Monday, July 3, 2017

Review - The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski


The Winner's Crime (The Winner's Trilogy, #2)
Series: The Winner's Trilogy
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Hardcover - 402 pgs
Published- Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2015)
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Rating: 4/5

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.

It took me so long to get through this book. After the first one hundred pages, I hit a wall. The story was slow to start so I put it off for months. After a couple of months of ignoring it, I read the rest of it in about two days. So I have mixed feelings about this second installment.

I mean this in the best way possible. This entire book was SO frustrating and STRESSFUL! Even though it hurts me, I enjoy how much tension is in this story and how even now after two books, there isn't much resolution. Unlike many young adult novels where I think the resolution for the problems and the characters to be quick and easy, the relationship between Kestral and Arin is so complicated. My expectations for the finale book are very high now so I hope Rutkowski follows through.

Throughout the novel I knew Kestrel's indecision and her scrambling would cost her in the end. While she tried desperately to play both sides of the game, it never seemed like she had enough information to do it effectively especially knowing what Arin was doing on the other side. I thought it was realistic how different the two characters were and how each of them had to deal with their all of the decisions they made in book one. The friendships, relationships and political alliances in this story were built so well and I loved the political elements of the story.

I'm dying for book three. (Good thing I have it)

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