Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski

March 20, 2015     erinbook     Book review

The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski


Release Date: March 3, 2015
Publisher: FSG 
416 Pages
Received: Traded
Format: ARC


Rating: 

3.5 Nuts
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Description: 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: I still don’t really know how to put all of my feelings into words when it comes to this book. I really loved the first book in this series (which I’ll probably review next week) but this one has an odd feel to it at times. Sometimes I felt a bit disconnected from the characters while other times I wanted to hug the stuffing out of them.
I think part of that may be due to the tension between Arin and Kestrel. One of the main sources of conflict in this book is Arin’s misunderstanding of Kestrel’s motives and her determination to keep him from the truth. I think I may have said this before but I find that trope overused and kind of boring. USE. YOUR. WORDS. Seriously, can I just have a couple that communicates effectively just once?
As for the rest of the book I really enjoyed it. I think the first book had a lot more going for it and that this one suffers a little from “second book syndrome” but it’s really not a bad book. I feel in love with a bunch of the new characters the author introduces, we get to see a few different new lands, and the emperor’s plots go a lot deeper than I had anticipated. I like being surprised that way. There’s nota whole lot of physical action here, in fact most of the drama comes from court politics and such. I think it probably could use a bit more action but I always enjoy good court drama.
All in all this book was weaker than the first but not a bad book. I think the third book has been given a good enough set up here to make a solid (and hopefully fantastic) ending to the trilogy. I am intrigued by the ending here an I can’t wait to see what happens next.
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