My Reaction in a Nutshell: 
 Still good, but not quite as good as The Winner's Curse. 
 The Long Version: 
 Okay, this was 3.5/5 stars because of that ending. 
 In the previous book, I liked how cunning Kestrel was. I liked how although her and Arin had sparks, neither really spent much time pining for each other, because each was busying do more important things. In this book...not so much. 
 If you broke the book into thirds, it would like something like this: 
 PART ONE: Wedding approaches. Lots of dessert (seriously, dessert is mentioned a lot in this book). Apparently the Emperor speaks with his eyes. And dessert. But mostly with his eyes. A lot. Also: will Arin and Kestrel see each other? Who knows. Arin seems dead set on political suicide. Kestrel seems dead set on drinking chocolate. 
 PART TWO: Let's watch our two costars spend the next 100 pages pining for each other and avoiding telling the truth (because that worked out so well in the first book). Bonus: both characters lose any and all common sense. They also turn into adrenaline junkies. If this book took place in our world, I imagine the two would love bungee jumping or sky diving or walking down dark allies by themselves (oh wait, they do, well, the dark allies part at least). Anything to get the ole heart pumping. 
 PART THREE: Quick! Let's add some angst, hallucinations reminiscent of New Moon days, more dessert, and dogs to try and distract readers from the fact that the two are still pining for each other. 
 Truthfully, the entire middle third of this book frustrated me. Secret keeping was important in the first book (obviously), but annoying in this book. Very, very annoying. I did like this book, but the first book was better. However, in trilogies, I usually find the middle book to be its weakest link. 
 All that being said, Kestrel is still terrifying: 
 "Do you promise?" 
 "Would you trust me to keep that promise?" 
 "I trust my ability to ruin you if you don't." 
 Yeah, I wouldn't want to cross her. 
 There is this one part on page 228 that says "He left winter behind..." and I immediately thought of the song called Heart Beats by Hey Marseilles (lyrics here). The lyrics actually fit in really well with the theme of this book. 
 Fr example: 
 Your heart beats for another day 
 I still believe you love me but in a different way 
 The night falls, the city lay asleep 
 Among the crowds, we both know you're my only dream 
 Plus, it's a really good song, so I highly recommend you all give it a listen. 
 Despite the middle part being a bit boring/annoying/what I expected from the first book (not in this one), I finished The Winner's Crime in a day. It's been a while still I have finished a book in a day. So even in it's most boring parts, it was still entertaining. I also liked the addition of Arin's backstory. 
 Truthfully the ending made all of the middle boring stuff worthwhile: (view spoiler)[this is a serious spoiler, like a brb cryin spoiler. Read at your own risk: (view spoiler)["Kestrel," he said, "you have broken my heart." (hide spoiler)] Yup. Still crying. (hide spoiler)] 
 I am very, very eager to start reading The Winner's Kiss. 
 Side note: still disappointed that Arin isn't a wizard. I really would have liked this to have happened. 
 A girl can dream. 
 ***TRIGGER WARNINGS: implied R in ancient story, mentions of suicide, terminal illness, war, death