The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski

Sometimes a book is awesome.  Rarely, however, is the sequel better than the first.  This is that magical unicorn.  I LOVED this book.  It is everything I love in a fantasy and as I was reading it, I knew I was falling even more in love with Marie Rutkoski's writing.  It is magical in a way that requires no actual magic.  The history and detail she adds into each setting makes them totally realistic and very believable.  Her characters are human in a way that any teenager (or adult) could find themselves in them.  Kestrel is flawed but in a perfect way that, as the reader, you feel like you ARE her.  And the interactions between Arin and Kestrel are so painfully, achingly real, I just cant even (THE FEELS, ALL THE FEELS).  I cannot wait to read the third installment.  I would read all the installments, any installments, Marie Rutkoski's grocery list (seriously, what do you think Arin eats for breakfast).

Final Recommendations: read this series immediately, if you like powerful, flawed heroines, swoony romance, games of chance or skill, fantastic settings, courtly antics, daddy issues, evil emperors