Girl in the Arena

Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines
The fans all went wild. So did the paparazzi. But her father would up dead, killed in the arena on one of the biggest fight nights of the year. But by gladiator rules, Lyn is forced to marry her father's killer. Unless she fights him herself...

I bought this book expecting it to be filled with action, suspense, and intrigue. I bought it at the same time as Mockingjay and was expecting something in the same vein. Sometimes it can be good for a book to be unexpected, but this one was so far separated that I felt confused. I spent most of the book waiting and hoping for the big fight and it didn't happen until the very end.

The writing style was way different. I thought I would get used to it and I kind of did, but the farther I got into the book the harder it became to read. The way of formatting dialogue is hard to follow and almost made me put the book down. My mom picked it up and read a couple pages and refused to keep going simply because of the format.

I loved Lyn and the story in the beginning, but as the story went on both of them fell short. The plot itself dragged on and on while I waited for the big fight. Lyn almost didn't feel real with some of her thoughts and decisions, especially regarding Uber.

I liked Lyn in the beginning, in fact, she seemed to almost be me with how she acted in some situations. But after awhile she just started to get annoying. She would go into a flashback and it would take me a couple of pages to realize what was going on. She never seemed to hate the man who killed her father nearly as much as she should have. Allison just bothered me. After all she'd been through it made sense that she was the way she was, but it didn't make sense why she didn't really seem to care about her children. I loved Mark though and I still want to know more about him than anyone else. Thad was a sweetheart too.

I loved how the book was set in modern times, but after awhile it seemed almost too modern. It severely dates the book and instead of making it close to home, it makes the world we live in now almost unreal. The whole idea of War Tickets fascinated me, though.

Overall: 4.5/10

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

I can't believe she actually started to like Uber. I mean, the man killed her father. He didn't even have to. It says right in the beginning that Glad fights aren't always to the death so I don't understand why Uber couldn't just beat Tommy.

It took me forever to realize that Allison was dead. Lyn's brain was scrambled by the realization, but it made that whole scene hard to follow when she went on about the bathroom.

The only part of the ending that I didn't see coming was Thad's stabbing. It still doesn't feel right to me. I had to read it twice to realize what happened.

I wish the epilogue had revealed more than the fact that the fight never happened and Thad survived. I want to know that Lyn ends up with Mark.

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