I admit, I was completely skeptical about this one. Frankly, the cover is a little more than girly and/or cheesy—that fluffy-ass dress is a little overdone, no? But, there are so, so many YA fiction novels that fall into that same trap, that type of excessive cover picture, and this is really where that old adage comes into play. (Do not judge a book by its cover.)

I zipped through this book for several reasons. 1) The writing had a clean, but poetic quality to it like a stream or brook just flowing along; 2) It wasn't mired down in endless descriptions, or nonsense court-related duties, or the backstories of secondary or tertiary characters; and 3) It was just so damned engaging—I did not want to put it down.

The Winner's Curse is the type of book that presents a story to you, and then attacks it head-on. There's no wasteful meandering about, exploring dead-end storylines for uninteresting or sidelined characters. There are no seemingly endless descriptions of the rooms, furniture, dresses, landscapes, and battles. Most importantly, at least to me, at this point in the year, each sentence doesn't feel irritatingly urgent, and the chapters do not end with the type of dun-dun-dun!-attempt at an epic sentence.

Plus, I really liked these characters. Kestrel and Arin are just enchanting. They are stubborn, smart, and calculating. There's no instant love here, so instead we get to enjoy the slow-build of actual romance, resistant though it was.