Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines

So I picked up this book because I thought it had something to do with The Hunger Games, like there are those books all about it like "The girl who was on Fire" and some others. So when I picked this one up, I was disappointed for a second, then actually read the description and it sounded really awesome.


It takes you to Boston, but in this book, there are gladiatorial fights on television like we have boxing and kick boxing fights. However these gladiator fights can go too far, like deaths and maiming.

So this story is told from the point of view of Lyn, and she is called the daughter of the seven gladiators. Her mother married a gladiator, had Lyn, and her father died, then her mom remarried and her step father died, multiply this by four and you get Lyn in her current predicament. Her mom has married to Tommy, who is Lyn's favorite father by far but he's really nervous about his next match.


So when Tommy dies, the GSA (gladiator sports association) orders that Lyn must marry her step father's murderer.

So what's a girl to do? Well you'll have to read it to find out.

So this book, instead of quotation marks, has - and it really bothered me for most of the book. Towards the end I kind of got used to it, but I still missed quotation marks.

The ending could have been better, but this book was definitely interesting, a take on our society with a "barbaric" sport from ancient times.

There was a sprinkle of romance, but despite the sound of the inside cover jacket, it is not what the entire book is about.

So really good, if you can get past the no quotation marks thing.