You don’t need to be gifted with a blade. You are your own best weapon
I wanted to finish this series and feel it was an okay final to this series, but it could have done better.
Book Review: The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
Rating:
Title & Author: The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Release Date: March 29 2016
Series: The Winner’s Trilogy
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Synopsis
Some kisses come at a price.
War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it with untrustworthy new allies and the empire as his enemy. Though he has convinced himself that he no longer loves Kestrel, Arin hasn’t forgotten her, or how she became exactly the kind of person he has always despised. She cared more for the empire than she did for the lives of innocent people—and certainly more than she did for him.
At least, that’s what he thinks.
In the frozen north, Kestrel is a prisoner in a brutal work camp. As she searches desperately for a way to escape, she wishes Arin could know what she sacrificed for him. She wishes she could make the empire pay for what they’ve done to her.
But no one gets what they want just by wishing.
As the war intensifies, both Kestrel and Arin discover that the world is changing. The East is pitted against the West, and they are caught in between. With so much to lose, can anybody really win?
I gave The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski three out of five hearts. I just think it could have been better and it had not much excitement in it. This series could do with a good rewrite and making only two books out of it, instead of 3. There were a lot of slow parts in this novel.
Kestrel grows a lot during this novel. She has to endure a lot to get back on her feet after the things she is put through in the work camp. I would have liked to seen more about this work camp because the things she had to do there were not that clear and how she got to the state she is in when Arin finally gets to her.
Arin is still as slow as in the other books, it takes him forever to figure out what has happened to Kestrel, though if he had been more observant he would have noticed something was up when Kestrel and the prince run off to get married. I really don’t like the pieces from his pov, they were better during the first novel and go downwards after that one.
The world of The Winner’s Trilogy is very interesting, but there is just not much done with it. The story focusses on these two characters who are from different worlds (that is still interesting), but there is so much more in this world to explore and I find those things much more interesting.
Let me know what you thought of this book!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.
For now, let books enrich your life!