First and foremost, I have completed both reading challenges
and exceeded what I thought I could accomplish!
Rather happy about that actually!
So for both read-a-thon’s, I read a grand total of 5 books
equaling 1766 pages in all. Holy cow
that was a LOT of paper! I thoroughly
enjoyed participating in both events and I cannot wait for the next round of
each.
I have currently joined up with ANOTHER reading challenge,
but this one will be for the whole year.
It is the 2016 Around the Year in 52 Books challenge. You can check out the GoodReads page through
the link at the bottom of my blog. Each
week I will post an update regarding what week it is within the challenge and what
specific category is within that week. I
will say that all categories look interesting and I cannot wait to jump out of my
comfort zone books and try different genres and topics! I will have more on the books I will be
reading, soon!
Just a quick review…
I will admit that I am interested in this series to a
point. I picked up this series because
it had garnered quite a bit of hype throughout the book community when the
books first came out. I kept hearing and
seeing many different people who had hauled this series, who had been talking
about this series for a while and so, curiosity got the better of me.
We start off with The
Winner’s Curse, and a young woman who is struggling to find her place in
life. Kestrel, is a seventeen year old
woman who lives in a land where she can enjoy all the luxuries in life. She is a general’s daughter and is expected
to either be wed by the age of twenty, or to become a member of the
military. These are her only two options
and she feels very lost and in her own words, “trapped”.
All the frustrations and the growing conflict within the
story, truly begin within the first couple of pages. The land, in which Kestrel lives, Valoria, was
taken over by her father. The citizens,
who’d once lived there, were taken captive and made into slaves for the new
ruling government. One day, Kestrel, ends up stumbling upon an auction for such
slaves within her jaunt around the marketplace.
This is where; ultimately, we will meet Arin, who is not all he seems to
be.
Arin is from Herran and is quite sullen and angry about
everything that has happened within the lands.
He despises all who watch the auctions and it comes as no surprise when,
upon Kestrel outbidding everyone and “buying” him, that his sullen mood is not
deflected and does not lessen upon meeting her.
Though Kestral is rather embarrassed about what she’s done,
as she despises the whole process as well, she tries very quickly to forget
about her newly acquired help. In fact
he ends up becoming a blacksmith within her estate and very quickly earns his
right to be left to his own devices for the most part.
Throughout the entire book you begin to find that Kestral
can no sooner put Arin from her mind, as she is to decide her fate between
wedding and war. She finds herself in a
predicament she never thought she would be in regarding Arin and her whole life
and all within it hangs precariously in the balance.
All in all, I found the writing style of this book to be
exceptionally well done. The characters
were very well thought out as was the world development. It’s almost as if you can step into this new
land and see all that Kestral and Arin do, just through the descriptions
throughout the book. However, for some
reason I found that I could not connect to the characters and the plot as well
as I would have liked to. The emotional
pull was just not there for me with this one, guys.
Much the same occurred for me within the second novel in
this series, The Winner’s Crime.
I can’t give out too many details to this second novel, only
because of the major cliffhanger from the first novel. I will say, remember when I said Arin was not
all he seemed to be? There’s a lot more
to that statement than what you would think and if Kestral thought she was
trapped before? Nothing compared to what
she really has to deal with in this novel.
And do Arin and Kestral really get closer in this novel or is there some
sort of struggle that seems to be happening between the two of them? Can Arin truly be trusted?
Reading through the second novel, I found that the writing
style was still just as phenomenal and though I connected bit by bit emotionally,
it still fell short for me. I have not
picked up the third installment of this series, though I believe I will as I
still hold out hope that this next book will drive home the connection I would
so like to have with these books. I
ended up giving both of these novels, a 4 out of 5 stars on GoodReads.
If you have read these books, please let me know what you
think in the comments below and I’ll see you guys again soon!
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