The Winner's Kiss

War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it, with untrustworthy new allies and the empire as his enemy. He has finally managed to dismiss the memory of Kestrel, even if he can't quite forget her — because as far as he knows, she turned into someone he no longer recognised: someone who cared more for the empire than for the lives of innocent people, and certainly more than she cared for him.

Far to the north lies a work camp, and Kestrel is a prisoner in it. Whether she can escape before she loses herself is a genuinely open question — the camp is designed to take a person apart, and it is very good at it.

As the war widens, both of them find unexpected roles in the fighting, uncover secrets that should have stayed buried, and are handed a hope so fragile neither trusts it. Marie Rutkoski's conclusion is the most brutal book of the three and the most generous: it spends its length making its two protagonists earn their way back to each other, and it does not pretend the cost was small.