Reviewed by Angie on
Without a doubt, The Winner's Curse is currently the most hyped up book of the year so far. In fact, the hype is the only reason I picked it up, which I know, is a terrible reason. I knew absolutely nothing about it before starting, not even the genre (other than YA). I didn't even read the blurb. I went in totally blind. Sometimes that pays off, but in this case it didn't. I did like The Winner's Curse, but not as much as I could have. But that's my fault, since this was a simply a "it's not you, it's me" situation, because I don't tend to like books about war unless it's between supernatural races.
The Winner's Curse starts off very slow and very boring. Nothing about it was holding my attention until almost halfway in. Because of that, my mind wandered a lot, and it kept wandering to genres. What genre is this book suppose to be?! Upon finishing, I'm just sticking it into Fantasy since it's set in a made up world. But there's no magic or anything out of the ordinary. It kind of felt like Alternate History in a way, but it's clearly not set in any version of our world. Or maybe it is. Either way, it's a hard book to categorize, but I think that works in its favor since it kept me guessing.
Like I said, I don't like war stories and that's very much what The Winner's Curse is. The Valorians have conquered the Heranni, and keep them as slaves in their own homes. Our protagonist, Kestrel, is the daughter of a military commander and is expected to follow in his footsteps. Her only other choice is to get married, but Kestrel savors her independence. Plus she's not that great at combat. Her strength lies in strategy, and she is quite smart and cunning. Anyway, Kestrel buys a new slave on a whim, but he turns out to be part of a larger plot involving other slaves in the area. Of course, things turn into a big mess, and Kestrel has to keep herself alive, while not betraying her people. And she kind of has feelings for Arin, and vice versa. It's a lot of good stuff, but just not for me.
The Winner's Curse is definitely going to work for a lot of readers. I do think it has a lot of appeal to Historical Fiction and High Fantasy fans alike, especially those who like reading about war strategies. There's very little romance, but it's fairly obvious at this point that Kestrel and Arin will eventually wind up together unless the author throws in some shocks. In the end, I liked this, but not enough to want to know what happens next.
Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 27 January, 2014: Finished reading
- 27 January, 2014: Reviewed