Review ~ The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Title: The Winner's Curse
Author: Marie Rutkoski

Copyright: 2014
Type:  YA, fantasty
Pages: 355
Series: yes

1. The Winner's Curse 

2. The Winner's Crime

3. The Winner's Kiss

Reason for Reading: 

First and foremost the cover is beautiful secondly it just sounded interesting and I couldn't pass it up. 

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.  .

Thoughts:

This was one of those books that I didn't anticipate to be so good. I sat down and started reading it. I have to say I even rolled my eyes a few times at Kestrel and her typical story plot. Then the next thing I realized it was 11 pm and I had finished the book and was ordering the 2nd in the trilogy. I was completely blown away with not only the story but also how much I had come to care for the characters. I liked that Kestrel was strategically smart but not physically a warrior. I liked that she knew this and overcame her obstacle by using her mind and not bronze. I came to appreciate Arin and how he was, who he was, and how he came to be the person that Kestrel will eventually fall in love with. I love the fact that while it was a Romeo and Juliet it wasn't they both live in a world of choices and Kestrel and Arin are going to have to get past this and their past in order to make it in the future. I have to admit the ending and cliff hanger-ish kind of upset me but it did make me want to read the 2nd book and after all isn't that the point of an ending?

Goodreads: 4 out of 5 stars

Would you recommend this book to others? It took me by complete surprise I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I ended up reading it in one night. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA fantasy.

Review ~ The Round House by Louise Erdrich

Title: The Round House

Author: Louise Erdrich
Copyright: 2013
Pages: 321
Genre: Fiction
Series: No

Reason for Reading;
It was suggested due to past reading history by Amazon kindle. And it looked interesting.

Summary:
The Round House won the National Book Award for fiction.

One of the most revered novelists of our time—a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life—Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It is an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.

Riveting and suspenseful, arguably the most accessible novel to date from the creator of Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and The Bingo Palace, Erdrich’s The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece of literary fiction—at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture

Thoughts:
First let me say this was one of the hardest reads I have done in a while. It is not graphic to a point in the middle and in the end it described more of the rape and what happened to the mom. It build up to the incident but it didn't hit the reader with it until then. But when I say it was hard to read LAWD it was very, very hard to read. We are given this story from the son's perspective of what is happening in his family after his mother is assaulted and how they figure it out, how his mother survives it and how his family adjust to what has happened in their family. Because rape doesn't just happen to women it happens to a whole family. It shows what a woman really goes through in an accurate portrayal. It shows what a family has to deal with. And it shows the legal system at it's worst and semi-best. It also shows us what life is like on a reservation. All that together made this book one of the hardest reads I have had to read.
That being said it was also hands down one of the best reads I have read so far. It was handled with care, delicately and with honesty. I felt like I got to know the family, the victims, and the tribe. I felt like I was there when it was happening. I came to care for all those involved. I was angry about the injustice and I wanted to stand up and do more. I wanted more to happen and I wanted it to happen quicker. I felt the racial barrier and that if it had been a white woman this would have moved quicker.
The writer wrote beautifully I felt the dust, the heat, and I smelled the trees and lake. She did such a beautiful job with describing the scenes with out going into "Stephen King" overload that I felt like I was there that I understood what it was like being on that reservation. This is a writer that I will for sure pick up again and feel safe reading.

Grade: 4 out of 5 stars

Would I recommend: Yes I thought it was a hard read and will have some triggers for some, but a fantastic read.