Deception So Deadly by Clara Kensie Series: Deception So #1
Also in this series: Deception So Dark
Published by Snowy Wings Publishing on August 15th 2017
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal
Pages: 425
Source: The Author
My content rating: YA (Not much more than kissing)
My rating:
RUN. It’s all sixteen-year-old Tessa Carson has ever known. Hunted by a telepathic killer, Tessa and her family have fled home after home, hiding behind aliases to survive. Her scars are more than just physical, and as the only one in her family without a psychic ability, she lives a life of secrets, lies, and fear.
After the Carsons flee to a new hideout and take on new identities yet again, Tessa meets confident, carefree Tristan Walker. Their attraction burns fierce, but she runs from him too, knowing their love can never be true when she can’t even tell him her real name.
But Tristan has secrets as well—secrets that will either save Tessa, or destroy her. The only way Tessa can save her family—and uncover the real reason they’ve been hunted all these years—is to forget everything she’s learned from a lifetime of running away, and run straight into danger head-on.
Book One in the YA paranormal thriller Deception So series,Deception So Deadly was originally published as the Run to You serial parts 1 – 3, and is the winner of the prestigious RITA® Award for Best First Book.
The title of this book does not lie. There were some surprises in this book that caught me totally off-guard (and a few that I guessed, but that’s par for the course). Many characters in the book are deceived by someone or other, but of course, I can’t tell you much more than that. In fact, this is a tough book to review without giving things away, so I’m going to have to be very generic in my review, and you’ll just have to trust me that you’ll want to read to find out where it all goes.
What Fed My Addiction:
- A double life. I’m always sort of fascinated by books where a character has to live undercover, and that’s definitely the case here. Tessa and her entire family have spent years on the run. They rarely live somewhere for more than a few months and they bring almost nothing with them. Tessa has had a dozen names over the years, and she can’t get close to anyone, partially because of the secrets she has to keep and partially due to the trauma she endured as a child—the horrific events that live on in her nightmares.
- Tessa’s transformation. Tessa has spent her life afraid. She is constantly waiting for the very-real bogeyman to catch up with her family and succeed where he failed the first time—in killing her. Because of this, she’s built a bit of a shell around herself and she’s somewhat timid. This is exacerbated by the fact that she’s the only person in her family without any psychic or telekinetic abilities—she feels like she’s the only one who can’t help to keep her family safe—always a liability. She also feels guilt over what happened to them in the first place, so there’s a lot of bad for her to dwell on. But as the book goes on, Tessa finally begins to open up and trust a bit more. She also learns to trust in her own capabilities (and to insist that others see that she’s not incapable as well). I enjoyed watching Tessa come into her own.
- The romance. Tessa and Tristan are great together, and I was definitely a fan of the romance!
What Left Me Hungry for More:
- Make up your mind. There was one point at the end of the book where Tessa made up her mind about something and then almost immediately did a complete about-face with seemingly no provocation. It made my head spin a bit and it also made me feel like the original decision was completely for the sake of creating tension (somewhat unsuccessfully). Still, this was one moment, and I felt like I understood her motivations overall—so I could easily forgive it.
Deception So Deadly is an intensely suspenseful paranormal read that you won’t want to miss! This is the second book I’ve read by Kensie, and she’s quickly becoming a favorite author. I give this one 4.5/5 stars.
***Disclosure: I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
About the Author
Clara Kensie grew up near Chicago, reading every book she could find and using her diary to write stories about a girl with psychic powers who solved mysteries. She purposely did not hide her diary, hoping someone would read it and assume she was writing about herself. Since then, she’s swapped her diary for a computer and admits her characters are fictional, but otherwise she hasn’t changed one bit.
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16 responses to “Deception So Deadly by Clara Kensie: Deceptive, Indeed!”
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I do love books that can make you guess, even if you figure out some things! Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a good read!
Yes, there were some things in this book that completely surprised me!
I loved Kensie’s Aftermath, and I am really curious to see what she does in paranormal. This sounds great!
I loved Aftermath too!
Great review! The book sounds amazing and right up my alley. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
I hope you get a chance to read it!
So glad you enjoyed this one, it’s on my TBR! The cover is super cute and the concept is perfect or me.
Great review,
~Brittany @ Brittany’s Book Rambles
Yay! I hope you love it!
This looks really good. I haven’t heard of this author but I would defintiely check her out. Thanks for the awesome review!
I hope you end up checking her out. I have loved both books I’ve written by her.
This is the first I’ve seen or heard of this one and based on the synopsis and your review I am totally intrigued! I’m not a huge fan of fantasy, but paranormal? Oh YES! I love a good paranormal and I love twists and turns and suspense so this sounds right up my alley. So glad I saw your review, Nicole! And thanks for keeping it vague and spoiler-free. 🙂
I really think you’ll love this one then. It’s right up your alley!
This sounds right up my alley! I went to add it to my tbr and saw that one of my favorite authors really enjoyed it also. So this should be a huge win for me! Thank you for making me aware of this book and I’m so happy to see it’s a completed doulogy, yay!!
Love it when an author I love has read and enjoyed a book I’m interested in. That just makes me that much more excited for it. Just as an FYI, the duology is complete but Clara is planning on adding more installments after these first two. You can get a full story arc from the duology, though, I believe! I’ll let you know for sure when I read the second book.
Okay sounds good, thanks for letting me know in advance. 🙂
No problem!