Mini ARC Review: Winning by Lara Deloza



Title: Winning
Author: Lara Deloza
Series: N/A, Standalone
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, LGBT, Contemporary
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: June 28th, 2016
Pages: 336
My Rating: 2 Stars
Whoever said being nice would get you to the top?

Certainly not Alexandra Miles. She isn’t nice, but she’s more than skilled at playing the part. She floats through the halls of Spencer High, effortlessly orchestrating the actions of everyone around her, making people bend to her whim without even noticing they’re doing it. She is the queen of Spencer High—and it’s time to make it official.

Alexandra has a goal, you see—Homecoming Queen. Her ambitions are far grander than her small town will allow, but homecoming is just the first step to achieving total domination. So when peppy, popular Erin Hewett moves to town and seems to have a real shot at the crown, Alexandra has to take action.

With the help of her trusted friend Sam, she devises her most devious plot yet. She’ll introduce an unexpected third competitor in the mix, one whose meteoric rise—and devastating fall—will destroy Erin’s chances once and for all. Alexandra can run a scheme like this in her sleep. What could possibly go wrong?

  I was given an ARC by the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. 


I consider Wining to be a pretty unique book. It's hard to come across books with the supposed "villain" as the main character, but it's even hard to find books where that "villain" is unapologetic. It was interesting for me to see all the scheming and ruthlessness done just to achieve the results that the school's "queen" wants.

However, the thing is, I wasn't really able to enjoy this book that much. At first it was entertaining and refreshing, but as the story went on, it just became dragging. I felt like rolling my eyes and I didn't really see a point anymore. I wanted to put this book down, but I couldn't because I always have a hard time DNF-ing books. As a result, I read this for a week, which for me is really, really slow.

I'd like to say that I enjoyed this book but I really did not. I'm only giving this book 2 stars because I think it was unique and kinda entertaining at first. It's also hard to make a contemporary character who is "evil" through and through and who would stop at nothing to get what she wants.

dragging stars

Labels: , , , , , , ,