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Winning Lara Deloza Books

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Winning Lara Deloza Books

Winning does exactly that. It wins! You know that you have really good book on your hands when you get mad that you have to stop reading. So many fun characters in this book and you will love to hate Alexandra Miles. She is like Blair Waldorf, Kathryn Merteuil & Diana Ladris all rolled into one! No spoilers, but so much plotting, planning & back stabbing! Loved it from start to finish. Do yourself a favor and read this book. Great job once again by Ms Deloza! #Winning


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Winning Lara Deloza Books Reviews

Five stars for WINNING! This book is so good. Each teen's voice is unique and great. There is so much going on both over and under the surface. You don't want to miss this one.
Winning is such fun! Alexandra is conniving and driven and won't stop until she is Homecoming Queen, no matter who she has to step on to get there. You can't help but love hating her. It's a little bit Mean Girls, offering a snarky but realistic view of high school girl drama. It's a little bit House of Cards--Alexandra will do ANYTHING to be queen. And it's a little bit Game of Thrones--with 3 girls battling it out for their chance to wear the crown. It's all Lara Deloza, with smartly written characters and a page turning plot! Enjoy!
See more of my reviews on The YA Kitten! My copy was an ARC I got for review from YA Books Central.

Diversity Rating 2 – It’s a Start!

Racial-Ethnic 0
QUILTBAG 4 (Sam is lesbian; Erin is either lesbian or bi, but it’s never specified)
Disability 2 (Lexi’s mom is drug-addicted)
Intersectionality 1

About five years ago, Charlie Sheen had a meltdown and coined phrase after phrase. One of them was “winning” and it seems apt that this novel has the title it does. Why? Because Winning the novel is just as ridiculous and terrifying as Sheen’s downward spiral and will have you reacting in many of the same ways. (Still more entertaining than most Charlie Sheen-starring shows or films, though.)

Winning is told through four different points of view Lexi, the pageant queen who serves as both primary narrator and antagonist; Sam, Lexi’s best friend; Sloane, a former victim of Lexi’s bullying; and Ivy, an outcast who spends all of her time ignoring what people say about her big incident. The four come into conflict when a new girl named Erin moves to town and Lexi pulls together a plan to make sure sweet, genuine Erin doesn’t beat her in the race for homecoming queen.

The book knows its readers are smart and will recognize that Lexi is a terrible, terrible person who uses Sam’s attraction to her to keep Sam in line, works to build Ivy’s confidence up solely to knock her back down and make herself look good, and has no problem. That’s why I call her the antagonist when primary narrators like her are usually the protagonist. Still, for how awful she is, she’s an incredibly interesting character with little gleams of humanity here and there. The more you learn about her home life and the way her mother raised her, the more sympathetic she gets.

Still the antagonist, though. A sympathetic bad guy is still a bad guy. A sequel about her would be wonderful considering where she is at story’s end, but this is absolutely a standalone novel.

All four narrators have clear, distinct narrative voices and excellent characterization. They’ve all got secrets that slowly unravel too, like the horrifying story behind Ivy’s suddenly-punch-though-a-window-and-scream-bloody-murder incident. For Ivy in particular, what happened to her is spoken of and understood implicitly. Deloza’s decision to have Ivy avoid specific details is realistic and handled in a way that’s unlikely to trigger readers.

Thanks to the enthusiasm with which Lexi pursues her goals, it’s easy to get caught up in her plot. Still, you remember every now and again that this is all done in the name of being homecoming queen. Building an already-beaten-up girl’s confidence again just to humiliate her in a new way, drugging people, and worse–all so she can be homecoming queen. I’m only four years out of high school and I can’t even remember who homecoming queen was! It’s a worthless title but convincingly written like it matters more than anything else, which speaks to Deloza’s talent. Even the plan to take Lexi down made me stop every now and then and wonder what was in the town’s water supply!

As well-written as all four narrators and the major supporting characters are, the central four’s voices see their flows interrupted from time to time. Their narration will forego contractions for some reason and it just doesn’t “feel” right when you try to read the passages out loud to yourself. Other than that, how much you love the novel is dependent on how much you can go with the premise and care about the homecoming scheme as much as Lexi.

If high school has you stressed as you’re trying to climb the social ladder or be named something or other (prom court, most likely to succeed, a club president, etc.), chill out. You’ll be there for four years and it’s your primary social environment, yeah but it’s still just high school in the end. It’s merely a place to learn stuff and the rest will be what you want to make of it! If you take it too seriously, you become Lexi and you really don’t want to be her. Girl has issues. Winning is both an entertaining read and a grounding experience I think could change a teen’s life for the better.
The claws come out in Winning, where no one is safe when a crown is at stake; highlighting the highs and the lows with the cost of popularity. Told in a series of four voices, Winning allows readers to see the fight for the crown at all angles, breathing real life events and emotions into each of the girls involved.

Written in an ease that propels readers quickly through the book, Lara Deloza gives readers real, relatable characters that allow them to fall right into the story. From humiliation to envy, betrayal and even love, every aspect of high school and popularity comes to light. However, even with a protagonist that you want to hate, you can’t help but empathize with her, as the mystery unfolds to why she is the way she is.

Exploring the complexity of High School relationships, friendships and the lengths one will go to be accepted by her peers, Winning is a perfect summer read for anyone who wants to be reminded of humility.

*Full review published in Dixon Independent Voice Newspaper column- For the Love of Books
Fast read about life in high school!
5 stars for this deliciousness. If you fear it might be your typical mean-girls-versus-nice-girls throw-down, I have good news It's much more substantial than that. Snappy writing, fresh voices, and no skimping on plot OR character. It's a candy bar read, but think high-quality Swiss chocolate for the true YA connoisseur. When you finish it, you'll want more. But beware Your standards will be higher.
Winning does exactly that. It wins! You know that you have really good book on your hands when you get mad that you have to stop reading. So many fun characters in this book and you will love to hate Alexandra Miles. She is like Blair Waldorf, Kathryn Merteuil & Diana Ladris all rolled into one! No spoilers, but so much plotting, planning & back stabbing! Loved it from start to finish. Do yourself a favor and read this book. Great job once again by Ms Deloza! #Winning