Teaser Tuesday #89: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here's what I'm teasing this week:

Title: The Winner's Curse
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Series: n/a
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux BYR
Publication Date: March 4, 2014
Source: borrowed from the awesomely amazing Christina
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Winning what you want may cost you everything you love.

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

My teaser:

     "Arin was silent, and even though Kestrel had initially tried to answer his question in the briefest of ways, she felt compelled to explain the final reason behind her resistance to the general. "Also, I don't want to kill."  Arin frowned at this, so Kestrel laughed to make light of the conversation.  "I drive my father mad.  Yet don't all daughters?  So we've made a truce.  I have agreed that, in the spring, I will either enlist or marry."
     He stopped spinning the tile in his fingers.  "You'll marry, then."

- p. 98 of ARC

All the hype over this book is undoubtedly worth it, and I am so lucky to have such an awesome friend like Christina to loan it to me so I don't have to wait forever to find out why!  Though I do own The Shadow Society, this is my first time actually reading a Rutkoski novel, and I have to say, I am thoroughly impressed. Which means it's only a matter of time before I make room in my reading schedule for the other book on my shelf.

Also, FYI, you can download the first five chapters of The Winner's Curse for free right now:  Kindle | Nook.



What are you teasing this week?  Share it in the comments or leave a link so I can visit!