Pivot Book Reviews: #TheWinnersTrilogy Read-along & Giveaway: The Winner's Crime

Hey lovelies! Today, we kick off the second week of the Read-along for The Winner's Crime! YAY! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this post for all the deets and a super epic giveaway, which is also posted at the bottom of this post too!) I'll be discussing the ONLY chapters 11-20 of The Winner's Crime, and my thoughts. If you haven't started reading with us yet, don't worry! There's still plenty of time to catch up, so pick up your copy of The Winner's Crime and start devouring the next installment of Kestrel and Arin's story!

Another WARNING because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone..... If you have NOT read THE WINNER'S CURSE, then read NO further!!

Favorite Quote from Chapters 11-20:

"What else might she have gotten wrong? Her pulse sped with fear of herself, fear of her choices, her certainty. Kestrel's heartbeats flew, one right against the other, like flipped pages of a book."

My Thoughts on Chapters 11-20:

Dearest The Winner's Crime (Part Two),

I think this week's chapters were some of the hardest for me to read. I read most of them with tears in my eyes, with my heart shattering with each word. But your author, Marie Rutkoski, knows how to break my heart in such a lyrical way, winding beautiful words into such gorgeous quotes. Each week proves harder and harder for me to choose a favorite quote, because if I'm completely honest, every sentence is practically a favorite quote of mine.

Chapter Eleven starts off with Kestrel in the library with Arin, where a heartbreaking conversation ensues. My poor Arin. He wants to understand what happened/went wrong between them so bad, and yet Kestrel refuses to budge and just talk about it. Her lips are sealed on the subject. Next, we have Kestrel finally deciding to be Tensen's Moth, i.e. a spy for the Herrani, which is so awesome. Kestrel can't stay away from helping, and sleuthing around. Her idea on how to tell Tensen she needs to talk, with the moths is so freakin' clever, and I just can't get over how awesome it is!!!! Arin does some sleuthing of his own in trying to find out what exactly Kestrel has been up to, and ends up getting himself into a little pickle, or rather his face in a pickle. MY POOR ARIN. Yes, these chapters were horrible for Arin. He goes through so much. And then fate brings Arin & Kestrel together again for a brief time, and then it all gets ruined because of a misunderstanding, and Arin finds out that Kestrel was the one behind the idea of poisoning the East's horses. (Wow, that was a lot of And's). *sad pouty face*

My heart is an empty void at the moment. I don't know how I can survive the next week without pushing ahead with your chapters, The Winner's Crime. Your author knows how to keep me, and everyone else, desperate for more, and also how to kill us all slowly inside.

Weeping myself to sleep tonight,

Becca

ABOUT THE BOOKS

GoodReads † Amazon † B&N

As a general's daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin's eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him'with unexpected consequences. It's not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner's Curse is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

Amazon † B&N † GoodReads

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.