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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Book Review: The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski

The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski is the second book in the Winner’s Trilogy, and this one was much, much better than the first one. This one has more political intrigue, more action, a tiny bit more romance, and also, betrayal.

Let’s start off with the upcoming royal wedding between Kestrel and the Emperor’s son, Verex. It was supposed to be a happy time in Kestrel’s life-she’s getting married, she’s about to become Empress of Valoria…but instead, Kestrel turned into a spy for the Herrani people, secretly using Moths to tell Tensen information about things and also sneaking around in a maid’s outfit. When the Emperor learned about what Kestrel did though, thanks to her father finding Tensen, reading the letter and then killing him (and also because he’s in the Emperor’s back pocket). Thus her confession was rewarded-with her going to the camps to work, while the Emperor fabricated some story about her and his son eloped and moved to the south, but she got sick and died.

WTF.

In the words of Ser Clegane, “FUCK THE KING.” In this case-FUCK THE EMPEROR.

Over on Arin’s side of the world, he went to Dacra to try and get an alliance with the queen, even though he got caught and had to be a prisoner in Dacra. But before all that, he was trying to be a leader for his people-making sure they were alright, they had some food and also do everything the Emperor wants him to do (which, may I reiterate, is bullshit). Then one day he was invited to the Empire for a ball for Kestrel and Verex…in which he kissed Kestrel behind the curtains and tried to get her to confess, I think. But it didn't work, and then he got cut by Kestrel’s original dagger, so now he has a scar on the side of his face.

Oof.

Then he left to go to Dacra, where he became a prisoner to the Dacran royal family, doing everything he can to get the alliance-following the brother around and doing all the queen’s dirty work, learning the language fast, even making out with the queen and nearly sleeping with her, only to realize that he loved Kestrel and went back to the Empire to tell her.

Everything went to hell after that, and now our lovers are torn apart. Now I wonder what’s going to happen next because now I wanna know.

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Book Review: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkowski

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

cw: mention of slavery, rape

I’ve heard of this book as I was going to college, but I’ve never picked it up until now. Honestly, I can’t remember what happened in it, so this review is going to be short. All I remember was that Kestrel is the daughter of a general that was bored one day at the markets and brought herself a slave named Arin.

She took Arin home, not knowing that he was a spy for the Herrani and the two fell in love until the rebellion, where all the royals that lived in the stolen houses of the Herrani people were taken back and they were also poisoned. Ah. Then Kestrel became the slave/prisoner of Arin and was attacked by Cheat almost every single day, doing the worst things he can think of. One night Cheat nearly rapes Kestrel, I think, and then Arin killed her.

Kestrel escapes and she goes to the empire, where she pleads with the Emperor to spare the Herrani people and give them their freedom. He does…if only Kestrel marries his son, She agrees, go back to the Herrani land, and told Arin that the emperor granted them their freedom and also that Arin is now the governor, and he has to do everything the Emperor says.

So basically that’s it…the book was okay, I found it boring in a couple places but I liked it. I’m reading book two now, so hopefully this series gets better as I keep reading…if not I might just stop at book two if it doesn’t pick up.

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