The Winner's Crime Review

*this is a review of a sequel, so there can be spoilers for the first book in the synopsis/review- if you want to know more about this series, check out my review of the first book, The Winner's Curse, here!*

Goodreads Synopsis:

Book two of the dazzling Winner's Trilogy is a fight to the death as Kestrel risks betrayal of country for love.

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. 

The Winner's Crime on Goodreads

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Last week, I reviewed The Winner's Curse, and talked about what a fast paced, amazing book that was. Today, I'm back to talk about the epic sequel, The Winner's Crime. The Winner's Crime continues with the situation Kestrel and Arin finds themselves in. It's interesting, pretty fast paced, and a great continuation. I will say that I think this book was my favorite of the two for a few reasons I'll talk about later on in the review, but it was still a really good book and a great sequel. I gave The Winner's Crime 4 out of 5 stars.

Kestrel had a lot to deal with in this novel. She's definitely not perfect, but she's trying to navigate the treachery and intrigue of the court life. I wasn't the biggest fan of the emperor and the court aspect of this novel, but it added some really unique elements to the story. I think it also gave more insight into the Valorian life. I really enjoyed meeting the new characters and I'm curious to know more about a lot of them as well. The story was really interesting and well written, and throughout a lot of the novel I just wanted to read on and know more and find out what happened next.

I think some of the things that sort of bothered me about the novel were also things I enjoyed originally. The writing is really great at building suspense and anticipation, and there were times when I was reading as fast as I could because I had to know what happened next. But as the story progressed towards the very end, I kind of got tired of the plot pacing a little. By the end, I had definitely really enjoyed the novel, but just wanted more of a resolution to some elements of the book.

In general, The Winner's Crime is an awesome sequel. There were some things that bothered me about the novel, but there's a lot of amazing writing and story development. I'm so excited for The Winner's Kiss, even though we have quite a wait until it's published in 2016. This series is really unique- it's a fantasy with a lot of intrigue and plot twists that really make the story interesting. I think that The Winner's Crime is a great continuation to The Winner's Curse, and I am already looking forward to the third novel!

Because this is a sequel, I added my little "If you liked these books then you might like this book" to my review of the first book in the series, so you can check that out (the link's mentioned earlier) if you want to know my recommendations!

Have you read this sequel? What were your thoughts? I'm loving reading this series, so I would love to discuss it!

From the paper world,

V