First reactions 2/13/14:ARC received from Macmillan! THANK YOU. It was gorgeous. 
 Oh. Oh, this book. My heart. 
 Absolutely loved how it kept me on my toes. I never quite knew what was coming, even when I thought I did. It was brilliant, it was clever, it was utterly romantic. I honestly wish I could gobble up this entire series right now. The wait for book two will be difficult for sure! 
 Review 3/26/14: THE WINNER'S CURSE is easily one of the most-anticipated reads of 2014 so far... And it's only March! I have to say, I can easily see why there was so much excitement for the new fantasy series from Marie Rutkoski. Just nine pages in and I was already getting a feel for this colorful and history-rich fantasy world (and had a few things feel reminiscent of A Song of Ice and Fire!) so I knew I was going to easily fall into the setting of this book. 
 This book TOYED with my emotions but definitely in a good way. I was intrigued right off the bat, but admittedly, with all of the hype I found myself waiting all-too anxiously to see where this story would go. I wanted to blame hype for that, which it really did factor in to my nervous anticipation a little bit, but sometimes with fantasy I just find myself too impatient in the beginning when everything is getting laid out because I KNOW things are about to go down and I just cannot wait to see what they are. I feel like their was a fair amount of world-building towards the beginning as we get to know Kestrel and Arin as well as the fantastic world created here, but I was so hungry for more information that it was hard to push all my questions and theories aside! 
 The beginning was definitely captivating, but the middle and the end just simply blew me away. I felt like every time a situation presented itself, I totally got knocked over with the directions the story took. Each conflict had so many possible outcomes and I was never quite sure in which direction the story would go and somehow it always ended up being the thing I least expected! I was truly impressed with Marie Rutkoski's ability employ plot twists and keep the reader on their toes because I felt like I never knew exactly what was going to happen -- and as soon as we hit that roller coaster, the book was on an unstoppable path of back-to-back-to-back surprises! 
 I really came to love both of the main characters. I loved Kestrel's ferocity and of course I can't resist Arin's strong, silent, smoldering personality. I felt like they both played off of each other really well too. It took me a while to fall into the groove of the romance but there came a certain point where I was totally hooked. A forbidden romance... It just kills me every time. I really loved the relationship that Kestrel and Arin ended up building but in a way, I wish it had been built up just a bit more. I still loved their romance and it broke my heart and put it back together many times, but sometimes in a non-contemporary setting (even in contemporary too), I need just a tiiiiny bit more of establishing that relationship before I fall in love with. That's just the most minor of concerns though because I really did fall in love with this romance too! 
 Marie Rutkoski's writing was just beautiful. She has a fantastic knack for stringing words and sentences together so melodically that the prose just sang to me (which intentional or not for the music theme throughout the book, I don't know but it totally seemed to fit perfectly). The book was just such a pleasure to read and as well as the prose, the plot seemed to flow incredibly well too. I think one of the only other (minor) qualms that I had was that I was so, so anxious to learn so much more about this amazing world that Marie Rutkoski had created and I felt like I didn't see a lot of the history until much closer to the end when we got more into the war games and politics. Then again, often times world-building is something I can never get enough of! 
 THE WINNER'S CURSE was a fantastic first installment in this new fantasy series from Marie Rutkoski. As soon as I finished, I couldn't wait to get my hands on book two.... Which was a shame since technically book one wasn't even out yet!! This is definitely a thrilling and captivating read and you can bet I'm in this series for the long haul! 
 For a full review including character breakdown, recommendations, and special features from The Selective Collective, please visit my blog at The Book Addict's Guide!