When We Were Kings by Auryn Hadley

5 "When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Gladiator" Stars

I feel with this novel, I was first drawn to the cover. It was a girl with her head bent down as if she was suffering or felt shame, and yet she was dressed as a warrior... someone with power and who knew how to kick *ss and take names. Yet even with my initial interest in this book I didn't let myself get too excited about what I would find inside. Let's be honest, Kindle Unlimited has a lot of great and amazing options and I've saved a lot of money using it because so many books are available on it. But there are also those books that you pick up and while they sound like just your jam, the book inevitably ends up a disappointment.

Well I can say with complete confidence that you will NOT regret starting this novel. While the cover initially drew me in and caught my attention, it was the words and sentences and paragraphs and characters and storyline which held my attention and made me obsessed with the world this book presents. Literally this book blew my mind this week (which has been super stressful because of tests and pledging and other b.s.) and was the perfect thing to get me out of this funk. I've read some really amazing stories this past month so I was in a painful book hangover before I started When We Were Kings, and now I can say that my hangover might be even more torturous waiting for the third book to be released!

 - side note: For those intersected, there IS a third book that will be released at some time in the future... Hadley posted about it on FB after reposting my rave over her book! - 

And if you don't believe me when I say that I fell in LOVE with this book... well maybe the fact that I plan on reading and re-reading this series will prove to you readers out there who doubt my sincerity. Thanks to Goodreads' little addition of multiple "read" dates, I will be updating throughout this year with how many times I go back to this little nugget of gold. So there.

But in all seriousness guys... if you are into fantasy books with gladiators and just bad *ss characters then this is the book you need to go and set yourself up with! And then let me know just how much you loved it so I can fangirl with you over it. YOU NEED THIS BOOK!

You can find this lovely book at these outlets:

Goodreads

Amazon

Tossed into the gladiator arena, everyone expected the delicate girl in the fancy pink dress to be the first to die. Leyli had other plans. Surviving was at the top of her list. Revenge was a close second.

Having grown up behind the sheltered walls of the Oberhame Palace, she knew what the crowd wanted. Norihame had built their culture from the scraps of their neighbors. Gladiators were just one part. Evidently, political coups were another, and she'd just become a pawn in the games of men. But why was she still alive? They'd killed her brother, the heir to the throne. Had they gotten to her father? Was the king dead?

In the cell beside her, the Lion of Lenlochlien was impressed. The first day, they all cried. Men, women, it didn't matter. But this one was different. Her tears didn't slow her down, they just made her stronger, and when he looked in her eyes, he saw it. Her desperation was feral. It meant she wouldn't hesitate to do what she had to. She might be cornered, but that bitch was the kind that would bite.

When he offered advice, she took it. When he told her how to be better, she tried. When she kept coming back after each round, he dared to hope that she'd survive. He had no idea that he was about to become her best weapon. Leyli didn't just want to live through the games, she wanted to protect her father's throne, but to do that, she had to become someone else. She couldn't be the Princess of Norihame. The Lion had to make her a Wolf.

Chained side by side, he'll show her how to be a killer. She'll give him a reason to keep fighting. Together, they'll learn that it takes a friend to survive.

**When We Were Kings is a complete novel without a cliffhanger ending.**