The Winner's Kiss (The Winner's Trilogy #3) - Marie Rutkoski [Review]

Book: The Winner's Kiss

Author: Marie Rutkoski

Published: 29th March 2016

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Source: eARC provided by publisher via NetGalley

Pages: 496

Rating: 5/5 stars

The last in the Winner's trilogy of books, I was well and truly zazzed for this book (I know, who says zazzed anymore?) - but seriously, I was freakin' excited. 

However, I was slightly cautious because, as I had loved the first two books, I didn't want to be disappointed - so it's fair to say I had high hopes. 

Having now finished this book, it brings me so much joy to say this is THE BEST of the series. Hands down. Seriously, go read the series just for this final book. 

Firstly, for fans of Arin and Kestrel, you can be satisfied that they spend a good portion of this book together, and there's no love triangles or anything like that. Their relationship is played out nicely throughout the book and left me feeling content when I had finished (trying not to give too much away). I think fans will be happy with their story development.

Kestrel is very likable in this book and I was really interested to see how her character developed after the initial events at the start of this book. She has been through A LOT (I mean, girl has had some trials) and she's definitely had a rough go of it, and her character really grows and changes a lot in this book, which I appreciated a lot. 

The sections of the book that focus on Arin are super interesting, and his story-line is very engaging and his character is given a lot more depth in this book, which makes his decisions and actions far more believable. I couldn't predict where his story was going, which I personally enjoyed. 

Rutkoski brings such a poetry to her writing, it truly is a pleasure to read and I wish I could start all over again and read the series for the first time. 

The plot is very engaging and action-packed (with some nice moments for reflection, too) which left me frantically reading through the pages as, boy, I was gripped. Definitely some edge of the seat moments too. 

Ultimately, I am thrilled with how the series has finished, and I would love more stories with some of the secondary characters (and some of my personal faves) like Roshar, or Risha, and I feel like there could definitely be more to find out about the Dacran Queen too. 

So if you're wondering whether to pick up this book, I would thoroughly recommend it, and if you've never started the series (why??) then definitely get cracking, they make a wonderfully written and thoughtful trilogy.