✴ ✴ ✴.5/✴
3.5/4
Wow.
This is book is.......different (odd?) I feel like my mind could change tomorrow on what I thought on this book which is never a good thing. I don't know whether I should sleep on it and come back to this review.
(Update: I slept on it and I still feel the same.)
The Winner's Curse if the first book in a Young Adult, Fantasy trilogy; so far only this book (#1) and the second are out, the third currently has a set date for March the 1st 2016. This is labelled as a fantasy but it's more of a ROMANCE fantasy. I say this because when I think of fantasy I think of Throne Of Glass and The Girl of Fire and Thorns and this is nothing like that, it is more focused surrounded by a romance.
Lady Kestrel's engagement to Valoria's crown prince calls for great celebration: balls and performances, fireworks and revelry. But to Kestrel it means a cage of her own making. Embedded in the imperial court as a spy, she lives and breathes deceit and cannot confide in the one person she really longs to trust.
While Arin fights to keep his country's freedom from the hands of his enemy, he suspects that Kestrel knows more than she shows. As Kestrel comes closer to uncovering a shocking secret, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. This is the goodreads synopsis.
Okay, I did not think I would read this in a day and I knew once I started this that by the end of it I would have mixed feelings about what to rate it. My prophecy is true. I literally have no bloody idea! Did I enjoy it? Did I not? In the end I'm going to give this a 4 star rating however it fluctuates between 3.5 and 4.
The plot was interesting. It intrigued me enough to be hooked so that I didn't put this book down, not until I realised I hadn't had lunch or dinner. The beginning of the book (1/3) was quite slow but not achingly slow that I got bored and put it down; the book starts to pick up in the second third of this book and towards the end. The plot twist in this book kept me on my toes to be honest. Frankly I'm not sure if the reason I read this book really fast was because I was in the mood for a straight up romance book that I knew I could speed through as those books are my fav types of books to read once in a while, or because the book was actually written really well. I still don't know. I've actually read a few other reviews on this and a recurring theme is the uncertainty of what to rate this book and what to make of it. One thing I know for sure is that I will be going into the sequel a little worried. I hope it's good. The idea of this book is genius and the follow through with the writing is also worthy of an applause.
I just want to properly clarify that this book isn't built on a romance like the Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi but I will not consider this a fantasy fantasy book worthy to be labelled and sorted into such books as the Throne of Glass series, A Song of Ice and Fire series (The first book A Game of Thrones is EPIC FANTASY and just beyond me AMAZING!), City of Bones series and The Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy. Also I hope I don't come across as if I sped through this and didn't enjoy it at all because I really did like the book, it was a quick and much needed pick me up read to get me into the mood to read more books. With that being said, this isn't much of a memorable book for me; I can see myself later on in this year not remembering much of this book at all. I'm crossing my fingers that the second book in this trilogy The Winner's Crime is breathtakingly amazing. I've read some really good reviews on that book, so I'M EXCITED!
The characters were not fully developed to my liking. I feel like there could have been more, for example a better back story but it didn't take away from the plot that they weren't fully delved into. I say this because the moment you start this book there is no leading up; the first thing you read is the purchase of Arin - the slave, so we don't get much of Kestrels life before him or how she lives and her family/friends. That also aids my point that this is mostly a romance fantasy. We follow mostly two point of views as two of the main characters in this series. Arin and Kestrel. We follow in third person which helps as there is limited bias views with a third person perspective.
The female protagonist in this book is a very strong woman. Which I'm all about! Having well represented heroines in novels is what I live for, however she could be written better and I hate this main character. Hate is quite strong more like I heavily dislike and maybe I'm cheating here but I've been writing this review for a day now and I've already started the second book in this series (which I do plan of reviewing here as well) and I've started to tolerate (slowly) this main character. The thing is, I just don't like the way she has been crafted. She isn't a super loveable character, maybe it's just me.
The writing is alright and I didn't mind it too much however at some parts I found it quite irksome but other than that I think it's easy to follow, not poetic or lovey-dovey but alright. I enjoyed the book so I guess her writing style is easy to follow as well as it being fast and fluid to read. I have never read anything by Marie Rutkoski and I don't know if this trilogy is her first to be professionally published or if she has other books out.
I want to also address my point of this being a 'romance fantasy' because I'm not saying I don't read fantasy books without romance, for example, Throne of Glass, Game of Thrones and The Girl of Fire and Thorns all have romantic aspects to the book but they are also very well developed and structured alongside beautifully crafted world building and characters. This was not as good as those, but it is worth reading because it is enjoyable and keeps you on your toes.
I would also like to mention that I own the paperback copy which IS NOT AS NEARLY AS PRETTY AS THE HARDBACK and this also goes for the second book in hardcover, they are both such gorgeous books. If you have these in hardcover, I envy you!
This is not something hardcore fantasy fans want to be reading unless you're looking for a romance-y fantasy book then this is perfect but other then that not so much. The world building is alright, so is the writing and the characters but it's a bit iffy for me. I have the second book so I am going to read that and probably review that as well. I did enjoy this, as I finished it in practically a day but it's a really debatable book in my opinion. There will be people who despise it and others who adore. I think it depends on the mood you're in whilst reading and depending on what you want to read at the time. When I first started reading the book and I was around 100ish pages in, I remember thinking and tweeting that I felt as though this book was going very slow for minimal world building.
All in all it's a solid book worthy of 3-4 stars. I hope I don't come off as if this was a pain to read because I read this really fast and I was delighted.
Also, I am very excited because I had my last exam today and now I'm off for summer (!!!) and I will have much more time to read more and write reviews which is wonderful considering I plan on reading lots over summer.
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