Review: The Winner's Curse

Title: The Winner's Curse
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Published: March 4th, 2014
Series: The Winner's Trilogy#1
How I Served It: Kindle eBook
How I Got It: That Stupid Easy 'Buy With One Click' Button

Summary:
"Winning what you want may cost you everything you love 

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. 


Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart." --- Goodreads

Review:
Okay, I know this book has rave reviews and a cult following and obsessed fans but... I'm sorry I just don't get it.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it, it wasn't terrible, I even liked parts of it but... I'm just not getting why this book is such a phenomenon.  To be honest I don't even feel the need to read the sequel.  Please, disagree with me.  I want to love this book as much as everyone else did.  I want to understand but, I just... don't.



So I went into this book a skeptic.  Maybe that's why things didn't work out for me and the book, but slavery romances always unsettle me.  I can't express exactly why, maybe the power dynamic?  It's not a simple case of servant vs mistress, it's something way grosser.  But anyway, I probably could have overcome it if the relationship had been... different.  Kestrel is the daughter of the most powerful Valorian general.  Arin is a slave but used to be a member of a great Herrani family before the war (a war that Kestrel's father won).  What Kestrel doesn't know is that Arin is actually planted in her house as he is a key component in the rebel movement.

I think what frustrated me most about this book, and there were a few things, is that the relationship between Arin and Kestrel is built entirely on her trusting  him without cause.  She buys him on what is essentially a whim and basically ignores him until he verbally assaults her one day while she is visiting her friend Jess.  In fact, Kestrel as a whole annoyed me.  I know the book is meant to show her progression from a spoiled rich girl to a worldly woman capable of sacrifice, but I just don't see how this happened.  Her character details are incredibly contradictory.  On the one hand, she wants to be a musician and wear pretty dresses and do rich girl stuff.  On the other she's a card-shark, a strategist and has a genius military mind.  Now, I am absolutely not saying that these two stripes can't be painted on the same girl.  Look at the Throne of Glass books, or the His Fair Assassins book or most of the Tamora Pierce books. I'm just saying that Krestel's character only seems to fluctuate when it's convenient for the author.  She flips from seeing the truth in people to completely missing that the boy she was falling for was rebelling against her family (and I know, love makes people stupid).  And even before she falls for him, her sudden strong trust in his honesty is... peculiar given her background.

I know that I'm alone in this, but to me the relationship between Arin and Krestel felt kind of forced.  It's not even because they were each others slaves or anything, I just didn't see the romantic build-up. The build in their relationship, to me at least, felt more like two people coming to understand each other on a human level, as opposed to two people falling for each other.  I think that this could have been remedied if the entire first book took place before the rebellion and ended with Krestel being captured.  Obviously I don't know Rutkoski's plan for the sequel, but I feel like if she had spent more time developing the love between Krestel and Arin I would have felt more for the story.  The book is essentially a romance, and there's nothing wrong with that except that I just didn't get much romance from it.  Maybe it's just me.  Based on the goodreads reviews, I'm pretty sure it is.

Look, Rutkoski is a beautiful writer.  Her descriptions are amazing, but I feel like the majority of this book was pretty descriptions of things.  It was a courtly book about balls and dresses that was making stabs at being so much more.  I feel like I spent the whole book waiting for the wow factor but instead it was just a lot of sighing and page turning.  There was never a moment in which I felt like I needed to read faster or wait to pee until the chapter was done.  The pacing was just... slow.  Even the big fight scenes felt casual.  The only time I felt any real speed was when Krestel was almost raped, and that wasn't really the type of speed/etc. that I was looking for!  The pacing was just... off.

The Final Noodle: Eh.  I mean, I liked this book, I just don't think it's quite worth the hype.  The relationship didn't have the 'be-all, end-all' interactions and dialogue that I was anticipating.  True, there was none of that nasty insta-love, but I also didn't feel like there was really enough build to a real relationship.  It wouldn't be an issue, but the entire story hinges around their romance, and I just get it.  I know I'm alone in that, but... I just don't get it.