Rate this book

A Gladiadora (2013)

by Lise Haines(Favorite Author)

2.99 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Underworld

review 1: I just could not get into this book. I think it's good for Hunger Games fans, but as I honestly didn't see those as the best books, I guess I can understand why I didn't like it and couldn't get into it. I just got bored with the book, and I stopped reading it for a little bit, then when I started to read it again, I just couldn't. So if you like the Hunger Games and some violence, then I think you'll probably like this book, but if not, then save your time and don't read it.
review 2: Oiy. I'm really struggling with the urge to give this book 2 stars instead of 3. I think a large part of this urge has to do with how much I dislike the title of this book, which doesn't really seem like a good reason to rate the whole book. I like the title by itself, if I... more find another book that is actually about a girl who fights in an arena I'm sure I will read it, that's what I thought I was getting here. I was wrong. I have a strong suspicion the title is supposed to be an over-wrought metaphor for how this girl lived her whole life in the "arena" of celebrity, hedged in and fueled by the brutality of an originally pure and altruistic sport gone horribly capitalistic and awry. This book is way too preachy and heavy-handed for me; subtlety is definitely not one of the arts practiced in this book.Then, there's the whole issue where the first 90% of the book the girl is never actually IN the arena, she's around, above and under it, and talks about it plenty, but never actually IN it fighting. Which is strongly related to the fact that she is a self-declared pacifist, and spends quite a bit of time and energy trying to stay OUT of the arena, even as a spectator.The writing and style of the book was very hit or miss for me. The punctuation and grammar were too ... let's call it experimental. I had to train myself to ignore all the em dashes, but that created its own problems as I had to then interrupt my flow several times to sort of if a remark was internal dialog or spoken and then by who. The redeeming factor here is that most of the internal remarks and flashbacks are quite insightful and genuine (if heavy-handed).The reasons I stuck with this book despite being horribly misled by the title and the book blurb is that the main character, Lyn, is strong, responsible, opinionated, flawed, and principled. She makes the best of a constantly deteriorating situation on her own terms. She has a slew of easy outs, but doesn't take any of them. We need more heroines like this. The story that is actually told in this book is well worth reading, it's just not the story that is advertised. less

Download links for: A Gladiadora

Advertising