The Winner’s Crime
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Series: The Winner’s Curse #2
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Historical, Dystopia
Release Date: March 3, 2015
Publisher: Farrar Straux Giroux
Summary:
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.
First Sentence: She cut herself opening the envelope.
I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated for this review.
My Review:
I wasn’t as excited to read The Winner’s Crime as other people were. The cliffhanger ending of The Winner’s Curse did nothing for me – I didn’t feel the need to have The Winner’s Crime in my hands asap after that ending. Honestly, now that I think about it, I shouldn’t have given The Winner’s Curse a rating of four stars to begin with; I only liked it, never loved it. I went into The Winner’s Crime with a little higher expectations than I did for The Winner’s Curse since I’ve heard a lot of people enjoyed The Winner’s Crime more than they enjoyed The Winner’s Curse. In the end, I definitely prefer The Winner’s Curse than The Winner’s Crime.
How ridiculous he must have looked next to those polished courtiers, with his ill-fitting clothes and unshaven face.
How rough, how thuggish.
How wrong. (ARC 92)
As I expected, a huge majority of The Winner’s Crime is focused on the romance between Kestrel and Arin, which is good if you’re invested in it. I, however, was sadly not won over by their relationship in The Winner’s Curse and hoped that The Winner’s Crime will finally make me believe in Kestrel and Arin’s feelings for one another. Instead, The Winner’s Crime did nothing more for me. While people who were invested in Kestrel and Arin’s feelings for one another were reading memories of their swoony moments, all I see was a lot of angst, especially for the first 64 pages or so. In fact, the first 64 pages were basically Kestrel and Arin half-caring about life and missing the other person.
I don’t really understand Kestrel. She was very clever in The Winner’s Curse and in some parts of The Winner’s Crime, thinking of things I wouldn’t have ever thought of, but there were other parts in The Winner’s Crime where she drove me insane. One moment, Kestrel would act super smart, causing me to marvel at her cleverness, and then she’ll take such careless risks without thinking, risks that could get her in deep trouble. While she was doing so, I’m just mentally hitting my head against the wall at how not smart she was being at that moment. True, I’ve never been in a situation like Kestrel and Arin’s before so I can’t completely understand her position, but that didn’t help me feel less annoyed with her nevertheless.
“Do you want him?”
“Yes.”
“Prove it,” Arin murmured into her ear. The heat of him settled against her. (ARC 80)
My favorite part of The Winner’s Crime is probably the brutal ending. If you thought the cliffhanger of The Winner’s Curse was brutal, wait until you get to the ending of The Winner’s Crime. The cliffhanger in The Winner’s Crime literally left me with my jaw hanging open, thinking wait, this can’t be it! I will probably be reading The Winner’s Kiss after that ending because man, I need to know how it all ends!
Overall, I can’t help but be a bit disappointed with The Winner’s Crime. It definitely wasn’t bad, but reading a book focused mainly on the romance when you’re not sold on the said romance is not going to work out well. I’ll only recommend The Winner’s Crime if you’re invested and interested in reading about Kestrel and Arin’s romance from The Winner’s Curse.
NOOOOOOOO! How is an even worse cliffhanger possible?!? Angst can be annoying, but I’m fully invested in the KestrelArinship so I think I’ll be fine. Sorry it didn’t live up to your expectations.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Winner’s Curse, and I actually didn’t think I would continue with this series. However, I’ve seen some rave reviews. I think I’d probably end up siding more with you, after seeing the things you did and didn’t like about this one and Winner’s Curse though. I will still check it out soon just to see what I think because it’s so hyped.
Katherine recently posted…Gathering Frost by Kaitlyn Davis Review
I wasn’t a fan of The Winner’s Crime – Kestrel and Arin annoyed me too much :/
Jess W (A Book Addict’s Bookshelves) recently posted…Month9Books Two for Thursday Book Blitz + Giveaway – Endless by Amanda Gray and Boneseeker by Brynn Chapman
Good review. Sorry you didn’t enjoy this sequel. I still need to read The Winner’s Curse because I have heard such good things about it.
Cynthia recently posted…BOOK REVIEW: The Lottery And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
I totally agree with the ending of The Winner’s Curse! I didn’t see it as a cliffhanger at all — I never REALLY shipped Kestrel and Arin, so I was just like, “Hmm, yay! Both of them are alive!” and that was it. It’s also why I decided not to pick up The Winner’s Crime — and judging from your review, that was a good choice. (Although you have me REALLY curious on what the cliffhanger was! This feels like a Sherlock thing — end the season on a brutal cliffhanger and leave everyone sobbing.)
Alyssa recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Precioussssss
I still haven’t read The Winner’s Curse and I’m sure I won’t get to read it or The Winner’s Crime for a long while. I might end up getting as frustrated as you did, but I still want to know what this trilogy is all about. I’m most likely going to end up reading this series when it’s over, which is sad since I’ll be behind everyone else, but it seems most convenient for me. Hopefully you’ll like The Winner’s Kiss more than the first two books Kelly. :)
i haven’t read this series yet…normally i do get excited about books like this..i don’t know i just kept postponing this series. but who knows i’m might end up invested in their romance.
Aw, hugs :( Amazing review Kelly. <3 But I'm so sorry you aren't loving these books. Sniffs. As I love them to pieces, hiih (A) but I am happy that you loved the ending :D I found the ending to be all kinds of exciting! And I am now dying even more to read The Winner's Kiss :) I hope you'll love that one more. <3
Carina Olsen recently posted…In My Mailbox #175
didn’t read this series yet; good to know about the cliffhanger
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it. I have yet to read either of the books, and I was planning too since many people seemed to enjoy it, but it’s good to see someone so honest too.
I haven’t read either one of them yet. I think I will someday, but I have never really been crazed about this series as much as so many others have. After reading your review, I wonder if I will even like it as much as others have. I just don’t know… Just. Don’t. Know.
Jaime Lester recently posted…The Uglies Series
I’ve got book one on my TBR pile and so far I am no inspired to read it… I haven’t seen a good review yet. But now I am seriously put off – I hate cliff-hangers – pet peeve!
Sue Holmes recently posted…Where I’ve been… Franschhoek
SO EXCITED TO START THIS SERIES!!
The cliff hanger for The Winner’s Curse was crazy!
Good review. This book had my mind going in circles and the cliff-hanger in the end killed me!
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this one much. My sister had the same problems with the romance in the first book but I finished the Winner’s Curse a few weeks back and I totally ship Arin and Kestrel together :)
And,since you mentioned the ending in the Winner’s Crime, I’m kind of nervous because the cliffhanger in the Winner’s Curse was agonizing!