From Goodreads: 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.
My Rating: Definitely higher than 3.5 hearts but not quite 4 hearts
Thoughts
on the Novel: The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski was a book that I
initially had no plans to read. After seeing all the positive reviews for it
though, I changed my mind for two reasons: 1) it was a fantasy and 2) the
romance was deemed not to be an insta-love one.
Although I can’t say that The Winner’s
Curse blew my mind, I did like it a lot. The worldbuilding was pretty solid;
and while I had a bit of trouble visually conceptualizing how Rutkoski’s world
would be arranged on a map, it wasn’t too difficult to imagine the
setting because Rutkoski takes her time immersing you into her world.
What I didn’t enjoy as much was the
romance. Yes, it was slow-paced and set up in such a way that you could
logically understand why Arin and Kestrel would fall for each other, but the actual writing of the novel made their
feelings sort of appear out of the blue. Also, considering that Kestrel and
Arin don’t have a long history with each other, it was mystifying to me how
Kestrel could still be attracted to Arin after what he did to her friends and
townspeople.
As individual characters, I liked
Arin and Kestrel much better. Right from the start, I had a feeling that there
was more to Arin than met the eye, but I would have never guessed what he was
up to! Kestrel, unfortunately, wasn’t as interesting as Arin because she seemed rather content with her life of attending parties and engaging in gossip. However, she does occasionally show that she isn’t entirely
comfortable with the way her society functions. I just wish that she had been
more vocal with her opinions.
The Winner’s Curse was released in March
2014 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
