Review: The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski

Publication Date: 12^th March 2015

Huge thanks to Netgalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

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.

So a few days ago I read ‘The Winner’s Crime’ and loved it. So much love. So hard. And so as soon as I finished it I leaped straight into the second book in the trilogy and re-immersed myself in Kestrel and Arin’s world once more.
The worry with the second book in a trilogy when the first book was just so good that you wanted to throw it at anyone and everyone and demand that they read it, is that it just won’t live up to your expectations. Luckily Rutkoski is an incredibly gifted writer and this instalment more than held its own against the first book.

The sequel is much darker than the first book, with Kestrel now hidden in the heart of the Empire and engaged to the Emperor’s son. No conversation can be guaranteed to be unheard, no secret uncovered and it gives the entire book a very tense and on edge feeling as you wait, breathlessly, for it all to fall apart. Because this is the point where everything inevitably falls apart. It’s tense and terrifying and I stormed through this book even faster than the first one, desperately trying to find out what happens. That said the pacing is quite slow, almost torturously slow at points, so that the tension has really hit breaking point by the end of the book.

I missed Herran terribly, just as Kestrel does, but at the same time it was wonderful to have the world expanded. To discover new territories and people and to find out more about the Valorians. As well as new places a whole host of new characters were also on offer, as well as some familiar faces from the first book. The Emperor is a truly terrifying man, and he seeps through the book even in the sections where he isn’t present. I was never quite sure how he might react or lash out next, and I cannot wait to see even more of him in the final instalment.

Kestrel is brilliantly expanded in this book and I loved watching her try and come to terms with herself, her choices and her culture. She is turning into a truly formidable woman and an incredible heroine. She isn’t strong in the physical sense, but she is sharp and quick and incredibly devious. She calculates, schemes, spies and above all, tries desperately to do the right thing in an increasingly difficult and shifting landscape, and I love her for that.
Arin takes a slight backseat in this novel – that isn’t to say that he isn’t present, he is and fighting his own battles and to become his own man and lead his people to a better future. His journey is simply quieter than Kestrel’s, and it takes him far longer to put the pieces together. With all the discoveries and revelations lining up by the end of the novel I am eagerly anticipating watching them all come together in what is sure to be a climactic finale.

Everything that I loved about the first book was abundant – the beautiful prose, the gut wrenching heartbreak, the intrigue, lies and spying. It was a fantastic continuation of the story and like a game of Bite & Sting sets up the final book to be even better than its predecessors. If you haven’t yet read ‘The Winner’s Crime’ I cannot recommend it enough. Go, read it and then launch straight into this book to delay the book hangover you will experience when you’re forced to leave this book and wait for the final novel.

Review: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Winning what you want may cost you everything you love.
As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. 
One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. 
But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined. 
Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

I hate it when a blurb does not do a book justice. It happened with ‘The Raven Boys’ by Maggie Stiefvater, and it has happened again here. You guys, this book is so good. It was everything I wanted, everything I didn’t dare to hope for, and everything that I had hoped for when I read ‘The Jewel’ by Amy Ewing, ‘Red Queen’ by Victoria Aveyard and even The Selection trilogy by Keira Cass. It took all of the elements that I loved and wanted to see properly in those books and created a wonderful, original and incredibly compelling tale.

The story is so beautifully handled, and so full of twists and turns. This isn’t your stereotypical YA romance, it is so much more than that. The characters are incredibly written, the story is wonderfully paced building up to a tense and climactic end and the prose is divine.

And let’s talk about that prose. I could gush about Rotkoski’s prose. It is a thing of beauty. She has a rare skill of being able to weave a tale and make it so incredibly realistic, to draw you in until you can feel the sun and see the villas. Everything becomes heightened and real, but in amongst that is a beautiful lyrical quality to the prose. It’s the sort of prose that made me fall in love with ‘The Night Circus’ but instead of wandering and relying on the imagery to do the work, this prose is a sharp and finely honed as a blade. It is exquisite to read and leaves you breathless to find out where the story will go.

I loved Kestrel. I loved how sharp and quick she was, how she saw so well the things people tried to hide, the way she put pieces together and was constantly looking for ways to manipulate situations, to read them, to win. All of these things could amount to an unlikeable heroine, but on the contrary I think Kestrel may be up in my favourite heroines now. She is brilliant and fierce, but not afraid to admit weakness and vulnerability. She grows and learns as a person and was just so wonderfully real. Her flaws only served to highlight that.

And Arin. Oh Arin, what can I say about him? That he is the perfect offset to Kestrel? Because he really truly is. Neither of these two are defined by their growing feelings for the other. They are people in their own right with beliefs and determinations and histories – and they continue to be individuals even as they spend time getting to know each other and learning and growing. I loved seeing them play off each other, two such brilliantly perceptive minds and their constant determination to win.

It is a wonderfully constructed world, with a fascinating setting and history. I cannot wait to learn more about the Empire outside Herran in the follow books. I felt as if I were there, experiencing it with them, and I raced through the book in a matter of hours and both of those things mark this as a truly excellent book. I could continue to gush about how wonderful this was and how you should put down whatever else you’re doing and read it now, but I feel that could get repetitive. Instead I’m just going to go and start book two in the trilogy ‘The Winner’s Crime’ and immerse myself back in Kestrel and Arin’s world.

Books I'm Squeeing About in March

It's been a long time since I've posted about books I'm squeeing about, but with some of my favourite authors giving us new and exciting books this month I couldn't resist. So without further ado, here are the three books I am particularly excited to get my mitts on this month! There are so many that it is incredibly hard to choose, but these three have really snagged my attention!

(All release dates are for the UK editions)

12th - Burning Kingdoms by Lauren DeStefano (Internment Chronicles Book 2)

After escaping the city of Internment, Morgan and her fellow fugitives land on the ground to finally learn about the world beneath their floating island home.
The ground is a strange place where water falls from the sky as snow, and people watch moving pictures and visit speakeasies. A place where families can have as many children as they want, bury their dead in vast gardens of bodies, and where Internment is the feature of an amusement park.It is also a land at war.Everyone who fled Internment had their own reasons to escape their corrupt haven, but now they’re caught under the watchful eye of another ruler who wants to dominate his world. They may have made it to the ground, but have they dragged Internment with them?

Lauren DeStefano can do no wrong. Her debut series ' The Chemical Garden Trilogy' was incredible. Beautifully written, heartbreaking yet full of hope and with such fresh and exciting ideas, I adored the series, and 'Perfect Ruin' the first book in the Internment Chronicles showed that she was a writer to be reckoned with. It was a fantastic book and left me desperate for more, and I cannot wait to see what happens in book two!

You can pre-order this book on Amazon here

12th - The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski (The Winner's Trilogy Book 2)

Lady Kestrel's engagement to Valoria's crown prince calls for great celebration: balls and performances, fireworks and revelry. But to Kestrel it means a cage of her own making. Embedded in the imperial court as a spy, she lives and breathes deceit and cannot confide in the one person she really longs to trust ...
While Arin fights to keep his country's freedom from the hands of his enemy, he suspects that Kestrel knows more than she shows. As Kestrel comes closer to uncovering a shocking secret, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth.Lies will come undone, and Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them in this second book in the breathtaking Winner's trilogy.

I came late to this series and only caught up last week when I stormed through both book 1 and 2 in a couple of days. I love this series, it is fantastic. Full of beautiful prose and evocative imagery and brutal moves in this cut throat world of spying and politics. This book more than lives up to the high bar set by the first and I cannot wait to be able to talk about this book more! Keep an eye out for my review in a couple of days!

You can pre-order this book on Amazon here

19th - Prudence by Gail Carriger (Book 1 in the Custard Protocol Series)

When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama (Rue to her friends) is given an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female would under similar circumstances - names it the Spotted Crumpetand floats to India in pursuit of the perfect cup of tea.
But India has more than just tea on offer. Rue stumbles upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier's wife and some awfully familiar Scottish werewolves. Faced with a dire crisis and an embarrassing lack of bloomers, what else is a young lady of good breeding to do but turn metanatural and find out everyone's secrets, even thousand-year-old fuzzy ones?

I adore Gail Carriger's books. They are witty, biting and so incredibly inventive. She is my favourite steampunk author and I am so excited to go back to the world of her debut series with an all grown up Prudence. Ever since the very first announcement I have been desperate to read this, and I am counting down the days this month until I can sink into it!

You can pre-order this book on Amazon here

So those are the top three books that I can't wait for this month, what books are you desperate to get your hands on?