The Winner's Crime (The Winner's Trilogy) by Marie Rutkoski (2015-03-12) Paperback – 1827

I received a copy of this book for free via the publisher and thanks to netgalley in exchange for an honest review.Basically: I would have given my right (and maybe even my left) arm for a copy of this book. So, this is a totally biased review of a great book.In Detail: The sequel to The Winner's Curse (which all my friends will be getting for their birthdays, regardless of what they actually want - sorry guys, well not really) which brings back all the beautiful world building, story, writing, and characters from the first book. This book is set in a Greco-Romanic inspired world (I love these kind of settings) and follows Kestrel from where she was in the last book - heading to the capital. The story of this book unfolds beautifully, and in parts is highly distressing (or at least I thought so). It's interesting to read the discussion this series presents on slavery and about the corruption of power and concepts of barbarianism.The Characters: I love how complex all the characters are in this series, and dynamic. All the characters, even the ones who only appear briefly feel very real. Kestrel remains one of my favourite characters of all time (even if I don't always understand her) and I loved her development in this book. Arin remains sweet and foolhardy at the same time. I also really liked the new characters we were introduced too and I hope some of them come back in the next book.My Thoughts: This book was beautiful, utterly painful, but extremely beautiful. It's something I wanted to savour and I enjoyed it so much. I cannot wait for the last book and honestly I'm working on convincing all my friends to read this series as soon as they can.

Following your heart can be a crime.Betrothed to the Crown Prince and despised by the one she loves, Kestrel weaves a choker of lies, slowly suffocating herself with the high cost of her crimes. Within Kestrel's world of façades, tales and intrigue, she aches to tell Arin the real reason for her choices but when she fails to even trust herself, she tries to protect her beloved in a way that hurts them both most. As the Emperor threatens everything she loves and follows her every move, she has no choice but to stay entangled in military strategy and the royal wedding. As she knows, dangerous lies and false allegiances come at a high price.I enjoyed this book so much more than the Winner's Trilogy first instalment, The Winner's Curse. I felt so much more connected to Kestrel and the plot of the book was a lot clearer, the complexities seemed even more intricate but a lot easier to understand. The characters were brilliantly developed, with daunting enemies and loyalties lying where they shouldn't be. The Emperor was phenomenal as one of Kestrel's foe and every part of the book seemed to have a new twist in the tale. As I said in my review of The Winner's Curse, I would of perhaps enjoyed the book more if it had been in first person, but that is a personal preference. I would have liked to see how the story might have changed and how the writing of it in first person might have changed Rutkoski's style of writing or the overall feel of the book.Overall I still loved the book, request for some more Astrel/Kestin/Krin/Arel in the third book though, because there wasn't enough. Just saying

Blog Review:So, it took me a long time to read this book, I picked it up on a Tuesday evening, two weeks from the end of term. Not only is this a usually busy time, it was the run up to Christmas. Worst idea I've had in recent memory, except for the one where sorting my hair out myself is the way to go, but that's reoccurring one and not relevant here. Somewhere around 1.30am and 55% I realised my idea of casually reading it over the rest of the week was simply pipe dreams, it was going to be all or nothing so I subsiquently had to ban myself from reading more until I had time. Today was that day! Here are the notes I made at 55%:A few issues;I'm currently lacking in sleep. No sleep here.And there's no option for stopping at the end of a chapter, BECAUSE THERE'S NO CHAPTERS! Of course this is a digital ARC copy and that will be sorted when I have the real thing.Bittersweet! The word for this book is bittersweet!Now that I've read the whole thing, this is how I feel on the matter:WHEN IS BOOK 3 OUT??!No really...Certainly the first half was bittersweet and while the theme continued into the second half, I feel that my self imposed ban helped me to focus better and notice something. When you aren't trying to cram one more chapter in several hours after you're meant to be sleeping, you can almost feel the Sting and Bite tiles lining up, even as the rug is pulled out from under you. At this point, we're 2/3 through so I'm pretty sure that they've been lining up from the first word, but the exact players are hard to pin down.I couldn't tell you my favourite character. Perhaps the Princess, for there is more to her than we seem to know, Arin seems a little too dense sometimes, I really just want to whack him over the head with a trout and Kestrel, for all her skill, is easily distracted into thoughtless moves. The Emperor is there to be hated and to be honest, he's over confident in his every step. Even when all the pieces were mine, I wouldn't have been mean about it all.That's the perfect way to get what he's going to get! I'm assuming.Where book 1 made me cry, this one gave me hope. As I said, I could almost see the tiles lining up and while there are still several ways this could still go, the Emperor has lost far more than he seems to realise and I can't wait to find out how it all comes together in the end.

The second book in the Winner's trilogy is even better than the first. Kestrel and Arin suffer through this book, most of the time separately, through lies and deceptions and spy games that are deadly. The stakes are high and Kestrel goes through a transformation, as is Arin. And the finale...OMG. I cant wait for fall 2016 when the Winner's Kiss, the final book in the trilogy is out.