Here's how I heard about this book: through glowing reviews, really intriguing quotes and graphics, and general praise on tumblr. Also I read a few excerpts that sounded really promising. 
 In short I was really, really excited about this book. 
 It was then I realized that this book was about a rich white girl falling in love with her slave. 
 Awkward gifs aside, this is a trope I find condescending, overdone, and insensitive. So I was very very careful the first half of this book to not get too swept away by the world and the characters and the beautiful narrative because I was, of course, trying to be a bit more progressive than being shoved into a contrived romance. 
 So I didn't want to love this book, and this is my honest opinion, as someone who didn't want to like the book: 
 I fucking loved this book. 
 And not even in the indulgent, "I know I should hate it but I still kinda like it" way, but in a genuine way that only stems from a satisfying, smart read. 
 The author took a relationship that could have loaded with so many touchy things, flipped it upside down, but it in a shaker full of ice, made a delicious role-reversal cocktail out of it, and made you fucking believe in this relationship 
 This is not any easy relationship to read. It's an even tougher one to write. It's a nearly impossible relationship to have. And the author knows this, and Rutkoski fucking delivers the hardest-earned, hardest-hitting romance I've read this year. 
 The author never cuts corners to get the characters together, she knows what kind of stockholm syndrome and manipulation goes into circumstances like theirs, and she uses it. It's natural conflict, not forced, and it makes every small victory between the two characters much more effective, that despite all this shit then can sill smile at each other and say little jabs under their breath without their existence crashing down around them. 
 Kestrel is not conventionally feminine -which is great- but she also doesn't prove this by being aggressively masculine -which is greater. She is a brutal warrior without throwing so much as a punch. She is a worthy opponent against fighter and strategist alike, and I fucking love her, sheltered rich girl stereotypes aside. 
 Arin- I personally love Arin, mostly because the first half of the book being too much of an arrogant prick to be a good spy, and spent the rest of the book acting like Kestrel had him by the balls, despite being to one on power. She kinda did, to some extent. Yay. So there's that. But he still manages to be an astounding presence, funny, sexy, charismatic, and noble without seemings overstuffed like a lot of YA love interests. He still had his shit, and his crummy behavior, but when you scrubbed him down and saw him clean, what a sight her was. 
 There were a lot of fun twists in the book, the game was always change and the stakes always raised. A definite recommendation, and a definite middle finger to genre in such a label-driven market of books. What I'm trying to say it, The Winners Cure is not that bad. Not bad at all. Fantastic really. And you don't even have to turn your brain off.