The Winner’s Curse has been on my radar since I first heard the premise: Kestrel, daughter of the empire’s most celebrated general, purchases a slave at auction on impulse. The slave is Arin, who is not what he seems. The relationship that develops between them is aware — on both sides — of exactly what it costs and exactly what it means given who they are to each other in the world the empire has made.

This is a more politically serious romance than most YA offers, and it is the better for it.

The World

Rutkoski has built an empire loosely analogous to Rome, where the Valorian military has conquered and enslaved the Herrani people, absorbed their culture, and produced a society in which the conquerors enjoy the arts and music of the people they own. It’s a deliberately uncomfortable parallel, and Rutkoski doesn’t smooth its edges. Kestrel has benefited from the empire her father enforces. She knows this. The book knows she knows this.

Arin is Herrani. His family was killed in the conquest. He has been enslaved for ten years. He is not neutral ground, and neither is his growing regard for Kestrel — it is entangled with everything, always, and Rutkoski is honest about that.

Kestrel

Kestrel is the best thing about this book. She is not a fighter — her gift is strategy, reading people, playing games she nearly always wins. In a genre saturated with physically capable heroines, Kestrel’s intelligence as her primary weapon is refreshing and carefully developed. Watching her think through a problem is the novel’s greatest pleasure.

She is also complicit in systems she doesn’t fully interrogate until those systems press directly on someone she cares about. That’s not a character flaw the book pretends doesn’t exist. It’s the tension the whole story turns on.

The Romance

Slow burn readers: this is your book. The relationship between Kestrel and Arin builds across the entire novel and pays off in a way that is deeply earned precisely because Rutkoski has made you feel the weight of every obstacle. These are not two people with bad timing. These are two people on opposite sides of a war, and they know it, and they fall for each other anyway, and the book is honest about what that means.

The ending is not happy. It is exactly right.

Why YA Readers Will Love This

For readers who loved the political dimensions of The Hunger Games — who were more interested in how the Capitol operated than in the love triangle — The Winner’s Curse offers a fantasy world with equally serious structural concerns rendered at closer range.

For readers drawn to enemies-to-lovers dynamics: this is one of the most carefully constructed versions of that trope in YA. It earns every step of the transition.

For readers who want a heroine who wins with her mind rather than her fists, Kestrel is a gift. Her strategic intelligence is treated by the narrative as genuinely powerful — equal to any physical ability the series’ other characters possess.

The Winner’s Crime and The Winner’s Kiss complete the trilogy, and both are excellent. The series gets more expansive as it goes, opening up to include war and espionage and consequences that reach well beyond the two protagonists. Start here. The slow build in this first book makes everything that follows hit harder.

Published: March 2014 · Genre: YA fantasy/romance · Series: The Winner’s Trilogy, Book 1

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Winner’s Curse about? Kestrel, daughter of the empire’s most celebrated general, purchases a slave at auction on impulse. The slave is Arin, who is not what he seems. Set in an empire loosely analogous to Rome where the Valorian military has conquered and enslaved the Herrani people, the relationship between Kestrel and Arin develops with both of them ‘aware — on both sides — of exactly what it costs and exactly what it means given who they are to each other in the world the empire has made.’

What makes Kestrel a distinctive heroine in The Winner’s Curse? Kestrel is ’not a fighter — her gift is strategy, reading people, playing games she nearly always wins.’ The review calls her ‘refreshing and carefully developed’ in a genre ‘saturated with physically capable heroines.’ Watching her think through a problem is described as ’the novel’s greatest pleasure.’ She is also complicit in systems she doesn’t fully interrogate until they press directly on someone she cares about — and the book does not pretend this doesn’t exist.

How does The Winner’s Curse handle the politics of slavery and empire? Rutkoski has built an empire where the Valorian military has conquered and enslaved the Herrani people, absorbed their culture, and produced a society where ’the conquerors enjoy the arts and music of the people they own.’ The review calls this ‘a deliberately uncomfortable parallel’ with edges Rutkoski ‘doesn’t smooth.’ Kestrel has benefited from the empire her father enforces — she knows it, and the book knows she knows it.

Is The Winner’s Curse a good slow-burn romance? The review explicitly addresses ‘slow burn readers’ directly: ’this is your book.’ The relationship between Kestrel and Arin builds across the entire novel and pays off in a way described as ‘deeply earned precisely because Rutkoski has made you feel the weight of every obstacle.’ They are ’two people on opposite sides of a war, and they know it, and they fall for each other anyway, and the book is honest about what that means.’

How does The Winner’s Curse end? The review states simply: ‘The ending is not happy. It is exactly right.’ The trilogy continues with The Winner’s Crime and The Winner’s Kiss, which the review calls ‘both excellent,’ noting the series ‘gets more expansive as it goes, opening up to include war and espionage and consequences that reach well beyond the two protagonists.’

Further Reading from Authoritative Sources

  • Marie Rutkoski — Wikipedia’s Marie Rutkoski article provides biographical and bibliographical context for the author, including her academic background in medieval literature that informs the political depth and historical textures of The Winner’s Trilogy.
  • Roman Empire as historical model — Wikipedia’s Ancient Rome article contextualises the historical model that The Winner’s Curse’s empire is built on, helping readers understand the specific political and cultural dynamics of conquest and cultural absorption that Rutkoski is deliberately invoking and making uncomfortable.