Author: Marie Rutkoski
Series: The Winner's Trilogy #2
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Source: Kindle Edition
Pages: 417
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SYNOPSIS: Following your heart can be a crime.
A royal wedding means one celebration after another: balls, fireworks, and revelry until dawn. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement: that she agreed to marry the crown prince in exchange for Arin's freedom. But can Kestrel trust Arin? Can she even trust herself?
Kestrel is becoming very good at deception. she's working as a spy in the court. If caught, she'll be exposed as a traitor to her country. Yet she can't help searching for a way to change her ruthless world...and she is close to uncovering a shocking secret.
This dazzling follow-up to The Winner's Curse reveals the high price of dangerous lies and untrustworthy alliances. The truth will come out, and when it does, Kestrel and Arin will learn just how much their crimes will cost them.
Another July tbr that I actually finished early oops. Blame exams and procrastination by reading! Anyway, I loved the first book and I had heard this one suffered a bit of "second book syndrome" but seriously, it suffers quite a lot. Nothing happens until the 60% mark...
THE WORLD: Same world as in the previous book but Herran is now an independent colony although the Valorian king still wants those lands and wants to take them back.
CHARACTERS: The focus is on Kestrel and her life as a soon-to-be queen. Let me tell you, it's beyond boring! Politics, angst, politics, angst, etc ARGH! stop it! We meet prince Verex who is annoying at first but I ended up liking him and his wedding gift was perfect! Then we have Arin (a.k.a. angst 2.0) geez Arin, I like you but why don't you and Kestrel set everything instead of throwing crap to each other? It seems like everyone in the book was annoying... top spot goes to the Valorian emperor though! That motherf*cker needs to die in a painful way.
There are two secondary characters as well, Tensen who is the Herrani minister of Agriculture and a grandpa to Arin, and Risha who is a kidnapped eastern princess and to be honest she's as badass as Kestrel. She deserves more recognition and plot!
There are two secondary characters as well, Tensen who is the Herrani minister of Agriculture and a grandpa to Arin, and Risha who is a kidnapped eastern princess and to be honest she's as badass as Kestrel. She deserves more recognition and plot!
LOVE: Angst everywhere and it's too much. I didn't like it. It was TOO MUCH like at first, a little bit, well it's okay but 60% of a book? nah to the ah to the no no no ♫
PLUS: To be honest... the last 40% was the best where all the plot seems to finally move forward. And omg! the betrayal! that was a nasty move I gotta say.
I also liked one particular scene between Kestrel and Arin but that was it.
MINUS: The fact that 6 months pass in the book but all we get is Kestrel and dresses, Kestrel and angst, Kestrel faking to be a good girl so the emperor doesn't kill Herrani people, Kestrel and "best friend" drama, Kestrel and more angst... see what I mean? It's just a big, huge, nope!
OVERALL: 3 stars. First half was boring and dull, the rest was okay. This is just another second book to get over with so that you can move on to the final (epic) book.
lmao I crack up every time with these new covers... failure
I also liked one particular scene between Kestrel and Arin but that was it.
MINUS: The fact that 6 months pass in the book but all we get is Kestrel and dresses, Kestrel and angst, Kestrel faking to be a good girl so the emperor doesn't kill Herrani people, Kestrel and "best friend" drama, Kestrel and more angst... see what I mean? It's just a big, huge, nope!
OVERALL: 3 stars. First half was boring and dull, the rest was okay. This is just another second book to get over with so that you can move on to the final (epic) book.
What did you guys think about THE WINNER'S CRIME?
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