My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“The Winner’s Curse is when you come out on top of the bid, but only by paying a steep price.”
I am glad i picked up this book
its every thing i was looking for in a book when I've written the rec request ..
the setting of the book is History fiction and fantasy
people used horses , swords , messages handwritten by ink and transformed by hand .
may be the book was slightly slow paced at the beginning but when it reached the climax just in the second part of the book , it turned interesting and events started to flow more rapidly .
the world building , the history , the characters , everything i think , they were perfect
that i finished the book and i was Sad i am no longer part of that world ..
PLOT :
when i started reading i thought it would be about two star crossed lovers but when i read it , i got the complete image . war and loss with too many details , it overcome the romance .
which despite that didn't lose its edge . it was still there .
the story is about Kestrel a Valorian and Arin a Herrani . both grew up in the peninsula , the land of herrani that general Trajan had conquered ten years ago . yet they had their dedication for opposites
they were on different sides .
the Herrani were educated people , nice to their neighbors , treasured music and art , the trade of their goods and their green lands gave them the luxury they enjoyed living in their beautiful cities surrounded by the beautiful nature ..
the Valorians were known for their military might , for their beauty
and that they were , before the Herran war , savage uneducated people
the valorians attacked .
they killed every military and those who fought and took everybody else slaves
Arin the little boy by then was taken a slave after his family was killed fighting and trained as a blacksmith .Ten years after his people has a plan. one that included kestrel , the daughter of General Trajan ..
Lets talk about the many pros this book had :
1- the names : i like the names
not only the characters names , i mean Valorians , Herrni ... it feels nice when you roll them in your mouth
Kestrel , Arin ,etc.. they sounds beautiful to say .
2-The undismayed surprisingly so smart main characters
kestrel :
an aristocrat girl , the daughter of general Trajan.
fierce and brave But ! not a fighter not so good with fighting but she is smart , so good in military Strategizing.
a shrewd mind fighting other than muscles handling weapons , she is not the usual heroine of fantasy books , she is not a katness , a yelena zaltana , a Celaena Sardothien or a tris
she , kestrel , is the keen girl who adores music , loves her piano .. a musician , yet winning battles.
Arin :
not as controversial as kestrel. you wont argue your self much for liking the character .
i liked Arin instantly , i knew he had a plan , it was obvious that he was more than what he appeared to be since that very first moment in the auction .
general Trajan , ronan , jess ,... all the other characters were very well written
and i am just being lazy to discuss each , but i liked them all .
3-The world building
its Awesome and I'd like to consider it slow built other than lacks the details as I read in many reviews .
it feeds the informations slowly rather than throwing them at you all at once (which is something i dont like about history books when they throw informations at you as if a lecture )
i found my self enjoying the details about the valorian and herrani houses , kestrel clothes , the music , etc..
4- the brilliant writing
the writing was so Good that even when i thought the pace is slow it did it for me
i continued reading eagerly .
the prose and the way it was not much conversational , that the dialogue was short yet fulfilling and that much of the plot was concealed inside the heads of our characters .
6-not insta-love(ish) , the whole love story didn't blossom overnight
And , no love triangles .
7- the way all the relationships felt true and honest , the arin-kestrel though wasn't fully recognized through out the whole book but we can still see it in the friendships and kestrel relationship with her father .
_______________________________________________________
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
this my friends , the synopsis , does not lie. The Winner’s Curse is as groundbreaking and enchanting as you are told it is ..
No comments:
Post a Comment