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The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy, #1)

Marie Rutkoski

Start date: November 1, 2015

Finish date: November 30, 2015

Discussion: Series

Why we're reading this: Won the poll for the series BOTM
[close] Won the poll for the series BOTM

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What Members Thought

May 04, 2021 Colleen Scidmore rated it liked it

Shelves: drama, love-triangle, part-of-a-series, young-adult, romance, 2021-reads, currently-on-my-bookshelf, fantasy, dystopia, not-a-happy-ending-kind-of-book

I think I may have a very unpopular opinion and I feel bad for feeling this way because I was gifted this book by a very good friend on Booksta! And I salivated over this on Goodreads for so long just loving the synopsis and the beautiful cover. But I just did not enjoy this book all that much. 🙈⁣⁣⁣
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Kestrel is a Valorian, a group of people that conquered the Herrani and stole their land as well as made them their slaves. Kestrel bought Arin on a whim which is 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 her because she is sympathe I think I may have a very unpopular opinion and I feel bad for feeling this way because I was gifted this book by a very good friend on Booksta! And I salivated over this on Goodreads for so long just loving the synopsis and the beautiful cover. But I just did not enjoy this book all that much. 🙈⁣⁣⁣
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Kestrel is a Valorian, a group of people that conquered the Herrani and stole their land as well as made them their slaves. Kestrel bought Arin on a whim which is 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 her because she is sympathetic to the Herrani and doesn’t agree with their treatment. Arin considers Kestrel his enemy but they both 𝐒𝐋𝐎𝗪𝐋𝐘 (and I do mean slowly) grow to love one other. Kestrel needs to keep this quiet especially because her dad is a head Valorian general. But what Kestrel doesn’t know is Arin has more secrets than just his growing love for Kestrel and that it will blow both worlds apart. ⁣⁣⁣
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𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭:⁣⁣⁣
It sounds really good and angsty right? And it could have been, but it was way to slow to appreciate the angst. There were too many boring parties and too much attention to the scandal Kestrel was in society. I found myself growing bored. Definitely not enough romance. And the Fantasy part of the book is non existent. This is really not Fantasy, to me anyways. ⁣⁣⁣
I do have to say overall Marie Rutkoski has some excellent writing skills. The story had its moments despite my rant above. When the action began that’s when I saw her writing really shine. MR hooked me, but she hooked me a little to late.⁣⁣⁣
The one thing that really got to me was the fact that the Herrani were slaves. And how horribly they were treated. I did a lot of thinking and reflecting on our countries bad behavior and it was pretty hard to read at times just because of what is still going on with all the blatant racism in our world 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 today. ⁣⁣⁣
Did you have a psychic event MR and see into our future while writing this that a certain president was going to uproot our country and show the fractures of our forefathers founding words from The Declaration of Independence. ⁣⁣⁣
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𝐈 𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐮𝐩 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐮𝐩 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐈 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐝𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬. ⁣⁣⁣
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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬:⁣⁣⁣
I really didn’t feel much for Kestrel. And the fact the she’s supposed to be so different from the other Valorian didn’t sit well with me because she really didn’t rebel all that much. She may have sympathy for the Herrani but she did nothing to help them and the only difference between her and her people was that she liked to play music, a piano to be exact, which Valorian do not. I felt like Arin was definitely very stiff in the beginning but he also had a deserved chip on his shoulder, and I grew to like him more towards the end. I did think the fact that he was pretty much able to do what he wanted on the Generals land was not very believable. He was supposed to be a Herrani slave (and I’m in NO way condoning this) but if he we’re truly a slave he would not have had the freedom to roam the grounds as he did. ⁣⁣⁣
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So I wasn’t in love with The Winner’s Curse but it wasn’t so bad that I’m not interested in the second book. It did leave off on a cliff hanger that got my attention. I guess I’ll have to decide after reading The Winners’s Crime if it’s worth finishing the trilogy. ...more

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Nov 23, 2014 Katerina rated it really liked it

Rate: 4.5/5

Booktube Channel:

I would like to start off by saying I absolutely loved almost everything about this book! I think that Marie Rutkoski's writing is definitely interesting...even her pages were interesting to be honest! They were all side ways! Which kind of annoyed me at first because we are all used to straight up page numbers XD ...but I soon got over that because it just added to the books uniqueness!

Right away at the beginning Kestel became one of my favorite characters through Rate: 4.5/5

Booktube Channel:

I would like to start off by saying I absolutely loved almost everything about this book! I think that Marie Rutkoski's writing is definitely interesting...even her pages were interesting to be honest! They were all side ways! Which kind of annoyed me at first because we are all used to straight up page numbers XD ...but I soon got over that because it just added to the books uniqueness!

Right away at the beginning Kestel became one of my favorite characters through out the book. Of course later she does quite a few things that piss me off...but I for the majority of the part got over it! I loved Kestel's personality; I believe that is what drew me to her in the first place. She is a defiant character who will bargain for anything to get her just the slightest bit of freedom, even if it means going up against her General of a Father - who would like her to join the "army."

Those were my most favoite interations between father and daughter...they both talked strategies and they both would bargain with each other just to get what they want. Of course, some of the biggest relationship tension was when Kestel gambled or...bought a slave. Which brings us to the plot.

This book reminded me of the Slave Trade from our own past, and I guess that is why I found this book so intriguing. These groups of people had lived in harmony and were the sole power before the Valorians came in and decided they were sick of being treated like animals...so the tides changed. This book definitely delves into a lot of historical aspects, which I also enjoyed because there were times when I became confused as to how they got to this point, but it was explained eventually.

Now onto the romance....this is where my biggest frustrations lie with Arin and Kestel. I knew this could have been a forbidden love book, and I was actually hoping it was since that was one of the reasons I picked it up - it was but wasn't unfortunately. I loved watching the friendship form first between Arin and Kestel, as you dont' see much of them on most books. However, I did get to the point where I just wanted them to be together and not be tip toeing around the feelings like they were on an egg shell.

Of course then there was that twister of an ending that just blew any thoughts I had out the window. ...which I am just going to leave at that.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone that loves a good "historical" fiction book, because this will definitely give you that fix!

XO

Kat ...more

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Nov 11, 2014 Tweller83 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, district-book-committee

I loved this book. The two main characters are well drawn, intelligent and wonderful. Neither should love the other and are fighting for more than just themselves. It is more than just a romance, yet I'm not sure how to categorize it. I started to think it was fantasy, but there really are no fantasy elements; no magic, nothing that isn't realistic. It is just set in a different world with warring nations. I can certainly see why the teens love this book and I can't wait for the second in the se ...more

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May 30, 2014 Caitlin rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-i-loved, ya-fiction, lots-of-action-and-adventure

I have to admit, I considered putting this down about 1/4 of the way through. It didn't seem like the type of book I thought I was getting into when I picked it up. The beginning is setting the stage, filling you in on the gossip, and getting to know the characters. It does pick up speed though, and the second half is packed with adventure and questions of "How on earth could this end happy?" Well the answer is...the ending leaves you not knowing, and eager for the next book! I really ended up e ...more

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Mar 11, 2015 Naomi rated it liked it

It was pretty good. I liked the setting and the world but the characters just fell flat for me. Kestrel bored me, she was whinny and bland and not believable to me. Arin was also sort of meh to me. And I didn't believe their relationship for a second. Much of the plot was very predictable and the writing, which was pretty at first become annoying by the end. Though somehow I was still very glued to the book and I wanted to continue reading till the end. ...more

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