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Book Review: The Winner’s Kiss by Maire Rutkoski

Mar 21, 2016

The Winner’s Kiss by Maire Rutkoski

Pages: 496
Publish date: 24 March 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens
ISBN: 1408858746
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

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?

The Winners Kiss:

This review will have spoilers from the previous novels in the trilogy.

Bloomsbury Children’s sent me an e-arc of The Winner’s Kiss via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review, this has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I loved the first two books in this trilogy – I adored them. I was intrigued by the world, by the characters, I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I read both The Winner’s Curse and The Winner’s Crime in a day each and it was no different when I read The Winner’s Kiss.

The Winner’s Kiss was action packed, emotional and also kept me on my feet. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, it was full of blood, secrets and revenge. If Kestrel and Arin will ever see each other again? If they will ever come back together?

The Winner’s Kiss starts off no far from where it finished in The Winners Crime. Kestrel is being held prisoner in a brutal work camp. When the book start she is just arriving at is not prepared for what is in stall for her. She is hoping that Arin will come and save her, but as the days go on and on her hope lingers.

The work camp scenes were very hard to read at times. I just wanted to hold Kestrel in my arms. Her whole life she hasn’t had to deal with things like this and now she is doing them herself. She is being drugged so that she works hour after hour and it’s tearing her apart. She is being mentally and physically tortured.

One of the hardest things about these scenes throughout the book was that I knew that her father was responsible for this. Her own father put her there.

Arin is not physically being tortured, but he is mentally. He thinks that Kestrel has betrayed him, she cared more about the empire than him. He is trying to convince himself that he no longer loves her, that he no longer cares. But we can see right through it and all we want to do is hug him nice and tight.

This might be a spoiler here, but we cannot go nearly 500 pages of a novel and Kestrel still be in the prison. She does escape with the help of a special someone. But she has changed and this broke my heart.

There were countless twists and turns throughout The Winner’s Kiss that I didn’t know when anyone was going to be safe, I couldn’t know till the last page.

The Winner’s Kiss is much darker than the previous novels. Both protagonists have gone through so much and they have both been hurt. Arin is swoon worthy and gorgeous, but he has been hurt and he doesn’t trust anyone. Kestrel is broken, but her love is what gets her through it all.

The writing of Marie Rutkoski is exquisite, it just takes you write into the story and you are lifted into another world. The world building in these books is also taken to another level.

The Winner’s Kiss has everything; romance, friendship, battles, and heaps of banter that helped realise the tension, and it was brilliant.

One thing that I have loved about this series from the start is the strategies. It is about, okay let’s fight. It’s well thought out, well planned and very interesting to read.

The romance in The Winner’s Kiss just broke my heart. I adore Kestrel and Arin together, from the start they captured my heart. Throughout The Winner’s Kiss they are tested, they are broken, they are torn apart, and they are pulled in many different directions.

I could go on and on, about how I feel about The Winner’s Kiss, but I finish with, The Winner’s Kiss was a near perfect ending to a brilliant series that blew my expectations. It deals with many things from politics, religion, war, and love. It takes you’re a journey that you near want to stop.

The Winner’s Kiss is about love, betrayal, friendship and what would people do to do for their empire. The Winner’s Kiss takes you on a journey like no other, it captures your heart, but wreaks your emotions, and it will break you and put you together over and over again until the last page.

Have you read The Winner’s Kiss? Are you going to read it? Are you excited?

Book Review: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Feb 1, 2016

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Pages: 400
Publish date: 4 February 2016
Publisher: Puffin
ISBN: 9780141347400
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

In 1945, World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia, and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, almost all of them with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer toward safety.

Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people aboard must fight for the same thing: survival.

Salt to the Sea:

I received an e-arc of Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys from Puffin via NetGalley. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

Everyone has to read Salt to the Sea. And if you are not prepared to cry – then don’t bother reading.

When I started this novel I wasn’t expecting to love it. At first it was really hard grasp because there is 3 protagonists and with the e-arc I had they weren’t on separate pages so when the chapter changed therefor a different perspective it was hard to remember who was who. However, after I had the grasp of the characters this novel was magical.

Salt to the Sea set in 1945 in Germany, tells the journey of protagonists; Joana, Emilia and Florian whos lives cross paths on their way to the ill-fated Wilhelm Gustloff. They are forced to unite. They find strength, courage and trust in both themselves and one another. They are tested even when they think they are safe.

And when they think that they finally have freedom – the worst happens and they have to fight for their lives again with ten thousand other people. There are so many characters in Salt to the Sea and every one of them has a story to tell.

What a sorry group we were, brutalized and bandaged, yet luckier then most.

Joana a nurse that had been given a pass into Germany now flees to find her way back home, holds a secret that is tearing her apart inside.

Emilia, a girl in a pink hate holds something that will bring light into the world that was brought by darkness.

Florian an artist with a fever and a shrapnel injury that needs to be fixed holds something deep in his shoe.

I loved all three protagonists. I loved their story, finding out how they got to where they are and where they want to be. They were all written beautifully and their character arcs where really fantastic. The reader is able to see them all grow and become brave and strong.

The fear never disappeared but with each year it retreated slightly, a tide of memory sliding back out to sea.

I loved how the first few chapters started with —- is a hunter. It was a brilliant way of starting them and then bringing it all together with the last couple of chapters having the same line in it.

I cried during Salt to the Sea. I am not going to lie. Multiple times. It’s a book that centres around war.

The writing though is so beautiful, I was captivating from the first moment. It pulls you in and you cannot stop reading once you start. Each like forms into another and you are finished in the blink of an eye. I haven’t read any of Ruta Sepetys other books but as from now they are on my tbr.

My war had been so long, my winters so cold. But I had finally made it home. And for the first time in a long time, I was not afriad.

You could tell by the writing and the story that a lot of research went into it. It doesn’t have fact, after fact but people, things that happened even to the littlest detail was based on fact. It was really interesting to someone like me who is a massive history buff and I was picking things here or there or typing them into google. It gave this novel more depth.

Beautiful, captivating, extraordinary. Salt to the Sea is a gorgeous novel that brings to light a catastrophe that seems to be forgotten. With stunning writing and intriguing characters Ruta Sepetys brings a novel that tells a story that everyone needs to read.

Book Review: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

Oct 3, 2015

Magnus Chase and The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

Pages: 528
Publish date: October 6th 2015
Publisher: Penguin Australia
ISBN: 0141342420
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Magnus Chase has always been a troubled kid. Since his mother’s mysterious death, he’s lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits, keeping one step ahead of the police and the truant officers.
One day, he’s tracked down by an uncle he’s never met—a man his mother claimed was dangerous. His uncle tells him an impossible secret: Magnus is the son of a Norse god. The Viking myths are true. The gods of Asgard are preparing for war.
Trolls, giants and worse monsters are stirring for doomsday. To prevent Ragnarok, Magnus must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years. When an attack by fire giants forces him to choose between his own safety and the lives of hundreds of innocents, Magnus makes a fatal decision. Sometimes, the only way to start a new life is to die . . .

The Sword of Summer:

I received an advance copy of The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan from Penguin Australia in exchange for a review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts about the book.

I cannot explain my feelings when this showed up at my PO Box. I got home late from University and there is was sitting on the table. I ended up hugging the book around the house for the next hour. Yes I said, hugging. And then I started to read it right away and I wasn’t disappointed.

Rick Riordan is a genius. He knows how to write a fun, exciting and engaging novel that keeps you reading and reading.

“You missed a pedestrian,” I said. “You want to go back and hit her?”

I’m a massive fan of mythology. I studied it in high school, I am doing a class on it at university and I have grown up with it. So it’s something that I hold dearly to my heart and I love reading retellings or books based on myths. The thing is, I don’t know too much on Norse Mythology – so I was happy that I start getting into it.

The Sword of Summer reads much like his other novels, in a sense that it reads for Middle graders, however anyone can read it. And come on all the main characters are just so loveable.

Magnus Chase; man I love him. He is quite similar to Percy in a sense, but much more sarcastic. He had off my seat laughing, I couldn’t read it late at night because I was going to wake up my siblings for all the laughing. A lot of the time he was funny and sarcastic and brilliant, then again at times he broke my heart. I am an emotional person so most of you won’t tear up, I just cry at everything. In saying that Rick Riordan was able to balance the two well and not have it too heavily funny. It would have made it unrealistic because of the events that happen before and during the novel.

“Then why don’t you just say A.D.?”

“Because Anno Domini, in the Year of Our Lord, is fine for Christian, but Thor gets a little upset. He still holds a grudge that Jesus never showed up for the duel he challenged him too.”

There is something about Rick Riordan characters that I just love. He is able to write characters that you just want to read about. That you want to know more about. That keeps the story going.

The plot of The Sword of Summer like other Riordan novels are quite similar. There is a boy, he turns out he is special, people are after him and so on. It’s the hero story and it might sound the same as other books, but there is something about Riordan’s writing like his characters that are unique and is intriguing.

I also really adored The Sword of Summer because of the diversity in characters. And it shows that not only contemporary novels have diversity, nevertheless fantasy can have it too.

The writing style is easy to read, however it does use a good deal of Norse mythology references and names. If you don’t have some knowledge with how to say these words and worlds, you might stumble a bit.

The Sword of Summer takes you on an adventure. That you can’t help, but keep on reading. I also love Riordan’s play on Norse mythology and the Norse Gods. They had me laughing at 1 am.

Not only was the words of book funny, sarcastic and brilliant but the chapter headings – holy – they are the most amazing chapter headings in the world.

There is also surprise visitors that made me squeal and it looks like some might make some appearances in the rest of the series.

The Sword of Summer is a book that takes you on a journey of laughs, heartache and fun. Rick Riordan doesn’t fail in his newest novel that any new and old fan will love.

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