The Winner's Trilogy
Young Adult Fiction
Macmillan
March 3, 2015
Audiobook
416
Following your heart can be a crime A royal wedding is what most girls dream about. It 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? For 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.
WrensReads Review:
This would have been a three star, but the ending bumped that right on up to four. My word.
This book has a little bit of middle-book syndrome, in my opinion. You have to understand though, this book is HEAVY on the romance and the thoughts of the one that they can’t have and such.. and I am not one for that kind of thing. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there are other things going on. There’s a dictator-of-an-emperor, plans of mass-murder, torture, spies and deaths. But it takes a back seat while the two main characters drown in their misery of not being able to be with each other. That’s what drove the whole story.
The Winner’s Crime is basically people finding out what happened in the Winner’s Curse and then the reader seeing how horrible the emperor is. Like you will literally be sharpening your knife listening to the way he treats people, especially his own son, Arin and Kestrel.
Kestrel has such a voice to relate to. Sometimes she did really stupid things, like thinking if she wore a maids costume no one would know it was her, and I would just laugh and go “ohhh Kestrel, you silly girl” and go on reading. She did everything based on what was right and what had to be done and not following her heart like most heroines do. She is suppose to marry the crown prince, and really she would make a fantastic queen. She is strong and courageous, yet understanding and kind.
Arin took a back seat in the character development in my opinion. He kind of was sulking the whole time about Kestrel. Don’t get me wrong, she was sulking about him too, but she was doing things to make things better (even if they couldn’t be together) for the country as a whole while he was like “screw it, let’s throw that all to the wolves and just be together”. I thought it was a little out of character compared to the first book where he was all for his country before his heart.
Kestrel and Arin though.. this was them the whole book.
There is concentration on other relationships in the book too. I especially appreciated the one with Kestrel and Jess, because girl friendships are important so thank you Marie Rutkoski.
Narrator: Justine Eyre
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
I honestly would have not finished this book if I was actually reading it. Again, not a romance-heavy fan. I need more plot, politics and craziness than romance (thought it is needed). Justine kept me going and I am so happy that I actually finished this book.
I am kind of mad at myself for not being able to start the next book ASAP.
Like how am I suppose to go on with normal life not knowing what is going to happen to my book loves? THIS IS THE WORST.
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