Book Review: The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well. I wasn’t expecting this to be a five star, honestly. I had to put it on pause because I was dealing with schoolwork and doing a project. But since I’m out for Spring Break, I read every bit of this story, and lemme tell ya…this book got me through Mass Effect while I was playing it (got the legendary edition and I’m done with the first game). So I’m gonna break it down by character like I would do Game of Thrones, because this book was a lot:

Kestrel: So let's start with Kestrel. Kestrel is thrown into prison by the Emperor for what she did in the second book, which is be a spy for the Herrani (called herself the Moth) and tried to play by the Emperor’s rules, but thanks to her father, she was secretly thrown into a very terrible prison. Everyday she wakes up, goes to the mine and works till she eats dinner and goes to bed. She is also drugged, and for those horrible months she is just waking up, eating while resisting the way her body craves the drugs they give her. Arin comes to rescues her, only to find out she has amnesia. She, with Arin, escapes the prison and since Herrani/Dacra are currently in a war with the Empire…she joins, swearing an oath to kill her father. During her time as a soldier, she pretended to be a scout, led the charge for the Herrani gunmen that was under her control, and she came up with a plan to kill the Emperor. There was some hiccups, like the Emperor’s son being there, Risha showing up, and the thought of seeing her father (which she did) but at the end, she killed the Emperor by playing a game of Bite and Sting, and letting him touch the poisoned shiny tiles (smart). At the end, Kestrel married (though it is implied) Arin and they lived happily ever after.

Arin: This boy…this boy right here…I love him. He’s currently at war with the Empire, and he’s working with Roshar, his friend who is the prince of Dacra. He has been trying to forget Kestrel, only to find that he can’t. He comes back home to Herrani, only for Sarsrine to tell him that there was someone to see him. Arin puts it off, but then finally he goes and sees the person who tells him about the woman who spoke Herrani perfectly without no accent, and who gave him a moth, but it died when a Empire solider stepped on it. Not believing it for a moment, he had to think about it before he realized that it was Kestrel, and he snuck in to kill the guards to save Kestrel. Seeing her without any memory of who she was, it hurt him a bit until she started to slowly get her memories back, and the two fell right back in love, and she became a fine soldier. He did as well, trying to keep Kestrel away from the deep parts of the war, letting her do whatever she want as long as she doesn’t see her father. He did almost kill her father, but he decided not to, and he thought he did the wrong thing. Kestrel tells him that he didn’t, and at the end, her father was left alive and not going to die (ha ha).

All in all, this was a really good book and I really enjoyed this one.

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