Book Review: The Winner's Curse

TITLE: The Winner's Curse
Book 1 in The Winner's Trilogy
AUTHOR: Marie Rutkoski
PUBLISHED: March 4rth, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: Kestrel purchases a slave just as things are about to change in her country...
MY REVIEW: This book has been making the rounds lately and now after finally being able to read it, I totally see why. Normally, I'm bothered by slave fiction. Especially the ones that have the master falling for the slave because almost none of them go into the consent issues surrounding it. In fact, some of them outright glorify slavery.
This one happily does not. Arin is never once happy to be a slave and it's never excused. Granted, I wish the book went more into the consent issues of it....but at the same time it's YA so I get why the author probably couldn't. I will warn, it takes awhile to get to the point. The best parts of the book happen after the middle when stuff starts to go down. So, I would be patient while reading this.
If you're going into this hoping for a YA Game of Thrones...please don't. I've said it before and I'll say it again: there'll probably never be a YA version of Game of Thrones, because YA is so policed that it can't go where GoT does (and yes, that does bum me out spectacularly). But if you want a fantasy to sink your teeth into, this is a perfectly decent read.
WHO SHOULD READ: Fantasy fans, Graceling fans, Throne of Glass fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five revolutions