The Winner's Crime Review

The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski (422 pages)
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Date Read: 21 July 2016

Synopsis:

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.

My Review:

So I am actually giving this book a 3.5 stars instead of just a three. There are going to be slight spoilers throughout the review, so read at your own peril.

This was a typical second book in a trilogy. It is there to get to the last plot point and explain some background stuff that will most likely be needed in the last book, but it was kinda milk-toast to me.

The relationship between Kestrel and Arin didn't really grow too much until the very last second, but even then it wasn't a huge change. They argue way too much in my opinion. Maybe I am just spoiled with other books, but I didn't feel much romantic tension between the two whenever they were together. I feel like the first book did a much better job at building up the romance, and then this one just crushed it completely. They are however, finally seeing each other's side of the story which is nice. I just wished it had happened sooner.

I hate the emperor, he is a major dick. So is Kestrel's father. I want both of them to suffer in the next book.

I understand that introducing the easterners was important for the conflict to come, but I didn't feel any attachment to the new characters. The queen and her brother were kinda boring and didn't leave much of an impression on me after I read their parts. Maybe they will get more interesting in the next book?

I hated what happened with Jess and Ronan. I understand it was significant in showing that Kestrel has to leave her old life behind and that her friends are not as welcome to change as she is, but it was still not cool what happened to them. I actually really liked Ronan in the first book, but he turned into such an ass.

I enjoyed the last twenty pages of the book more than the rest because I feel like it started to pick up more. There was the inklings of what the next book will focus on and I think it will be a really cool concept.

I know I am mostly harping on the book in this review, but I really did enjoy it. I just liked the first one more than I did this one. I think Kestrel getting a backbone and standing up to the emperor was cool. I loved her friendship with Verex, too. Though I don't think they're endgame, I like them as friends.

I need to read the next book to see what happens!!