Author: Laurie Devroe
Publication Date: January 30th 2018
Publisher: Imprint (Macmillan)
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Macmillan International (THANK YOU!)
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Blurb Description: For Nell Becker, life is a competition she needs to win.For Jackson Hart, everyone is a pawn in his own game.They both have everything to lose.
Nell wants to succeed at everything—school, sports, life. And victory is sweeter when it means beating Jackson Hart, the rich, privileged, undisputed king of Cedar Woods Prep Academy. Yet no matter how hard she tries, Jackson is somehow one step ahead. They’re a match made in hell, but opposites do attract.
Drawn to each other by their rivalry, Nell and Jackson fall into a whirlwind romance that consumes everything in their lives. But when a devastating secret exposes their relationship as just another game, how far will Nell go to win?
Visceral and whip-smart, Laurie Devore’s Winner Take All paints an unflinching portrait of obsessive love, toxic competition, and the drive for perfection.
Actual Rating 1.5 Stars
I FEEL LIKE WE SHOULD
OFFICIALLY RENAME THIS BOOK TO “THE CHRONICLES OF THE MOST MESSED UP CHARACTERS
IN LITERATURE.”
Not lying, I was FAIRLY EXCITED when I dove into this book.
It sounded like a light and yet adorable high school read that I was quite
looking forward to. I even had Laurie Devroe on my blog a little while ago and
she is SUCH a nice human and I was looking
forward to her second book.
SPOILER: I DID NOT
LIKE THIS BOOK. AT ALL. I WANTED TO SHAKE THE CHARACTERS HARD TO ALLOW SOME
SENSE TO PASS INTO THEIR SILLY HEADS BECAUSE I DID NOT GET THIS BOOK.
In fact, I was SO SO
CLOSE to DNF’ing it that the only ONLY reason I kept reading was because I LIKE
THE AUTHOR and I WAS HOPING HER BOOK WOULD TAKE A TURN FOR THE BETTER. (It
did not.)
My Thoughts:
1. About
50 pages into the book, I WAS (STILL) WAITING TO FEEL THE CHEMSTRY between Jackson
and Nell. I LOVE the enemies to lovers trope but from the very get go // first
scene between them, I STRUGGLED TO FEEL EVEN AN OUNCE of chemistry. They were
both headstrong and complicated and unwilling to see things outside of their
own perspective and sometimes that works, BUT IT DID NOT WITH THESE TWO and instead they came off as selfish,
self-obsessed teenagers with egos the size of a large country.
2. I get that this book tried to portray the
double standards is gives men and women and I WOULD have liked that had I liked
the character who was trying to send across that message. Nell Becker was a
petty human being who was running The Nell Show and there wasn’t a single time
in the book that I liked her as a person. She ran around claiming she had to
work twice as hard because she wasn’t filthy rich (but she WAS upper middle
class) and because she was a girl (YES, SO AM I) and really, I HATED EVERY
SECOND OF IT. This book was a 400
page PITY PARTY AND REVENGE PLOT (sex scenes included) and I AM SO MAD RIGHT
NOW.
3. NELL BECKER FAKED A PREGNANCY AND LIED
ABOUT THE POSITIVE ON THE TEST BECAUSE SHE WANTED JACKSON TO BEG AND APOLOGIZE
AND PLEAD AND WHAT EVEN IS THAT. I DID NOT UNDERSTAND THIS GIRL OR HER
SELFISH AS FUCK MOTIVATIONS. Even as
she FAKED A DAMN PREGNANCY FOR SYMPATHY, she had the most HOLIER THAN THOU
ATTITUDE AND HONESTLY, SHE NEEDED A REALITY CHECK.
4.
Jackson Hart was NO BETTER EITHER. He knew some
pretty messed up drama between Nell’s family and his own and ALL THROUGH THE
BOOK HE WAS TRYING TO WIN SOME GAME I COULDN’T BEGIN TO FATHOM.
5.
Really, WHAT WAS EVEN HAPPENING? I was
disgusted at the ridiculousness of the characters in the book and the
PRIVELIDGE that Nell had but CLAIMED SHE NEVER DID. She was ignorant, rude
and playing life in a way I couldn’t understand.
I apologize for the rant, but I am simply mentally
EXHAUSTED. If you didn’t get it, I did not like this book. At all. 1.5 stars.
Laurie Devore was born and raised in small town South Carolina and graduated from Clemson University. She now lives and works in Chicago, where she misses the charms and contradictions of the south every day. In her spare time, she reluctantly runs marathons, watches too much TV, and works a “y’all” into every conversation.
How to Break a Boy is her first novel, followed by Winner Take All.
Have you read either of Laurie Devroe's books? What do you think of them?
What was the last book you read that you didn't like at all?
What are some of the book I should stay AWAY from?
I'd absolutely love to hear from you!
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