Review - "The Winner's Kiss"

The Winner's Kiss, The Winner's Trilogy #3
by Marie Rutkoski
rating:☆☆☆☆☆
published: 24th March 2016
spoilers? no

Goodreads

He told himself a story. Not at first. At first, there wasn’t time for thoughts that came in the shape of words. His head was blessedly empty of stories then. War was coming. It was upon him. Arin had been born in the year of the god of death, and he was finally glad of it. He surrendered himself to his god, who smiled and came close. Stories will get you killed, he murmured in Arin’s ear. Now, you just listen. Listen to me.

The problem with trilogies I often find is that the first book is good (just good enough to get you interested while also building up the world), the second book is amazing (the stakes get raised and everyone's in danger and you just want to scream because there's so much tension), and then the third book is a let down (partly because of how good the second book, partly because if the second book goes too extreme with the stakes then there's no way it can get resolved in one book). The Winner's Trilogy is one of the few trilogies I've read that doesn't suffer from this.

It's been a week since I finished The Winner's Kiss and I'm still no closer to being able to articulate my thoughts on it. It was a fitting ending to the series - if a slightly less painful one than I thought it might be. That's not to say it didn't tear my heart out because it did. It just was a little kinder about it than The Winner's Crime was. I envy the people who are only just starting this series now book three is out.

As in the previous two books, Marie Rutkoski's writing is gorgeous. I think, in terms of writing alone, The Winner's Trilogy would rank as one of my favourite series ever. And then bringing into the equation the characters means that this series is probably in my top five favourites (and I have a lot of favourite series). I don't know how to put into words how much I adore the characters (even as they frustrate me no end, especially Arin, I mean, really).

I don't know how to write any more of this review without spoiling the plot (just gotta say: it's such a good one, and that ending!!), so I'm going to leave it here. It's an amazing ending to an amazing series, and I will be recommending it to everyone for the rest of my life.