The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
RATING: 4 Stars
SERIES: The Winner's Trilogy #1
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury
RELEASE DATE: 3rd July 2014
Winning what you want may cost you everything you love
As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.
One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.
But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.
Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.
As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.
One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.
But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.
Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.
The Winner's Curse follows Kestrel, the General's daughter and her unusual decision to buy a slave for a ridiculous price. The story is set in a land which used to belong to the Herrani but since has been taken over by the war loving Valorians who now use the Herrani as their slaves. Kestrel purchases a young Herrani slave and has a very unusual relationship with him to the suspicion of the Valorian society. This novel is full of balls, duels and war strategies, combining many elements of fantatsy, dystopia and historical fiction.
I thought the first few chapters started off a bit slow with the author taking a long time to explain events with much needless detail. However, as the story progressed and the world was described more - I became extremely intrigued. I will admit that building of the setting is mainly based around the country's past and history rather than the present and I think this constant feed of historical knowledge kept me more interested than the plot. The book wasn't necessarily fast paced as I felt at times that after reading one chapter I would have to put the book down to digest all the new information that was just provided. However, after about 3/4 of the way through, I became absolutely hooked and couldn't place the book down.
The character building in this book was great. I believe the author created their personalities really well not through the dialogue but through their actions. The little mannerisms and movements of each character revealed tiny details which came together to make well built and likable characters.
The ending of the book was not a shock as the author makes clear from near the beginning that this is going to happen - this still doesn't mean it had twists and turns. The plans that the characters were making changed every page due to a setback and I think this is what really made it gripping; the fact that you are aware that there are millions of possible outcomes and you want to find out which one it is. I very much liked the elements of war strategy in this book as it added another depth to the plot and left you wondering what the best move is.
The very end was quite satisfying and I would be happy enough to just read it as a standalone without feeling the need to finish the trilogy. There is definitely room to write more books and I would love to know more about the characters and world but I think this ending was great with it not being the perfect 'lived happily ever after' but not the current cliche of killing a character off.
Overall, an action packed novel which skillfully combines many genres and can be read in the trilogy or possibly on its own. Great characters but sometimes slow and heavy at points.
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