The Winner's Curse

A general's daughter in the Valorian Empire, a gifted strategist and pianist who must choose between joining the military and marrying.

A Herrani blacksmith enslaved after the Valorian conquest of his homeland, bought at auction by Kestrel; formerly the son of a Herrani noble family.

Kestrel's father, the Valorian Empire's most celebrated general, who led the conquest of Herran roughly a decade before the story begins.

Kestrel's closest friend among Valorian high society, part of the same circle of parties and suitors that Kestrel is expected to navigate.

Jess's brother, a young Valorian nobleman who courts Kestrel and proposes marriage to her.