(The
Winner’s Trilogy #2)
Publication
Date: March 3, 2015
Hardcover, 402 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Genres:
YA, Fantasy
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.
My Review
Arin and Kestrel are once again star-crossed, yet this time,
it seems like nothing can help bring them back together. Kestrel’s engaged to
the crown prince of Valoria and Arin is just trying to keep his people from starving
to death. And when their paths collide, fire ignites, and everything gets
burned.
Arin and Kestrel are two very dynamic and flawed characters.
Kestrel is too secretive and too naïve, but at the same time, she’s ready to do
whatever it takes to keep the casualties of her father’s and the emperor’s war
to a minimum. Arin, on the other hand, knows his people need some sort of
miracle and is willing to fight for it, yet he can’t stop making mistakes
because of the girl he’s in love with. Both of their emotional turmoil and
unfortunate plights had me turning pages as fast as my eyes could read.
The plot of the book was what one might consider to be part
of the second-book syndrome. However, this is only true based on the slowness
of the beginning and the heaviness of the political drama going on. Because,
while there are a lot of action scenes that had my eyes practically popping out
of my head, they’re sometimes buried under negotiations with other characters.
But once I got into the flow of this ebb and weave—ebb being the action and
weave being the political drama—I really found myself enjoying this book. Arin
and Kestrel created captivating stories on their own, and if their stories hadn’t
have intertwined, I would still enjoy reading about this slave boy who grew up
to save his people, as well as this sheltered little girl who didn’t
necessarily examine the consequences of not just her actions, but also others’
actions, and is waking up to reality.
What I wasn’t really sure about as I was reading was the
side characters’ roles. The emperor is the prime antagonist, and at times, he
just felt like the cliché villain we’ve all come to scoff at. Maybe he’ll get
more depth in book three, though. Additionally, Tensen had me scratching my
head simply because I couldn’t remember his character from the first book (or
if he even was a character from the first book), but I did like the role he
played in this one. Now the prince was a fantastic character! I really enjoyed
reading about him and his untypical prince-ness. I also enjoyed some other
characters that I refuse to mention because of potential spoilers.
Now, I have to mention that The Winner’s Curse and I had a love/hate type of relationship. I
wasn’t sure about the slavery aspect of the book, it just didn’t feel real to me. It was a romanticized
version of slavery. This book didn’t have that same feel. In fact, I think this
book turned that notion on its head. There wasn’t a lot of slavery present in
the book, but what was mentioned seemed true and Kestrel’s voice really
captured how she grew away from her society’s ideas and acceptance towards the
issue of slavery. Rukoski’s writing really managed to shape strong characters,
flaws and all, into a story about a world seemingly crumbling from the outside
in.
All in all, The Winner’s
Crime is most definitely better than its sequel, it has elegant writing,
surprises galore, and an ending that will have you begging for book three. It
definitely deserves a place on your shelves!
*Note: I received
a copy of this book from the publisher. This in no way altered my
opinion/review.
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