Book review: Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton

Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton

Series: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (#3)

Published: 2nd of January 2007/ 1995

Publisher: Berkley

Goodreads: “First time in trade paperback: the third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

In Circus of the Damned-now in trade paperback for the first time-a rogue master vampire hits town, and Anita gets caught in the middle of an undead turf war. Jean-Claude, the Master Vamp of the city, wants her for his own-but his enemies have other plans. And to make matters worse, Anita takes a hit to the heart when she meets a stunningly handsome junior high science teacher named Richard Zeeman. They’re two humans caught in the crossfire-or so Anita thinks.”

 

Review

Circus of the Damned did not scare me or grossed me out as much as Guilty Pleasures or The Laughing Corpse. I also didn’t like it as much as the last two books of the series.

Jean-Claude is turning Anita’s life into one hell of a big mess; Anita is firstly baited by a vampire Master called Alejandro, who controls a pack of rabid vampires who have chewing up people and leaving them on the cemetery. Alejandro wishes to know who is the Vampire Master controlling the city of St.Louis, and his where he rests daily.
Secondly, there’s a pre-historical vampire master, who is millions of years old, a miniature of a man, with a monkey-like face called Oliver. He also wants to know who the vampire master of the city is.
Anita is aware that she and Jean-Claude are both lusting for each other, but she tries not to get that lust get in the way – I have to say that I admire her resistance, she isn’t even tempted with immortality or super strength, which she can have, if she only allows Jean-Claude to give two more marks to complete the human-slave/vampire master bond.

Reasons why I didn’t like Circus of the Damned as much as the two last books:

– less action-packed;
– a lot of characters getting on my nerves.

I’m still really intrigued by Edward, I was happy to see him again, even if the circumstances weren’t the best, but hey, we’re talking about Edward right? If Edward is around it means that shit is about to get down.
Still, the drama between Anita and Jean-Claude is beginning to be infuriating.

Jean-Claude is always determined to seduce her, and she is stubborn as usual. I hope that after this book they either end up ripping each others’ clothes off or simply ending their flirting, and they continue their paths separately. I believe I won’t be able to handle this on and off thing anymore.

Larry is a new character who is introduced in this book, furthermore, he was also the one who peeved me the most. He is a new animator, he hasn’t even finish college, and he certainly has never had a brush with death before. Larry’s experience with vampire hunting, raising zombies from their graves is zero, the lad is as innocent as they come, not good for the kind of job he has, and definitely not good in terms of survival. If I were Anita I would’ve slapped him a couple of times, Larry really got on my nerves, as all he was good for was being a distraction. Helpless as a lamb.

Despite not having liked Circus if the Damned as much as the previous books, I still loved it so very much. I’ll have to keep on reading xD

4 Chibis

Book review: The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton

 

The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton

Series: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (#2)

Published: 2nd of August 2005 / 1994

Publisher: Berkley

Goodreads: “Harold Gaynor offers Anita Blake a million dollars to raise a 300-year-old zombie. Knowing it means a human sacrifice will be necessary, Anita turns him down. But when dead bodies start turning up, she realizes that someone else has raised Harold’s zombie–and that the zombie is a killer. Anita pits her power against the zombie and the voodoo priestess who controls it.

In The Laughing Corpse Anita will learn that there are some secrets better left buried-and some people better off dead…”

Review:

What a rush!!!

I’m officially part of the Anita Blake fan club. I would love to see this on TV (it would be terribly gory, even worse that The Walking Dead, I’d have to skip those parts, I have a weak stomach).

Anita Blake is once again in trouble, this time she has to deal with some kind of meat-eating zombie, she doesn’t really know what it is, and she fears it may be the worst thing she will ever have to catch. This monster ate a family of three members, leaving only blood splattered everywhere and a few half-eaten remains (yum!).
She also gets another job proposal, this time from a very dangerous man called Harold Gaynor, who offers her a million dollars to raise a 300-year-old corpse. However, to raise a dead body this old she must sacrifice a “white goat”, aka a human being. Evidently she refuses to do so, as it breaks all moral codes she has. Gaynor doesn’t take her refusal well. (let’s keep it that way)
The third person who threatens Anita’s life is the voodoo priestess Senora Dominga Salvador, a very dangerous woman who Anita suspects has had a hand in raising the zombie who’s been murdering families. Dominga Salvador wishes to train her, to make Anita reach her true potential. Again, Anita refuses to have anything to do with her, especially after she sees what Dominga has hidden in her basement.
Also, there is still the remaining problem with vampire Master hottie, Jean-Claude who wants Anita to become his human slave.

Trust me guys, there a lot of wtf/mind-blowing moments…

Again, I really enjoyed myself, LKH is a master at keeping me thoroughly addicted and at the same time completely grossed out. This series is definitely not your cup of tea if you don’t like to read stuff about corpses getting eaten or ripped apart, as these kind of things tend to happen a lot.

All I can say is that I will keep reading, I can’t stop now, I literally can’t stop flipping the pages!

5 Chibis

Book Review: Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

Series: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (#1)

Published: 1st January 1993

Publisher: Berkley

Goodreads: “Published over ten years ago by Ace, Guilty Pleasures marked the debut of a series that was destined to grow from cult favorite to a major New York Times bestseller. Now, for long-time Anita Blake junkies and newfound fans, Guilty Pleasures makes its trade paperback debut. Readers will learn how Anita Blake started raising the dead-and killing the undead. And how she met Jean Claude, the master vampire destined to become not only her biggest nemesis, but her greatest lover…”

 

Review

My reaction after reading Guilty Pleasures:

Thing is… there are 25 books in this series (26th on the works), so how am I going to do this?

We got a badass in town, her name is Anita Blake, aka the Executioner, she raises the dead for a living and kills vamps whenever she has to (it also gives her tremendous pleasure to do so).

One day Anita gets a visit from Willie, recently turned vampire, who wants to hire her to investigate the vampire murders going on in St.Louis, however, Anita refuses, she doesn’t to put her life in danger, again. Things don’t go her away, when the life of one of her friends gets threatened at Guilty Pleasures, the vampire strip bar she goes to on a bachelorette party. To save her friend from enslavement, Anita investigates the murders, getting herself involved in more trouble than she thought.

Not going to tell you more, the fun thing about this book was not knowing what was going to happen next.

Just be aware that this is your book if you like UF books with crush-worthy characters *coff-Edward-and-Jean-Claude-coff*, badassery in general and let’s not forget that reading this book is the equivalent to getting into a Horror House, it was scary as f***!

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Anita is one of my fav characters ever, I read loved how in one moment she is talking about how hiding a gun in a purse means to get killed, and in the other she tells you about her penguin stuffed animal collection, or her natural orange juice secret xD

4.5 Chibis

Joint book review: The Baller: A Down and Dirty Football Novel by Vi Keeland

The Baller: A Down and Dirty  Football Novel by Vi Keeland

Standalone

Published: January 18th 2016

Publisher: Self-published

Summary: “The first time I met Brody Easton was in the men’s locker room. It was my first interview as a professional sportscaster. The famed quarterback decided to bare all.
And by all, I don’t mean he told me any of his secrets. No. The arrogant ass decided to drop his towel, just as I asked the first question. On camera. The Super Bowl MVP quickly adopted a new hobby—screwing with me.
When I pushed back, he shifted from wanting to screw with me, to wanting to screw me.
But I don’t date players.  And it’s not because I’m one of the few women working in the world of professional football.  I’d date an athlete.  It’s the other kind of player I don’t date. You know the type. Good looking, strong, cocky, always looking to get laid.”

Brody Easton was the ultimate player. Every woman wanted to be the one to change him. But the truth was, all he needed was a girl worth changing for. Turned out, I was that girl. Simple right? Let’s face it. It never is. There’s a story between once upon a time and happily ever after…  And this one is ours.”

Review

Sofia and I decided to do something a little different this time. We read a book with an extremely curious and suspicious title and ended up loving it and as such we are doing a dual book review! So, when you see a book named “The Baller” with an enormous dirty subtitle, fear not! Give that book a chance and enjoy the ride!

Sofia’s Review:

5 F****** STARS

I can’t even talk right now, this book was SOOOOO GOOD!

The first half of the book is just plain funny and sexy, I loved Brody and Delilah so much! It was so entertaining to read their story, I really needed a book like this, I’ve been reading a lot of books lately, but most of them are the same, they just basically have the same story, similar lines, your typical broken hero, blah, stupid drama, blah
I was so not expecting to love The Baller this much! Vi Keeland is officially one of my fav authors right now, I LOVED the way she wrote this book.

When I got to the second half of the book, my enthusiasm got deflated, a third POV is added to the book, Willow’s POV, Willow is Brody’s ex-girlfriend. My heart literally beat faster and my feels got hit again and again; at that point I thought to myself: “holly shit, I’m going to cry so much, I can see it already”. True, I cried, but only a bit, due to other reasons.
I liked how this “love triangle” was dealt with. 50 points to Vi Keeland for how original this was!!!

Also, I feel the need to mention Delilah’s BFF, Indie. Indie is hilarious, I absolutely loved her.

Wait, have I told you how much I LOVED THIS BOOK???

Ana’s Review:

4 Chibis

When Soffy told me I should read The Baller I thought she had gone cray cray once and for all. Yeah, I was wrong. The Baller: A Down and Dirty Football Novel (well, that takes some time to say) is a hilarious book that has its down to earth moments of course but that most of the times will make you have a stupid smile on your face.

One of the things I liked about this book was that I finally read about a guy that although shows his interest in a direct way does not act like an abusing alpha male or jealous freak. We are introduced to a Brody that does not want a relationship, only a good time, but that quickly knows that he really likes Delilah and wants to give a stable relationship a shot. He doesn’t pull her everywhere, doesn’t kiss her when she doesn’t want to. He is always trying to show his good side, doing things that makes her feel special and only makes his move when she makes it extremely clear that she wants to give it a shot as well and in her own terms. I loved the sticks bouquet and the little fish gifts and was positively surprised when he was the first to talk about his past.

Contrary to Soffy’s opinion, I actually liked Willow’s POV. No, I didn’t want Brody’s ex-girlfriend back in the mix and didn’t want to see a love triangle, but that didn’t happen and while I didn’t want her anywhere near Brody, I understood her and felt for her and was happy that she was able to move on as well and will probably have a good future ahead of her.

Oh, and yeah, when are we getting a book dedicated to Indie’s story? Amazing character and wish I could have seen more of her!

Ana’s Book Review: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass (#4)

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Published: September 1st 2015

Summary: “The queen has returned.
Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past . . .
She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.
She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.”

Review

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. OBVIOUSLY.

I’ll only say this once: if you haven’t started reading the Throne of Glass series what are you doing with your life? This series is one of the best out there, it’s life itself and come on, everyone has been raging about it since the first book came out in 2012. Sarah J. Maas has done something beautiful with the series and I am now going through a book comatose: the phenomena in which you finish a book and every single book you pick after that feel like crap and you get the feeling that no one else can write a book as good as the one you’ve just read. This is a shitty phase to go through because you want, you NEED to read something else because of all the feelings you have but nothing satisfies you.

Marta’s Book Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Type: Standalone

Publisher: Orion

Published: April 12th

Summary: “When Eleanor first meets Park, she thinks he’s obnoxious. When Park first meets Eleanor, he thinks she’s weird. It is hate at first sight. But as they suffer each other’s company in silence on the bus rides from and to home every day, Eleanor and Park realise that first impressions can be deceiving.” 

REVIEW

I found out about this book long before it became cool to read. And even though I usually loose interest in what suddenly becomes everybody’s main dish, I admit I belong to the group of people who highly recommend it.

Following my dear Ana’s advice, I decided to give it a go. Eleanor and Park entered my life at a time the hopeless romantic in me wasn’t feeling all that well. I kept postponing its reading forever after Ana told me: “be ready to cry.” Then, I went on holidays with my best friend and kept seeing the greenish-lime cover on every bookshop we visited. Thank you, Fate.

It’s been three months since I made it a regular book at my bedside table. I have fallen in love with the awkward colour of the cover and (almost) every character in it but it took a long time before I could think about the contents without tears rolling down my face.

You know that book you just can’t forget and prevents you from moving on to read other books? This one is it for me – THAT book.

I cried enough tears to fill all oceans on this planet throughout all 325 pages. It had me absolutely hooked from the very first line. “He’d stopped trying to bring her back.” It will become a quote as important and famous as Rose’s in Titanic (“It’s been 84 years…”).

Rowell is blessed. I wish to be as gifted as she is with words. This book is a masterpiece and I couldn’t have asked for a better first reading intro to an author. I loved it so much I’m scared to read Fangirl just thinking about the feels I now know it will give me.

Eleanor is the coolest awkward teen I’ve met so far. She has a loud appearance, loves the best music and reads Park’s comics on the bus ride to school. She’s back to live with her mom and little brothers who are stupidly attached to the man who kicked her out just the year before. The kids from the bus are as excited as wolves with a new prey from the second she steps into the bus and Park suddenly forgets the good manners dear Grandma taught him but she still stands her ground. Good Eleanor tries her best to keep Mom happy, her siblings safe and stay out of her stepdad’s radar so as not to unleash his fury on her loved ones again. She does it all alone even when she finds the real Park. Can I ask for a round of applause, please?

And then we have Park who is not cool or ridiculously handsome or sought after by girls. He’s just a boy who wants to survive school without pissing anyone off by, let’s say, becoming friends with the weird red head who just arrived.

Their connection is so strange and sweet, as all new friendships should be, you won’t be able to forget them. Rowell writes with such a gracious awkwardness to her characters you can’t do anything but relate. Even the stepdad, whose role in the action takes the place of the contemporary villain, somehow manages to warm his way into your heart and make you want to understand what on earth shaped him to be who he is.

From beginning to end, the reader is taken through a rollercoaster of emotions regarding friendship, teen love and the different concepts of family. More than recollecting your own memories about your first love, Rowell asks you to embark on a journey to shape your personality, work on your values and learn how to stand your ground as you enter adulthood and trust those who are around you willing to help.

Some complain about the ending not being enough. I personally find it appropriate. This is a book about life and hope. We don’t know what the future ahead has planned for us neither what is happening at all times in the lives of who we pass by on the street everyday. All we have are our dreams.

5 chibis

Book Review: Every Last Breath by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Every Last Breath by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Series: The Dark Elements (#3)

Publisher: July 28th 2015

Published: Harlequin Teen

Summary: “Some loves will last ’til your dying breath
Every choice has consequences—but seventeen-year-old Layla faces tougher choices than most. Light or darkness. Wickedly sexy demon prince Roth, or Zayne, the gorgeous, protective Warden she never thought could be hers. Hardest of all, Layla has to decide which side of herself to trust.
Layla has a new problem, too. A Lilin—the deadliest of demons—has been unleashed, wreaking havoc on those around her…including her best friend. To keep Sam from a fate much, much worse than death, Layla must strike a deal with the enemy while saving her city—and her race—from destruction.
Torn between two worlds and two different boys, Layla has no certainties, least of all survival, especially when an old bargain comes back to haunt them all. But sometimes, when secrets are everywhere and the truth seems unknowable, you have to listen to your heart, pick a side—and then fight like hell…”

Review

What to say… What to say… This book… Well, it wasn’t that good. We started with an awesome book, got a middle book that was simply bad and now ended this should-have-been-great series with… this. Every Last Breath was way better than Stone Cold Touch but none of the sequels did justice to Hot White Kiss. Also, who decided on the horrible book cover changes? The head of the marketing department should be fired. As such, I am using the Kindle cover edition, which is not great but so much better than the new lame ones.

Every Last Breath picks up right where Stone Cold Touch ended, with the gang fining out that the Lillin was already born and had incorporated Sam’s form for a while now. I’m not here to say the premise isn’t good. It is, oh if it isn’t. I just feel like the author didn’t give a damn about this series… The Wardens, Alphas and even the witches want to catch the Lillin so as to not let Lillith get out of Hell. The story was going to a good place and it ended well. However, we never did find out Layla’s exact abilities and some things don’t get all that well resolved. I felt like I needed more, I just didn’t get what I was expecting from Every Last Breath.

We all knew that Roth would end up with Layla (thank god!) and she fortunately decided to stop leading Zayne on pretty fast in terms of chapters. However, I couldn’t help but be so frustrated at how Zayne handled things. He always seemed like the personification of all things good and now he was just kept reminding me of a proud caveman jock. It was bad guys. And when it all turns out good he doesn’t get the ending he deserved, full closure and all. We just get a speck of what might happen in the future and what I saw didn’t really convince me, Jennifer L. Armentrout didn’t manage sell me that possible story line.

But the worst of it all is what happens to a certain favourite character of everyone, and it’s obvious I’m talking about Bambi. This is the part that most baffled me because I just didn’t understand the point of this at all. It was a senseless and illogical decision of the author to make this happen. Why did Roth had to give up Bambi to the witches all of a sudden? I see that this demonstrates Roth’s love for Layla and the measure of what he would do for her but it freaking doesn’t make sense. It was stupid and in my most honest opinion a bad decision from the author. It was unnecessary and doesn’t bring anything new to the plot.

I’m not really going to say anything more because in all that is truth I don’t have many things to say about this book except shake my head at it. I was expecting so much more and the best part was the beginning with Thumper’s appearance (the character that should have appeared more but only made its great entrance once in the first chapters *sigh*).

2.5 Chibis

Sofyy’s Book Review: The Taking by Kimberly Derting

The Taking by Kimberly Derting

Series: The Taking (#1)

Published: 29th April 2014

Publisher: HarperTeen

Goodreads: “A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing.

When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day.

Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men.

Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?”

Review:

Kimberly Derting didn’t disappoint. As a huge fan of her other book series -The Body Finder, I was  expecting great things from The Taking. When I heard that this baby existed all I could think of was “Kimberly Derting”; “aliens”; “hot book bf” and “sign me up”.

I immediately ordered The Taking (hardcover version), because obviously I don’t joke around. I take my shit seriously. And by shit I mean the “book reading business”.

The Taking is about a 16-year-old girl, Kyra, who is mysteriously kidnapped in a white flash of light, only to return 5 years later. However, when she comes back she has no recollection of those five years, as a matter in fact, when she is Returned she is still wearing her softball uniform, with the same bruise of her shin from 5 years ago.

When Kyra gets to her house she finds out that her parents got divorced, her mother has another family, her boyfriend is dating her best-friend, and her father is a loser who is totally and completely obsessed with aliens.

Kyra finds herself being drawn to Austin’s (her ex-boyfriend) younger brother, who is now a 17-year-old hottie. But as their relationship develops, Kyra notices she’s being stalked by a guy with weird eyes and a men-in-black wannabe.

Soon Kyra discovers that she didn’t come back the same person.

-Add evil laugh here-

SPOILERS:

• I really didn’t like the way her Return was dealt with, especially when she sees Tyler, Austin’s younger brother. For her, it was if she had been dating Austin just the day before, and then she sees Tyler, all grown-up, and she’s suddenly in love? I don’t like insta-love, it’s annoying, unrealistic and superficial. You just don’t forget your boyfriend from one day to another.
• If I’m ever kidnapped by aliens and returned to my home the first thing I’m gonna do is check if my blood is contagious to anybody. And if yes I have world domination to plan.
• When Kyra meets the other Returned people and goes to their secret camp I felt like I was revisiting the Half-Blood camp from Percy Jackson. I love secret camps, they’re so… secretive. (I’m feeling extra-smart today).
• I’m not sure whether I like Tyler or not. Perhaps on the second volume he will grow on me. If he Returns, that is.

• I hope that when/if Tyler Returns he has super cool powers like invisibility and x-ray vision (I’ve always wanted to have that. I wish I was kidnapped by aliens; I would put good use to my new powers. –Like planning world domination).

All in all, you should read this book if you are an Alien lover (I know I am). If not, you might still like it.

4 Chibis

Ana’s book review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Series: Red Queen (#1)

Published: February 10th 2015

Publisher: Orion

Summary: “The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.
To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.
Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of
those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.
But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?”

Review

This book had so much buzz going on about it that I didn’t resist reading it. As I’ve said several times before I’m not a huge fan of dystopian novels but it seems that I have a trend going: I keep on picking up books set in a dystopian world. Fortunately, I actually quite enjoyed Red Queen. It wasn’t perfection but it was highly enjoyable and I am certainly looking forward to reading the much awaited sequel, Glass Sword.

First of all I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t get certain vibes from another books in Red Queen. Many people have said that the premise is the same of Red Rising by Pierce Brown but since I have never read that book and I can’t make a comparison and say if that is true or not. I can say, however, that I thought obvious the influence of The Selection by Kiera Cass in the making of this book. Now, I didn’t love The Selection and only read it because I wanted to see where it was going (and didn’t end up finishing the series and most probably won’t pick up the 3rd, 4th and so on, if they happen, ever). Despite this, I felt like the competition between the Silver girls to marry the princes was better conceived and the fact that the competition wasn’t the whole plot and only made up 10% of the book and it was right in the beginning made me more favourable towards the future premise which would undoubtedly have much to offer. I wasn’t wrong on that part and while I thought that some parts could have been more carefully planned or structured, I believe Red Queen is a great beginning to what will be an action packed, albeit with hopefully a good romance, series.

Unlike many books that have been coming out for some time now, Red Queen does an excellent job with its world building. I’ve read some books in which authors introduce the readers to a new world with no explanation of how it was formed or how it works at all and when things happen they do so without justification: oh a person has powers now, awesome, it comes out of nowhere but who cares. Red Queen has left many questions unanswered but I know that all my curiosity will be satisfied in the next installments.

Also, Victoria Aveyard will mess with your head. I wouldn’t be completely honest if I didn’t suspect that something wasn’t right with all of Mare’s plans going right and I had a suspition of what was going to happen but I wasn’t expecting that ending. I want to know more about what is going to happen to Mare and Cal and the revolution and you can’t bet that I will be getting my hands on Glass Sword as soon as it is released.

4 Chibis

Book Review: The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski

The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski

Series: The Winner’s Trilogy (#2)

Release date: March 12th 2015

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ)

Summary: “Lady Kestrel’s engagement to Valoria’s crown prince calls for great celebration: balls and performances, fireworks and revelry. But to Kestrel it means a cage of her own making. Embedded in the imperial court as a spy, she lives and breathes deceit and cannot confide in the one person she really longs to trust …
While Arin fights to keep his country’s freedom from the hands of his enemy, he suspects that Kestrel knows more than she shows. As Kestrel comes closer to uncovering a shocking secret, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth.
Lies will come undone, and Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them in this second book in the breathtaking Winner’s trilogy.”

Review

The Winner’s Crime is not what it seems to be, it’s much more. It’s a an intricate and well thought plot that will catch you in its spider’s web and you won’t even see it coming. The ending of The Winner’s Curse left us all hanging and wanting more. I bet no one expected Krestel to decide to marry the emperor’s son in exchange of freeing Herran as an independent country (although it would still be under the control of the empire, Arin would be made governor and all those politics). I’ll be keeping this review short so as to avoid giving out spoilers.

We were left with an angry and frustrated Arin, who had to watch his loved one bear the mark of the royal engagement, and a resigned but not in the least less smart and badass Krestel, who had sacrificed her love for a better life for Arin and the Herrani people. However, things don’t go exactly according to the plan and Krestel sees herself in a world of conspiracies and politics that even her can’t compete in. The emperor’s cunning plans and his network of people will turn Krestel’s life into a game where she never knows what the right move to make is. The conversations between Krestel and the emperor reminded me of a predator chasing its prey. Beautiful dialogue.

We get to understand Krestel’s surroundings and new life right at the beginning of the book. Krestel and the emperor are having a talk and you can see that everything that the emperor does has a meaning behind it or an ulterior motive. I loved how Arin and Krestel’s vulnerability became apparent throughout the book. It showed that no one can be perfect and things sometimes don’t go according to the plan.

Now, the relationship between Krestel and Arin killed me. Why? Probably because there was none except for when Arin had to go to the palace to the engagement party or by the end. And don’t get me started on that. My heart ached, it throbbed. I was wide-eyed in the middle of the subway because I just wanted to scream at Arin for his incredible bad timing and sense of opportunity. And then… AND THEN. We have Krestel in an unthinkable position! Marie Rutkoski has ended a book like many wouldn’t, she defied the “let the reader be happy” unspoken law: she broke my heart but in a beautiful and brilliant way. I never anticipated that last chapter and couldn’t have asked for more. It was pure perfection and it made up for some of the slow parts of the book.

*ARC received by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

4.5 Chibis