Josiane Claremont's Reviews > The Winner's Kiss

Right so...I don't think I can actually remember a lot of what happened in this book. It's a lot of atmospheric description, and then the 2 most important things happen and the resulting fallout. But hey, somehow everyone's getting a happy ending.


Kestrel, betrayed by her father, is sent to the work camp in the northern tundra while Arin successfully forges an alliance with Dacra. The united Herrani-Dacran army skirmishes with the Valorian forces headed by General Trajan, though Arin does his best to forget about Kestrel and how she hurt him. Kestrel, clever girl, managers to send a sign of her presence to Arin and hangs onto hope that he'll come save her as the mines drag her consciousness down to oblivion.


Not even going to try to synopsize the whole book because predictably, it's about fighting with the Valorian empire. Sudden thought: how unrealistic and totally YA is it for only Kestrel to defect to the Herrani-Dacran alliance, when there should and could be plenty more Valorian defectors? And what about Herrani defectors? Low-lifes like Cheat who might have had satisfactory winnings from coming up roses with the Valorian conquest, or like the employment and place to sleep as a slave when they might not have had a place in society as a Herrani vagabond?

Back to the point: it's war. War, strategy, slow-burn wanting and rediscovering...Kestrel. We're rediscovering Kestrel fresh after her betrayal and imprisonment and enslavement and "seeing how it changed her" by (view spoiler)[giving her freaking AMNESIA like a soap opera. And then a long time for Kestrel to "learn from her mistakes" as that noble lady, logically making her have to grow up and take up a weapon to defend herself and her beliefs, and totally and utterly rebel against her father. (hide spoiler)] thereby adding more...length and...discovery?...of how much Arin loves her and misses her and realizes he needs to not be so...gullible? I'm receiving mixed messages about how these two are developing.

Hey though, we like Roshar, we like Verex, we kind of like Risha, definitely like Sarsine, and Trajan is complicated (view spoiler)[but is he really? Considering his response to his daughter finally indirectly saying "no" to him in a love letter he stole off a dead spymaster, is to turn her over to his "buddy" the emperor and "didn't expect it to totally destroy what he loved." (hide spoiler)]

I think I'm getting to negative. This book SCREAMS YA like there's no tomorrow. If I was younger I'd probably be totally in love. As I am right now, I'm just amused. And full disclosure, my favorite part of the book is when Kestrel was in the mines. It gives "Celaena Sardothien's been sent to Endovier!" vibes.