Girl in the Arena

I took a self proclaimed snow day today, and I used it to finish up Lise Haines novel Girl in the Arena.

With a hook like:
Daughter
Celebrity
Neo-gladiator
...how could I walk away from it?
It's compelling. Haines kept me turning pages right up until the end.

Lyn is our main character. She has had seven gladiator fathers in her lifetime. When the seventh father is killed in battle, due to an odd circumstance, Lyn finds herself betrothed to her father's killer. Rough day.

Her mother has been a proud Glad wife and has always lived the Glad culture. She doesn't know anything else. With the death of her seventh husband, she is forbidden, by the code book, to marry another. She isn't able to handle that.

While Lyn is busy managing so many other things: the household, her mother, her brother with a disability, a seed begins to take root in her mind. She should fight her "fiance" for her freedom.

Interesting.
Fast-paced.
Page turning.

I will say the end was a little too pat, but don't let that detract from the book as a whole. I think Haines is on to something here...