Book: The Winner's Crime
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Genre: fantasy
Age Rating: young adult (12+)
Page Count: 416 pages
Age Rating: young adult (12+)
Page Count: 416 pages
Star Review: 3/5
Summary: 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,
Memorable Quote: "His dear face, dearer to her, dearer still. How could she love his face more for it's damage? What kind of person saw someone's suffering and felt their heart crack open even wider, even more sweetly than before?"
Can you spell disappointment? Cuz that's what this book was. And a big one. This book is actually (sadly) a prime example of the dreaded Second Book Syndrome... the plot dragged and honestly I just stopped caring about Kestrel and Arin. And the things I really cared about in the first book just didn't matter anymore, strangely enough. Here are a few examples:
Arin. Arin, Arin, Arin. Why must I hate you in this book? I actually really liked him in The Winner's Curse but his character seemed to change so much going into this book. There were so many times in the first book I was rooting for him, but in this book that just... stopped. I really hated him. He went from a true gentleman and wonderful character, to treating Kestrel like an object who can't think for herself. Plus, his character became the center of Kestrel's in this book, which took away a lot of her individuality. Their relationship is also extremely forced and one-sided.
And then there's Verex. I loved Verex, actually! It's just that he had a really important character and he wasn't in the book enough. It made it really weird since Verex is insanely important to the plot but he's really just not there.
And the entire book was incredibly anticlimactic. I mean, what was supposed to be the climax was obviously there but it was really close to the end. The book was really really BORING until the last 100 pages or so which was kinda annoying. It also got really predictable and so many shock factor moments were, once again ruined by the summary or just easily predicted.
Would I recommend? If you read the first book, totally.
Memorable Quote: "His dear face, dearer to her, dearer still. How could she love his face more for it's damage? What kind of person saw someone's suffering and felt their heart crack open even wider, even more sweetly than before?"
Can you spell disappointment? Cuz that's what this book was. And a big one. This book is actually (sadly) a prime example of the dreaded Second Book Syndrome... the plot dragged and honestly I just stopped caring about Kestrel and Arin. And the things I really cared about in the first book just didn't matter anymore, strangely enough. Here are a few examples:
Arin. Arin, Arin, Arin. Why must I hate you in this book? I actually really liked him in The Winner's Curse but his character seemed to change so much going into this book. There were so many times in the first book I was rooting for him, but in this book that just... stopped. I really hated him. He went from a true gentleman and wonderful character, to treating Kestrel like an object who can't think for herself. Plus, his character became the center of Kestrel's in this book, which took away a lot of her individuality. Their relationship is also extremely forced and one-sided.
And then there's Verex. I loved Verex, actually! It's just that he had a really important character and he wasn't in the book enough. It made it really weird since Verex is insanely important to the plot but he's really just not there.
And the entire book was incredibly anticlimactic. I mean, what was supposed to be the climax was obviously there but it was really close to the end. The book was really really BORING until the last 100 pages or so which was kinda annoying. It also got really predictable and so many shock factor moments were, once again ruined by the summary or just easily predicted.
Would I recommend? If you read the first book, totally.
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