Saturday, July 15, 2017

Review : The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

Saturday, July 15, 2017
Title : The Winner's Kiss
Author : Marie Rutkoski
Genre : YA fantasy
Series : The Winner's Curse #3
Publisher : Bloomsbury
Release Date : March 29th, 2016

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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?

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Guys, The Winner's Kiss basically has everything you want in the last book of a series. Perfect conclusions, perfect romance--you name it! All of them are here in this book.

The Winner's Kiss start where The Winner's Crime left us. Kestrel was taken and brought to the northern tundra, where she would do work camp for as long as she live. Meanwhile, Arin believed that Kestrel has betrayed him, until someone appear at his house, and made Arin rushed to the northern tundra to save her.

I really miss Kestrel and her intelligent, strategic mind. We see a lot of amazing war planning done by her, and it's obvious that Marie do her war-strategy research well. Kestrel's characters is also develop more. Eventhough she, technically, still not very good in weapon (something that made her stand-out among other badass girl), she was different from Kestrel in The Winner's Curse, and for the good different. She grew to be a strong-minded girl, someone who no longer want to be determined by her father, even if she still loves him deeply.

As for Arin, well, I really loves how he help Kestrel through the hard time, and still being as sweet as ever. He too, has change from Arin in book one and is pretty ruthless in this book, but since the topic is war, I think ruthlessness is necessary. And her relationship with Kestrel in this book is just perfect. They basically start over, but no worry, their romance are slow and will leave you wanting more. I also want to talk about the secondary characters. Almost all of the secondary characters in here are new (with the exception of the villain, of course), but I especially love Roshar! He's sarcastic and funny and has the 'devil-may-care' attitude, and yet he cares for the people he loves most in a strange way.

I couldn't write this review without talking about Marie's writing style. As I (probably) have mentioned in my review of The Winner's Curse, Marie's writing style is unique. I couldn't exactly tell you what's unique about it since it's not visible, but when you read it, you'll feel that it's different from other authors' writing style.

In conlusion, The Winner's Kiss is a must read. Why 4.5 stars though? Well, there were some scenes in this book that felt 'slightly impossible to be done'. It's not ruining the book or something, but it disappoint me a little. But still, I really really recommend this book and this series to you guys. Go start reading it if you haven't!


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