The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
Release date: March 4, 2014
Pages: 359
Rating:💜💜💜💜
Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

As a general's daughter Kestrel has two choices: join the military or get married. Kestrel has other ideas. One day she finds a kindred spirit in Arin, a young slave up for auction. Following her instinct Kestrel buys him, and soon has to hide her growing love for him. But little does she know, she is not the only one with secrets.

I actually had no idea what to expect going into this book. I managed to avoid any spoilers when the hype around this book was massive and the premise never interested me, so I didn't look into it. However, I saw the cover the other day when I was charity shopping and I knew I had to have a copy of this book on my bookshelf. So this book is 100% a cover buy for me.

(But can you blame me? It is gorgeous.)

As the result of not anything about the book before I read it, I was confused when I read the first few chapters. I had got it into my head that Kestrel was an assassin who was training to kill people (when she is the complete opposite). When I realised that she wasn't an assassin I began to enjoy the book a lot more. I thought the fact that Kestrel was a brilliant strategist was very unique (in a good way) as most books these days have the brave female hero fighting for her rights. By placing her in the commander's shoes we got to see a whole different way to take down regimes. Kestrel was smart and calculating, which created more action than if she had just been a cold-blooded killer. It also meant that we got to see what life is like for those behind the battlefield, those who plot and mark out where the next move should be.

The romance that is hinted at in the blurb barely made it into the novel, but I think that was for the best. There were hints here and there, but it was so rare that you could see that their feelings were genuine instead of the stereotypical insta-love that comes in novels like this. Kestrel refuses to face her feelings, ignoring Arin at all costs and  searching for reasons why she shouldn't fall in love with him. Arin is naturally oblivious to any feelings she might have for him, making all the moments they share together far more special and exciting than if they had been upfront about their feelings.

This book made several interesting comments on colonisation and the effects it has on the people who used to live there. As there are two different communities living on the same land we get to see quite personally how each community has developed since the invasion happened. The results are similar to that of the Native Americans, with them being treated as lesser beings by the settlers. This was interesting to see in this novel, especially as the Valorian managed to take over and destroy everything without a flicker of guilt.

I always say this when I read a fantasy or dystopian novel, but I am a sucker for a world with good politics. This book didn't fail me on that front, so that may be part of the reason why I loved this book so much. However, I do think this book is generally very good with strong characters and even an even stronger plot that is clearly going to continue through into the two other novels very effectively. I have no clue what genre this novel would fit into but I think that fantasy lovers would like it because it has all the feelings of a fantasy novel. I would especially recommend it to people who love strong female characters, politics and gory battles.