{REVIEW} The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Title: The Winner's Curse
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Series: The Winner's Trilogy
Book: 1
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction
Rating: ★★★★

Blurb from Goodreads:

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.

My Reaction/Thoughts:

“Isn't that what stories do, make real things fake, and fake things real?”

This book was a splendid surprise. I was instantly hooked right from the start, however it kind of lost me somewhere in the middle. The plot seemed to be headed nowhere fast and I had no idea where the overall story was headed. But I am happy with where we ended up. Boy, am I happy where we ended up! This book had a great cliffhanger ending that instantly hooked me all over again. I am intrigued by this world, these characters, and this society. It's unique and entertaining. I cannot wait to read the sequel.

“You might not think of me as your friend,' Kestrel told Arin, 'but I think of you as mine.”

The only thing that really bothered me with this book was the characters. Well particularly, Arin. I did not like him at all in the beginning. He was so cold and such a jerk! I hated the way he would talk to Kestrel and how rude he was. She tried to be nothing, but nice to him and he acted so ungrateful. Then when he was ready to be open to her and let her in, his "feelings" seemed a little out of nowhere. I enjoyed watching their slow progress to a connection and affection, but it just felt a little unbelievable that he cared as deeply as he claimed he did considering how cold he'd been. However, he really did redeem himself at the end and made me learn to love him. So I am now on board the Kestrel x Arin ship. LET IT SAIL!

Kestrel was a good character though. She was sweet and strong in her own might. She was still learning about herself and trying to figure out what she wanted out of her life. She hates that she only has two options and longs to find her third path. I look forward to reading more of her journey and see where her road leads.

The writing of this book was easy to understand and I didn't feel overwhelmed. The world building could use some more details so I really know what is going on here, but I kind of liked how we see a bit more of the political side. We saw a rebellion strike right away in book one and that's a nice change. I can't wait to see what happens next!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was fun and entertaining. Regardless of my very small issues, I loved it. And the whole format of the book was fantastic. I loved the deckled pages and the sideways chapter headings, as well as the BEAUTIFUL cover and font. Whoever designed this book is a genius.

Friday Finds #1

Friday Finds hosted by Should Be Reading showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

My finds:

    

  

• Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini
• The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West
• Endgame: The Calling by James Frey
• Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
• My Life With The Walter Boys by Ali Novak

*REVIEW* The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

Title: The Infinite Sea
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave
Book: 2
Rating: ★★★★

Blurb from Goodreads: 

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.


Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

My Rating/Thoughts: 
"It isn't that lies are too beautiful to resist. It's that the truth is too hideous to face." 

I absolutely loved The 5th Wave, but this book was just okay for me. I still enjoyed reading it, but I didn't get as much out of it as the first book. It just feels like a true filler book in my opinion. I felt like we didn't get to see much of Cassie and Ben as much as we did Ringer back in the compound. The whole first half of the story was just Cassie and Ben waiting around for Evan Walker to come back. It was uneventful. Even Ringer's POV was really long at the last third of the book and it still felt there was a lot of nothing going on. 

Cassie and Ben were holed up in the hotel waiting for Evan to come back. I did not have a problem with this so much as what happened when Evan did return. He came back with the warning of Grace and that she was a major problem for them to escape and leave the hotel, but it just seemed a little off to me.  Grace didn't serve a real purpose in my eyes besides the fact that she was brought in to turn Cassie into some insecure, jealous girlfriend when she realized she and Evan had a history together. Seriously, Cassie acted so immature upon meeting Grace that I was disconnected from her for a while because she was being an idiot. I just didn't think Cassie was as a good character as she was in the first book. Maybe because we didn't get to see her in the same light, but she kind of annoyed me. I still found her sassy and funny, but I just wasn't connected to her. For being "in love" with Evan as she seemed to say she was, she didn't really act like it either. I missed my cute, romantic Evan. I wanted more of him! 

I am happy for the multiple POVs that this book brought. It gave us more Ringer, another longer chapter for Evan, and Poundcake! It was really interesting to see his backstory and the reason why he doesn't talk. I felt so sorry for him! The only thing it lacked was a POV from Ben. I kind of missed his thoughts and feelings in this book. I hope we get to see his side in the last book. 

As for Ringer, I actually really enjoyed her the most and I think her chapters were what actually gave this book a higher rating than originally planned. I like that we see her backstory as well. We learn what happened to her before she was recruited, about her dad, and her name! Marika. Thought if I am being honest, the first couple of chapters I felt like I didn't really care about her (sad, I know, but I just didn't) but her last POV really opened up doors. I just kind of don't like that it was soooooo long. I think it should have been broken up more throughout the book. We didn't see her at all and I kept wondering what happened to her but then right when we see the big explosion at the hotel, we switch to Ringer for 100+ pages?! I was anticipating going back to Cassie and Ben so badly that sometimes I felt myself distracted with Ringer's story. I was getting bored reading about her just sitting in bed and not being able to eat. But I did enjoy her interactions with Razor (Alex, awe). I really liked his character as well. I thought it was so cute how he brought her a chess board and told her to teach him because she wanted to play. And the fact that he made up that silly chaseball game for her was so cute to me. I don't care if it maybe was a part of Vosch's plan, I thought it was cute. I just really liked their relationship together. I liked that he brought out a softer side of Ringer and was making her tell "jokes." 

"He brought me from the tomb. He raised me from the dead. He risked his life so I might have mine."

Which was nice to see him try to cheer her up and lighten her up because she's just so angry! She's so full of rage! And God knows Ben wasn't getting a smile out of her. 

"My anger is greater than the sum of all lost things."

Speaking of Vosch....what?! The twist involving the Others was pretty interesting and the reasons behind using Ringer as a tool was a pretty nice flip as well. Let's go hunt, Evan now because he fell in love! That's awful! Unacceptable! But I thought it was a lot Yancey threw at us all at once at the end. The rat metaphor was like "whoa mind blown!" No wonder we were so obsessed over those rats. These aliens basically see us as vermin and we are contaminating and ruining our home. We need to be wiped out. However, are they really aliens? What is actually happening? This series definitely took a nice turn and I am intrigued, so I am excited to see what this all actually means. 

But Ringer was pretty awesome and has definitely become my new favorite. Fierce! So Fierce.

"I don't want to save the world," I tell him. "I'm just hoping I might get the opportunity to kill you." 


I really liked this book. Solid four stars, but it wasn't as exciting as the first book even though we are given some pretty major questions. I think it could have been a bit better, maybe better spaced. I don't know. I just expected something more since it was one of my highly anticipated reads since I read The 5th Wave, so maybe I just expected more, but again it felt like a filler book. I can't wait for the last book though! 

*REVIEW* The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Title: The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave
Book: 1
Rating: ★★★★ 1/2

Blurb from Goodreads:

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker.

Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

My Rating/Thoughts: 

Wow. This book has left me speechless. I debated with myself for a long time if I should even pick this up and finally decided that I should just give it a try. If I didn't like it, no harm no foul. And boy, am I glad I did! Now this book took me awhile to get used to. To say I was confused was an understatement. I found myself reading pages over just to fully understand what was really going on. I felt like I must have been so stupid to not pick it up quicker, but I wanted to make sure I understood everything. So as a result, I felt like I was reading this book rather slowly. But once I got the feel of the book everything clicked into place perfectly. 

"We're here, and then we're gone, and it's not about the time we're here, but what we do with the time." 

The story and plot was what I actually liked the most. I was very skeptical at first because I do not read any sci-fi novels or anything that has to do with aliens or alien invasions. Like at all. In fact, I hate sci-fi. It's just not my thing. But this book was! I loved the story and the pacing worked great. I didn't feel like it went too fast or too slow. I know there has been many who said this book takes a while to get into because the beginning is very slow, but I didn't get that impression at all. I even enjoyed reading the multiple POVs, which is surprising considering I hate alternating POVs (unless they are done right). In this case, they were done completely right. I enjoyed reading from Cassie the most because I just loved her thoughts and humor. However, I also loved, loved Ben's POV as well. He had the same sense of humor and spunk as Cassie did so it was easy to love his character and thoughts as well. I found myself always getting comfortable with one character and once things got really intense the POV would change. I'd be thinking "No! Go back to Cassie!" or "Go back to Ben!" But it still worked marvelously and would get sucked right in again. 

Now let's get into the characters. I don't think there was a character in this book that I didn't like.Obviously aside from Vosch, even though we didn't see too much of him the fact that he is the villain and the cause of all this? He sucks. Plain and simple. 

Cassie though...Cassie is great. She is so protective of her brother and she would stop at nothing to go back and save him. She refused to give up even when it seemed impossible to come out on top. I liked how skeptical she was of everyone and anything and I completely agree with her. She was running from Silencers, Aliens and humans who probably won't trust you anyway. Do you really blame her? I'd doubt everyone as well. In fact, I did! I did not trust a single person every time we saw a new character. 

"Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity's last war, then I am the battlefield." 

Zombie! Now Ben Parish was one of my favorites as well. I was not expecting to get a POV from him at all. I thought Cassie just mentioning him was because she had a crush on him. I suspected we would see him again, but a POV? SWEET! I loooooove how protective he gets over Sams though! It truly hit me in the gut with the feels how responsible and protective he was over him. 

"If anyone comes between you and me, they're dead." 

Now Evan Walker. How much I loved you with all my heart! You don't want to trust Evan at all, but you can't help it! He's protecting you, he's taking care of you, he's handsome, his hands are soft, and he smells like chocolate. *Sigh* Now I was skeptical of him the entire time right along with Cassie. I just knew something wasn't right. I knew it the entire time! I had my doubts and my hopes that this wouldn't end badly, but you can't help but love him all the same! In fact, everything he does and gives up for Cassie just makes you love him even more! 

"I didn't save you. You saved me"

Overall, I loved this book. I thought it was a little funny to me because about halfway through I felt like so much happened, yet nothing at all at the same time. But I thought it was wonderful and that means a lot coming from someone who has read absolutely nothing involving aliens or anything sci-fi at all! So I am definitely looking forward to get my hands on The Infinite Sea because with an ending like that?! Uh uh! Nooooooooo way! We cannot just leave it like that! What the heck?!