Title: The Winner’s Crime
Series: The Winner’s Trilogy #2
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date: March 3rd, 2015
Pages: 416
Format: Hardback
Source: Purchased
Synopsis (from Goodreads): Book two of the dazzling Winner’s Trilogy is a fight to the death as Kestrel risks betrayal of country for love.
The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria’s crown prince means one celebration after another. 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… if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For—unknown to Arin—Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret.
As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country’s freedom, he can’t fight the suspicion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. And when that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them.
Review:
This book should have come with the warning.
It contains violence on such a strong level that it left me uneasy.
I wondered how the book, that you can find in a children’s books section in a bookstore, can have so many well-described scenes with violence in it.
It starts with the bang, and it surely continues in the same tone trough the whole novel.
There’s a huge story development and even bigger character development.
Kestrel became stronger, smarter and she learned how to play the war game.
She still likes to play piano and her dream about becoming someone’s wife is so close to become the truth because she is engaged to emperor’s son.
Even though she is not a warrior in a literal sense, she has a mind of one.
Arin is a leader now. He is smart but still, his feelings do lead his actions more then they should be.
He still wants Kestrel but he also wants for his people to have the power they once had.
There are some new characters that were introduced to us in this, second book in the series.
Some of them were very likeable and some of them were just cruel, but very important for the story.
There is another tribe that came to the picture and I welcomed them with pleasure.
I have a feeling they will have a big part in the next, the last book of The Winner’s Triology.
In my opinion, The Winner’s Crime was better The Winner’s Kiss.
It took the story in a whole another level and it reminded me a lot of Game of Thrones.
I have a feeling The Winner’s Kiss will be an epic read and I can’t wait to read it and see where the story is going to go.
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