I was really excited to read The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski. The cover is so amazing and everyone that read it has raved. The author came up with the idea for the book when a friend explained that a "winner's curse" is how the winner of an auction has also lost, because he or she has won by paying more than what the majority of bidders have decided the item is worth. Essentially the book was winning and losing at the same time.

Likes:

Kestrel and Arin were really strong main characters (with pretty sweet names). It was hard to imagine what it would be like to walk in their shoes because of the lifestyle differences between their two cultures.
Kestrel really gets a chance to walk in Arin's shoes when the tables turn.
The world-building was really interesting. I enjoyed the culture and the competition between the two countries.
Kestrel needs to choose between marrying or being in the military, I think that would be a really hard choice, especially when she was so gifted with military tactics.

Gripes:

The back and forth with Arin was a bit much. Yeah there should be slow-burn in the romance, but this was torture.
The book was interesting, but the climax was only really near the end. I guess it left me hanging for more.

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