The Winner's curse by Marie Ruthkoski

The Winner's Curse 

By: Marie Ruthkoski

The Winner's Curse by Marie Ruthkoski

355 pages

Mad: Likes; It was a super intense read. Slavery and murder plots, evil guys, cool heroines named after birds and a fiiiiiiine love interest. And that ending.... O.O WELL then...

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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. (Goodreads)

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Reviewed by Mad <3

Okay coming into this book I reeeeeeeeealy wanted to hate it because of Kestrel's name. Not because I hate it, the opposite in fact. I write stories and I could not find a good name for my MC for FOREVER so I looked on baby name sites and looked up translations of words in other languages and looked at animal names that could be used as names. After very extensive research I decided to do a bird name and found KESTREL! It was PERFECT for my character and I was so proud of myself because it's not a real name so OBVIOUSLY no other main character would have it. and then SHE COMES ALONG AND HAS THE SAME NAME! 

But I most certainly did not hate it. It was too dang good. (to my utter dismay)

I am obsessed with the idea of slaves in YA novels so I just couldn't resist this book. I wish she would've gone a little more into the slavery system of her world though. 

Kestrel was an amazing character even if she did steal my name. I kinda love and kinda hate that she didn't have kick butt ninja skills like most female heroines in the the YA genre. But she was kick butt in so many other ways, she was stronger in mind than body and  I found that really unique and refreshing. 

Arin is a lovely love interest. I found myself  adoring him or wanting to hate him right along with Kestrel He may not be in the category I classify as 'sexy beast' but I feel like he might obtain that coveted position sometime throughout the coming books in this series, because he's pretttttty dang close to it. Quiet and broody? check. Silent inner passion? check. Nice to look at? (wellllll figuratively speaking anyways.... *grins*) check. Kick butt battle skills? check. Need to protect his lovey? check. Yep. Very close to being sexy beast. 

I loved the world she created. It was so.... real. I especially loved the way she created her villains. Not just one villain who dies and then magically reappears over and over again as the plot demands. No, I really liked how her villains act the way they do in real life, they act with an actual purpose and  even when she finally takes care of one there's another one lurking around the corner.

And the FEELS. Oh my goodness! I felt myself constantly having to fight back tears. Their lives and relationships go through so much in this book and instead of those sappy, happy lets-go-lie-in-a-meadow-and-run-our-fingers-over-each-other's-lips scene's there's "Is he/she dead? I really hope not, because I love them and am going to spend my life and death in misery if he/she died hating me." scenes.

So yep. I pretty much loved this book. Not the best book I ever read but, very, VERY good. If you don't like cliff hangers you'll probably have a problem with this book though.