morning of her wedding, Princess Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, 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. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.”—Provided by publisher
ISBN 978-0-8050-9923-2 (hardback)—ISBN 978-1-62779-218-9 (e-book)
[1. Fantasy. 2. Princesses—Fiction. 3. Deception—Fiction. 4. Love—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.P32316Ki 2014 [Fic]—dc23 2014005163
eISBN 9781627792189
First hardcover edition 2014
eBook edition July 2014