Summary:
Nell Becker is the best student at the prestigious Cedar Woods Prep Academy.  Nell, who was only granted admission to the elite prep school because of her mother’s job is the best student, best volleyball player, and best student government member.  She works twice as hard as everyone else and nothing will stop her…except Jackson Hart.  Jackson Hart is the boy who’s GPA is dangerously close to Nell’s, he is the boy who never tries but always wins, he is the boy that may stop Nell from living up to her potential and achieving her dreams.  When Nell and Jackson start a romance it fast and fiery but when Nell learns Jackson may have lured her into a romance as part of game she vows to take him down and win back her spot at the top of school no matter what or who must be sacrificed.

Review:
This book is so hard for me to review.  There are aspects of "Winner Takes All" that I greatly respect.  Nell is a take charge, no nonsense female character that isn’t ashamed to have drive.  She is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish everything she wants even if it means playing dirty.  She is unlikable and there is something refreshing about that.  However, while reading the book I didn’t realize that was the point of Nell.  As I read the book, I felt that it was a weakness in character development that made the character feel one dimensional and completely unredeemable, it wasn’t until I read the author’s note that I realized that Devore was trying to write commentary on how young woman are viewed in our society, a strong message that is greatly weakened if an author’s note is needed.  Once that message is removed the book feels like a basic love/hate romance books with characters that are not likable enough for the reader to care about their final romantic outcome.  The entire course of the main characters' relationship feels familiar and the book plays as expected.  There isn't anything too exciting or unexpected that makes the book move pass many other similar novels.

Bottom Line:
“Winner Takes All” is a book with a positive feminist message about equality and the role young woman play in society however the message may be missed by the average reader making the book feel familiar and uninteresting.

When I read the synopsis for this book I thought I was really going to enjoy it. I am a sucker for hate to love relationships (no matter how unrealistic they may be). However, this book made me cringe and roll my eyes and flat at scream at it. There were so many things that I disliked about this. First of all the main character Nell was so unlikable. She had few if any redeeming qualities. She would react in such toxic ways to the other characters especially towards her best friend Lia and Love interest Jackson (we'll get to him next.) When you think she may redeem herself for her horrible (and if I may so so unforgivable behavior) she does the exact opposite and does something worse. She literally turned out to be one of the worst human being I have ever read about. There was also so much girl hate and slut-shaming in this book and it was so disappointing. She would trash talk other girls and then make tremendous mistakes later on (See storyline at the end of book). She made so many stupid mistakes that I was yelling at the books in some places. The blatant victim-blaming made me sick also. As well as, the lying and mind games that were conducted by the main characters. At the beginning I thought I would relate to her because we had similar ambitions in high school to push ourselves to do the best at school...but she had such a disregard for others and their feelings that I could not understand how anyone liked her at all. She was constantly whining about the "rich kids" in her school and shown blatant disregard for anyone else's struggles. She was literally the worst kind of person. Jackson was just as bad, but at least he showed some kind of human emotion throughout (not that this made up for the despicable things he did). The way he used people and sought revenge was horrible. Even the ending was horrible. She didn't deserve it. She barely sought forgiveness but got it nonetheless. It was ridiculous. I am still mad. I am not going to waste another minute writing about this. This book was a major miss for me.
I received an Arc of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

For Nell, life is a competition she is determined to win.

For Jackson, everyone is a pawn in his game.

They both could lose everything.

Nell wants to be a success at everything and nothing is better than winning to her. Jackson is rich and priviledged. No matter how hard Nell tries, Jackson is one step ahead of her. But it’s like the saying goes, opposites attract.

Drawn to each other, the begin a romance that consumes everything. But when a secret exposes their relationship as another game, Nell has to decide how far she is willing to go to win.

Honestly I didn’t like Nell that much. She comes off way too judgemental and snotty. Jackson isn’t much better. The storyline was great, foe to friend is always good. But the characters were just awful. I couldn’t get past all the attitude, the judgement, and all the nasty gossip in the book.

Some of you may like it, but I definitely cannot pick it up again. A good character in the beginning of a book is pretty important to me and I just can’t do books where the main character whines about nothing.

I was very much intrigued by the synopsis of this one, but unfortunately the story didn't seem to go anywhere. While I can deal with an unlikeable hero or heroine for a while, neither truly showed any redeeming qualities as the book progressed.

Very good YA novel on rites of passage and the fact that false perceptions and insecurities are in all of us.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for the advance reader copy Winner Take All by Laurie Devore in exchange for an honest review. Devore’s analysis of teen girls and how they are judged differently versus teen boys who get it all in high school, sports, academics, and life when they want it was gripping; if you love Courtney Summer’s books, you will not be able to put this intense, authentic look at teens battling to become WINNER take all. Before Nell became a student at the private school, Prep, she was a happy public middle school student. But when her mother becomes dean at Prep hired to make the status quo more equitable, Nell becomes so focused on always being the winner in every aspect of her life. But Nell will never be rich like most of the students at Prep. And Devore uses Nell’s flawed character perfectly as she butts heads daily for years with perfect, rich, smart athlete, Jackson Hart. I found Nell, Jackson, their friends and family all real flawed characters each dealing with life in messy ways. I was mesmerized by the Nell-Jackson relationship, I could not stop turning the pages as Nell takes on Jackson; she blasts him with her honesty and winner take all credo, while Jackson maintains his status, ego, and sick secrets. This is a book that will speak to so many teens; the cover was perfect too. The reader doesn’t have to always like Nell or Jackson all the time, but these two teens are scathingly explored as victims too of their parents, power, and identity. Will they find their true selves, a must read. Highly recommended!

I was highly anticipating this book ever since I saw that cover and reading that premise, but unfortunately this just went downhill for me. 

Something I noticed was that the book didn't really have a plot. While I was reading I wasn't feeling like the story followed a path or that it was something besides competition and revenge. 

I really disliked our main character Nel. She was a very unlikeable protagonist, and though I usually tend to connect with those type of characters, I found her extremely annoying and immature. She was also a really toxic character; I couldn't realise that at the beginning of the book, but as I continued with the story, the things she did (which were not the best) and her possessiveness and obsession towards the love interest and being number one made me distance a lot. 

It was quite interesting to read from the point of view of a toxic person, because I think there's not much representation of those people in YA books, and sadly, there are many of them in real life, but being the way she was, I neither liked her nor the romance she had with her ememy/love interest. 

I also didn't like the way mental health was portrayed in the book. Our protagonist suffered a few panic attacks, and if I remember right she also had anxiety, and it was completely dismissed throughout the entire story. I'm pretty sure there was once where a character told her maybe she should ask for help, and she completely ignored it and moved on. And I was really sad to see that, because I was waiting for someone to talk about it and adress it, and the book mainly focused on Nel's vendetta. 

The story was lineal and the characters unidimensional. Most of them didn't add anything to the story, and were there mostly to fill space or because the protagonist needed to talk to someone. They weren't very realistic, and didn't have hobbies or fears or anything that would suggest they were humans with their own lifes. 

It was pretty bored sometimes. Though sometimes I was fairly enjoying the story, there were other moments where nothing interesting was really hapenning, The romance was quite problematic and toxic, and there was too much teen angst.

This was a dark read, as expected, but it wasn't the story I was expecting. This was solidly Nell's story in my opinion. This was the tale of girl, who had been broken by the standards imposed by society, the pressure to achieve, and the demands of her overbearing mother.

•Pro: I found myself fully engrossed by this book. I found myself wanting to read just one more chapter, because I had to see where this was all going.

•Pro: I think people are going to find Nell unlikable, however there was something about the way Devore wrote her that made me share her pain and disappointments. I don't know if it was me relating to her as a woman, but as off-putting as she was, I wanted things to work out for her. She also experienced a lot of growth and was a different, wiser girl at the end of the book.

•Pro: This book takes on a lot of different topics broken families, class structure, but the one that resonated the most with me her exploration of gender inequality. Having graduated from engineering school and worked in IT, I just was able to related to what Nell was feeling.

•Pro: Devore also discusses the double standard that exists in society. Because Nell was driven and had goals she hoped to achieve, she was viewed as intense, in a negative way, whereas the boys were encouraged to go for what they wanted. Because Nell initiated sexual encounters, she was a slut, but you know, boys will be boys. I just found myself nodding my head in agreement often.

•Con: I was happy with the ending, but not totally satisfied. I still have some questions, but I think it was decent.

•Pro: I was a fan of the setting. Devore let us see some of the South Carolina beauty, and I always love seeing how the other half lives.

•Pro: The power politics were mind-blowing. This is not part of my nature, so watching it play out between Jackson and Nell was highly enlightening for me. Sometimes, it made me a little sad, but like a good train wreck, I could not look away.

•Pro: Go ahead, hate me, but I ended up liking Jackson. He evolved a lot over the course of the story, and there was good under all that damage.

•Pro: There was something about the romance that worked for me. It was obsessive and a little over the top, but there were these seemingly genuine moments shared between the two.

Overall: A provoking look at what can happen when the pressure to succeed pushes one girl past her limits.

I'm not even sure where to start. Reading this book was a chore, an absolute dreadful chore.
I'm sure there are people who will adore this book but unfortunately I was not one of them. These characters are awful, they are the worst type of people. They had ZERO redeeming qualities. We are suppose to feel sorry for Nell because she a scholarship kid in a prep school. It was impossible for me to sympathize with her at all, she was a rude moralist. Jackson wasn't any better. He played games and toyed with people. It was awful. I was hoping this would be a fun snarky love-hate relationship but I was sorely mistaken. This relationship was on the verge of being volatile. I hoped it would get better but it doesn't. Unfortunately for me this whole book was a miss.

I have such mixed feelings about this book. The writing is SUPERB. My issue is with how unlikable the main character, Nell, is. Despite how unlikable Nell is, I understood her and emphasized with her which played into my reaction to her. She's broken and competitive and anxious and somehow Jackson saw through all of that and loved her. A beautifully written YA book that touches on real life issues such as anxiety, class and wealth divide, sexuality, and feminism.

I wanted to love this book, but I didn't, and it wasn't because of the writing, it was because of the main character, Nell. This is a story about the pressures of society and the mental strain that teenagers (girls) are under due to the societal norms that are followed by most. Nell and Jackson push each other in may ways, and their relationship is complicated. I felt like they had a strong connection but as truths are revealed the change in their behaviors was a bit frustrating as a reader. I couldn't relate to Nell and I haven't been through what she has been through so I believe that is why I struggled with her character. She grew and changed, but she also really made me mad. I think that this was a good book, just not my personal favorite, though I have been thinking quite a bit about the way women and men are treated differently in certain situations so I guess that the author wrote something that made an impact on me. Thank you to netgalley for a chance to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is quite a tale of game playing among the rich and privileged. At times I found the narration to be verbose and ambiguous but did enjoy it for the most part.

Y’all this book was a…… a real mess. I’m trying not to get mad at it but you know what?? I was actually <i>excited</i> to read this and it turned out to be actual crap bag full of white feminism and victim-blaming and a metaphorical landfill. Screw this.

I feel completely jipped. There is 1 (one) redeeming quality in this book and that is Nell’s character arc but you know what? It doesn’t even really begin until the book is about <b>75% over</b>, and then it just seemed rushed and by that point I was just extremely capital-D Done, anyway. I feel like I wasted four days of my life reading this, all because I wanted to finish it to see if the problematic issues in it were resolved (haha they <b>weren’t</b>).

Listen,, for a book that was supposed to shoot down slutshaming and be super empowering, there was a <b>surprising amount of girl hate</b> hidden in between the pages. <blockquote><i>”Boys get to have it all. Girls are either sluts or saints.”</i></blockquote> Interesting, Nell, since you spend the ENTIRE NOVEL slutshaming girls and blaming the victims of unhealthy/abusive marriages.

Let’s start with slutshaming and the “I’m not like other girls” mentality. There’s a scene at the beginning of the novel where Nell and her friends are going to a party, and Nell describes her outfit for the night like this: <blockquote><i>”I have on a tasteful sundress and a headband holding my auburn hair in place, understated, unlike what some of the other girls showed up in.”</i></blockquote> Like,,, dude,,,, why?? Why are you hating on girls just so casually?? This ain't challenged, either!! <s>Side note: I swear the word auburn is used to describe Nell’s hair like ten times throughout the novel and there are literally no other adjectives used to describe it and I’m just like ok we get it your hair is flippin auburn</s>. And then Nell goes on to talk about this girl Tristan. <blockquote><i>”I know Tristan Kaye, but not well. She’s the kind of girl who comes with a reputation and a hell of a lot of baggage. [sic] Mostly I know that Tristan Kaye is not the kind of girl I’d ever want to be.”</i></blockquote> And before people come at me saying “but wait!! Nell changed!!” I know Nell’s opinion of TRISTAN changed, but the smack that Nell and her mother talk about “other girls” in general does not. Nell is entirely condescending (calling a girl saying she prefers Jane Austen’s novel “trite” in a sarcastic way), shames another girl for making out with Jackson (not resolved), and straight up <b>victim blames</b> Jackson’s mother for staying in an abusive relationship. In fact, the rushed resolution of this novel caused for me to not see much of Nell’s personal growth at all. <spoiler> The two things that Nell REALLY changed about herself were this: No more slutshaming Tristan, and taking care of her mental health while learning to be a better friend. All the other issues I had? Not resolved. Not that those two things are unimportant or don’t matter, but it would have been nice to see some bigger changes too.</spoiler>

Okay. Listen. The victim-blaming that takes place in this novel is entirely non-subtle and I’m surprised that no one else has called it out yet. When Jackson opens up to Nell about his father emotionally abusing and cheating on Jackson’s mom, thiS IS NELL’S FREAKING REPLY AND IT MAKES ME SO VERY <B><I>ANGRY</I> THAT THIS CRAP EXISTS I LITERALLY DON’T UNDERSTAND:</B> <blockquote><i>”’She </i>allows<i> herself to be disrespected by some, some’—I search around as if for a word bad enough, and then one comes to me, as if from the sky—‘dickhead. And that’s why she gets treated like s**t.’”</i></blockquote> I mean, you’re kidding me, right? This isn’t real. Lol I wanted to stop reading right then and there but you know what!! I didn’t! Silly me, I thought that this would be an aspect of Nell’s character development, but this issue is literally <b>never resolved.</b> You don’t have the privilege of calling yourself a feminist book if you are going to spout crap like this. Fun fact: a victim of an emotionally abusive relationship isn’t “allowing” themselves to be “disrespected.” In what world is it Jackson’s mom’s fault that her husband is cheating on her? Why is it on her to fix this?? I’m seriously so <b>angry</b> right now that I can barely string my words into coherent thoughts. Like, people legitimately still say crap like this?? I wouldn't be mad if this had been a part of Nell’s character arc but it’s not. It’s literally never mentioned again. I’m so pissed.

Another thing that really ticked me off about this whole thing was just how incredible white and straight this novel was. The entire book, Nell’s ENTIRE narrative, revolves around the fact that everyone treats Nell differently because she is middle class and a girl. I was getting so freaking <i>tired</i> of hearing Nell whine all the time, and you wanna know why? a) she’s white, b) she’s straight and cis, c) she is going to a <i>private school</i> and pretty much KNOWS that she is going to get a volleyball scholarship to a good school, d) her family isn’t poor. They’re upper-middle class. They just live in a super upper class town so Nell thinks they’re poor. <b>This was like when you hear about those studies where the 1% think that the average American family makes 200k a year. You know how we all thought that that was entirely fake and the rich people are idiots? Nell and her folks are that supposedly average American family.</b>

And yet the novels makes Nell’s external struggle to be so much more than it actually is. The book only <i>very briefly</i> acknowledges racism. In one instance, when someone in Jackson’s friend group gets hurt while they are all doing something stupid, Jackson acknowledges his privilege and tells their friend Columbus that he’ll take the fall for him because <i>”’Columbus’s mom is the district solicitor, and he’s a black athlete from a rich family. If the cops find him, he’s f*****g done for. Get the hell out of here.’”</i> In another instance, Nell’s friend Michonne calls Nell out for her BS by saying, <i>”’You think you’re the only one at this school who has to protect herself? Me—I’m not straight. I’m not white. Money doesn’t fix everything.’”</i>. However, these are literally <b>the only two instances where the book acknowledges white privilege</b>. Michonne and Columbus are the only two poc characters inside the entire novel, and have about 20 minutes of combined screen time, tops.

And not only that, but the book also kind of takes the phrase “you will have to be twice as good as them to get half as much,” (a phrase often used to show how systematic racism makes it harder for black people to be successful in an America where white people have so much privilege) and <b>applies it to Nell. A white person.</b> This occurs twice, and though the book doesn’t use the exact wording, the message is the same. Once, when Nell’s mother tells her, <i>”’You’ll have to work harder than them to get what they’ll get,’”</i> and another time when Nell’s friend Lia says, about her own upper class privilege, <i><b>“’We get twice as much for half the work because I was born into this family.’”</b></i> I mean, come on. Not sure if this was done on purpose but either way, not okay!! This is absolutely ridiculous. Nell has so much privilege and the book barely even <i>acknowledges</i> it.

The writing wasn’t that good either. This book implied nothing. Whenever someone was saying something sarcastic, the exposition popped in with <i>in case you couldn’t tell, this is sarcasm. I meant the opposite of what I said.</i> Like,,, I know, okay, I wasn’t born yesterday. <blockquote><i>”She’d been latched onto Jackson like a parasite for the past three months. ‘Can’t believe that didn’t work out,’ I say, like I absolutely can believe that.”</i></blockquote> and <i><blockquote>”Jackson laughs at that, and I watch the lines of his face, the way he doesn’t think it’s funny at all.”</blockquote></i>

So bottom line is, don’t waste your time on this book. I feel cheated. I want those four days of my life back. It wasn’t worth it.

I had some issues with this book. It started out as a delightful enemies-to-lovers romance until just after halfway through when Nell's behavior became more alarming. Jackson had some problematic issues (such as his inability to leave Nell alone when she told him to go away) but most of that bordered on being unfortunate demonstrations of affection moreso than outright creepy. Then Nell and Jackson were together but still not trusting each other because Nell was focused on her future, which felt off for most of the book. She was clearly doing it because of issues with her mother, but that relationship was in the background for so much of the book that it felt out of place. It also felt like Nell's problems with her mother were resolved rather quickly, as was Nell's relationship with Jackson. Because the reader is in Nell's head we know how she truly feels about Jackson, but I couldn't understand why she would actually trust him so quickly.

That said, I will definitely still be recommending this to some people because I do not think it is wholly without merit and even with my issues with this book I still managed to read through it quickly with some enjoyment.

I f@cking loved this book!
I loved, loved, LOVED Nell....how she owned what she wanted, how she went after it with everything she had and never felt ashamed of herself. (Don't get me wrong, there were some parts I hoped she would have exercised a little bit of caution, just to not hurt herself (or someone else) but overall she was amazing imo).
I even liked Jackson...all his faults made me like (but to a certain extent).
Laurie Devore is one of my favorite writers and I can't wait to see what she comes out with next!
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

A quick read, this is your average story of privileged teens with too much time and money on their hands and parents who are either absent or oblivious, making decisions that would be life-changing for the average kid, but are merely a blip on the radar of their lives. The characters are underdeveloped and shallow with few redemptive qualities.

Not a first recommendation

I can't....I can't really formulate a thought. I'm not even sure how I feel. I know that I didn't want this book to end.
I really disliked Nell's character through about 90% of this book, but I 'got' her. I got where she was coming from. I got why she was so messed up.
I loved the running theme of the Scarlet Letter.
I loved this book and didn't want to see it end. And now that i's over....I'm not sure what happened in the end. SO I'm just going to believe it ended just the way I wanted.

I did not finish this novel. The plot about two obessive competitive teens was easy enough to follow; the writing style was not. Very salty language and immoral behavior also contributed to why I did not finish this book. I had no emotional investment in Nell or Jackson but did like the secondary character of Lia. This book was not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While reading this book, I wasn't quite sure what to think of it. I found myself not really liking the main character, Nell, yet I did like the male lead, Jackson. Nell is complex and interesting, but she is not someone I would ever be friends with. Jackson I found personable and entertaining despite his flaws, and I grew to like him more and more as the story went along and more about him was revealed. I liked what the author was aiming at with the book and felt she did a great job of exploring the drive for perfection and how strong girls are perceived when they aren't lady-like in their pursuit for success. The hatemance was a fun aspect to the story, and I enjoyed the relationship between Nell and Jackson, despite how screwed up it was at times. Devore does very well with writing complicated girls, and it's a book I would recommend.