Published: March 3rd 2015
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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.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Well The Winner’s Crime broke me. I kid you not, it ripped my heart out and stomped on it and then handed it back to me in a puddle. It took my words for two weeks and left me demolished. So naturally I loved it.
I was late to the party for the Winner’s trilogy. I had heard a lot about The Winner’s Curse from friends but I had never jumped in. But since I started to read a wider selection of books and not just dystopian and contemporaries I finally gave it a chance. And the end just about killed me. I loved it but I didn’t know what would be in store for me with The Winner’s Crime. I was terrified and come to find out I had the right to be. I didn’t think Marie Rutkoski could hurt me anymore than she did with Curse. But that was until I read Crime. Holy crap am I broken!
I can’t go into the plot as I don’t want to give anything away for people that haven’t started the series. What I can tell you is that Arin and Kestrel are a mess. They are on different pages, not communicating and getting in each others way without even intending too. They are both so hurt by things that they aren’t seeing what is right front of them. It was super frustrating as a reader knowing what has happening and wanting to smack them both upside the head. They both made such bad decisions it was hard to still feel any sympathy for them. And then they would do these things that would just break your heart.
But even with all of that, it was the end that destroyed my soul. I mean I had nothing left when I was done. Nothing. It sucked all the life force out of me and had me rocking in the corner dying for the finale. Because honestly if Rutkoski can do this to me with book 2, I’m terrified where I’ll be with book 3.
All I can really leave you with is that this book/series is a must read. Come and join us in the pain.
Your review basically sums it all up – The Winner’s Crime is a soul crushing book. I seriously experienced SO many feelings while I was reading it, which made it so dang intense! We’re probably going to all be reduced to silent tears with the third 😉
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