Girl in the Arena

I really love this cover and the image
the girl give. Plus her outfit is amazing!

When the Vietnam War was going on, one man decided that he wanted to start a Neo-Gladiator competition because his son was killed during the war - a war that his son didn't want to be a part of. For 70 some years, the Neo-Gladiator competition has been thriving, getting more intense and more harsher every year until now there can be a competition to the death - not something that was looked at lightly when it was first created.

It is now 2009, and Lyn is a daughter of 7 gladiators. Her mother has married 7 gladiator competitors and every husband has died before their contract was done. Allison, her mother, is known as a Gladiator Wife and in the rules for Gladiators, a Gladiator Wife can only marry 7 Gladiators. Then she will be a widow for life. This has never happened - until Lyn's 7th father dies in the ring against Uber, a young, new Gladiator.

When her father, Tommy, died, he was wearing Lyn's bracelet that her 1st father gave to her, her courtship bracelet. The rule about her bracelet is that is anyone else becomes in possession of it, a male, he will have the right to marry the owner of the bracelet. Uber grabbed it when he killed Tommy, so now she is supposed to marry Uber, her father's murderer.

Lyn doesn't know what to do. She doesn't want to marry Uber. She doesn't want to be a Gladiator's Wife - because her mother has been it all of her life, Lyn sees the outcome of that life and swore she would stay away from that.

So now she has a decision: She either marries Uber or she fights against him in the arena - something no woman has been able to do and survive as of yet.

This was a great novel - it's definitely something I've never read before. Don't think that this is the same as Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - it's not. Lyn lives in a dystopian world of today's time. All of the actions from the Vietnam War to 9/11 have occurred and have influenced the Gladiator competitions based on the events that have happen to society. There is still New York City, everything environmentally is the same as we know it today. They just happen to have Gladiators and competitions to the death, and other, more advanced technology that can replicate a person.

I've been wanting to read this for awhile, and even though it's not my favorite book, it was very well written and the author definitely created a different perspective of the world that we know today with just a few twist and turns to make it a different society than what we know of.

Radiant Darkness

Greek mythology was always fascinating to me when I was younger. I didn't get into too many of the original stories because, honestly, I found them somewhat boring (this was when I was 10, by the way, and reading on my own). I wish I would have gotten more into the stories, though, because when I was reading this book, Radiant Darkness, I found that I didn't quite know the story of Persephone.

This is basically a retelling of how Persephone went to stay in Hell with Hades, her husband. Unlike the original story (from what the author talked about at the end of the novel), this Persephone went willing with Hades because she wanted to live her own life and she loved Hades for the man that he was, not the evil God that everyone knew him to be.

The inner struggles that Persephone went through when she left her mother, Demeter, and her feelings for Hades were very real and it showed how much Persephone cared for everyone around her. She wanted the right thing to happen in both Hell and Earth, and she certainly was not afraid to tell Hades what she thought of his ruling in Hell!!

One thing that did sort of bother me at the beginning of the story was that Demeter always called Persephone a child. With this being said, I started to see Persephone as a child and when Hades started to see Persephone, it was a little weird because Hades has a beard - which shows that he is certainly not a child!

Otherwise, this story was amazing! I want to go and read all of the original Greek mythology stories because it seems to be the new trend in today's society to rewrite/revamp Greek mythology stories and I want to know how right/similar they are to the original story.

Oh, and one more great thing about this novel? It's a stand alone!! I don't have to wait impatiently for the next novel to come out!

Between Here and Forever

I've read a couple of Elizabeth Scott's books in the past and just haven't really gotten into them. I decided to try this book, Between Here and Forever, because the storyline seemed really good and I always hear great things about Scott's books. While this book wasn't my favorite, I did enjoy it more than the other books that I've read of hers.

Abby is a younger sister, to Tess, the perfect daughter. Abby is 3 years younger and always seems to be in the shadow of Tess. Tess had perfect grades, perfect looks, perfect hair, and always got the guys to follow her around like little puppies. Abby has accepted the fact that she will never be as good as Tess is as life and that she will be in her shadow until she can go away to college where no one knows Tess.

Then, Tess gets into a car accident and goes into a coma. She's been in a coma for 6 weeks with no improvement. Abby sees this gorgeous guy in the hospital and realizes that if she can get the guy to talk to Tess, Tess will wake up and fall in love with this amazing, great looking guy.

The more time that Abby gets to know Eli (the gorgeous hunk), the more Abby starts to like him herself. And then, Abby starts to really look at who the person Tess was before her accident and see that Tess might not have been the perfect person that Abby really remembers when growing up.

This story is very relateable. I'm an older sister of 2, so I can't relate to Abby that much but I can definitely see where readers who are younger sisters have to follow in the footsteps of their older sister and feel as if they are invisible or not good enough. I think many young teen girls will fully appreciate this story because of what Abby goes through her whole life, and the experience she gets when she finds out about Tess's past.

Blood and Chocolate

Years ago I read  Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause. It's about a girl named Vivian who is a werewolf. She doesn't want to be a wereworlf and every month she fights off the urge to change into a wolf. The leader of her pack wants Vivian to become the next "Queen" of the pack but Vivian wants to get away from everyone that she grew up with. Then she meets Aiden, a human, or as she calls them, a meat-boy.

Aiden gives Vivian a new outlook of life and tells her that she has decisions to choose - she doesn't have to be told what to do. Vivian then has to decide if she wants to be the head werewolf of her pack and follow the leader's rules, or if she wants to pick her own destiny and maybe have a life with Aiden.

Movie cover.

This book is great! I loved it when I read it a long time ago and now there is a movie that was made from the book, directed by Katja von Garnier in 2007. It's not exactly like the book but it is a really good story and I can watch it again and again.

I'm not sure how popular this movie or book is, but I would definitely recommend it. It's not like most of the werewolf books out today because Vivian doesn't really want to be part of her pack, so she's trying to find ways out of her situation. It's a great story and the process where Vivian finds herself is very well written.

Pandemonium news

I did a review on Lauren Oliver's book, Delirium, last month and I just found out that she released her cover for the sequel, Pandemonium. Also, I'm very excited for this book because it show's Lena as more of a warrior since she's living on the outside of the city with the rules that she grew up with, so reading about this new Lena is going to be great! I love warrior, survival characters far more than subtle, following the rules.

Supernaturally excerpt

I did a review on Paranormalcy by Kiersten White a little while ago and I just found that the author put the first 4 chapters for free online! Go to this website and enjoy reading! This also comes out July 26th (very soon!) so I'm excited to see what Evie has in store for her.

Another exciting news for this author is that she has named her final book in this series already: Endlessly.

Harry Potter 7.2

Eeek! I'm going to be a geek for a minute and say, I'm so excited that the last Harry Potter movie is finally out!!! Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system, I'm going to clarify. I haven't seen the movie yet. That will be for next Sunday, hopefully. I've heard good reviews about it, so I'm hoping I won't be disappointed. I didn't read the book in preparation because I usually don't like the movie then, so I'm going in open minded and read to watch the epic, final battle between Harry and Voldemort.

In a way, I'm almost happy that the Harry Potter events are overwith. Don't get me wrong, I love Harry Potter and will forever reread the books and rewatch the movies. But 11-12 years of Harry Potter, while it's been good, has gotten to be a little much. Now I can just enjoy rereading the books and enjoy the storyline without having to wait impatiently for the next installment of the Harry Potterness.

Now I can find some other event to take up the next 10 years of my life ;-)