Friday, March 25, 2016

On Rereads: The Winners Trilogy by Marie Rutkowski

On Rereads is a monthly feature on My Thoughts Lit where I talk about the books I reread during the month. It's an opportunity to share some new thoughts on a book I read before and usually to prepare for a new release and sequel. For the foreseeable future I plan to do rereads every month so I want to share my thoughts on these books the second time around.

All the amazing books are coming out in the next couple months, amiright? In particular, there are some great sequels and series enders coming out in February, many of which are on my most anticipated books of the year. So to prepare I am reareading the books in their series. As usually these are my audiobooks for the month. But here is my thoughts on these rereads....

The Winner's Trilogy by Marie Rutkowski


The Winner's Curse -  (Amazon / Goodreads / AudibleMy Review)
The Winner's Crime  (Amazon / Goodreads / Audible / My Review)

I am such a fan of this series. It's without a doubt one of my favorite YA Fantasies without magic. I love the world which seems to be loosely based on Ancient Greek culture. the characters, and plot development. The characters in particular are my favorite part of this series. Kestrel is always a character I think of when I want to mention "strong female protagonists" that are decidedly feminine. She doesn't want to be a soldier, she doesn't want to be a wife, she wants to be a musician or a strategist, a leader. I love Kestrel for that.

These books are so well-plotted with amazing plot twists and big reveals. One of the things I found really interesting the first time around is the amount of dramatic irony that came from seeing both sides of the story. I remember thinking how great it was that in a conflict you were rooting for both sides to win. But the second time around, while it was interesting to see that again, I did find myself kind of annoyed by the lack of communication and conflict that it caused. But I am really glad I reread it in preparation of the final book in the series. I think I could have gotten by without the refresher but it was fun to check back in with this world.

But as far as the audio goes, I didn't love it. So much of my enjoyment of an audiobook comes down to the narrator. Which is often a personal preference. Some of my favorite narrators could not work for you and vice versa. Unfortunately Justine Eyre, the narrator here, is not one of my favorites. She is just too breathy and raspy for my taste. Now sometimes that worked. I loved the way she varied the accents based on the cultures and I thought Arin's and the accents of the Herrani were fine, but her accent for Kestrel and the Valorians I did not enjoy. And so much pf what I love about this series is Kestrel so the fact that I hated the sound of her voice was problematic.

Have you read the The Winners Trilogy? Did you reread in preparation for their series conclusions? Have you done any rereads lately? What books? Do you like doing rereads or not? Tell me why.  Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!

3 comments:

  1. I don't do a lot of rereads, but I am planning on a couple this year! I'm definitely going to re-read ACOTAR before the second book comes out! I did preorder The Winner's Kiss, but I probably won't reread this series because I didn't love the second book. An audiobook sounds like a great solution, but it sucks that the narrator wasn't great. :/

    Tracy @ Cornerfolds

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  2. I re-read the books before reading The Winner's Kiss and it was a brilliant choice. The Winner's Curse was as heart wrenching as it was the first time, even if I knew what was going to happen! Goodness!!

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  3. I haven't read these books yet but it sounds like the perfect time to binge read them all once book 3 is out! I've seen so many great reviews of these and I like the sound of this series! I love this feature on your book -- I love to re-read, especially favorite series in anticipation of the last book. I'm doing this now with The Raven Cycle series and I can't wait for the last book!!

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