There’s only so much you can do at the Ludus.

Look, I know it doesn’t sound dull, but I was already getting bored of it by the end of book one. Not going to lie, I was ready to pull my hair out thinking of another whole book of just gladiatrix battles. I also appreciated that there was more world-building in this book. Lesley definitely did better in Meriel’s case– even though she only had a few scenes, they were significant and memorable enough that I cared for her passing. Pretty much just let my girl, Lesley, know that I couldn’t have cared less about Mael and I knew I should’ve. In our last review I screamed my head off voiced my frustrations regarding the character Mael– Fallon’s first love who barely had two lines before he was killed in the first book. Not to pat myself on the back, but Lesley def took my note when it came to writing character deaths… or at least for one specific instance– Meriel. The first one was sort of feminist by default and in this one it seemed more purposeful.

I noticed Lesley stepped up the feminist themes in this one- props for that, girl. There were some aspects of the book that I really did enjoy. Pontius Aquilla, from the first book, takes over the Ludus and the book becomes, basically, a long journey that eventually leads them to reclaiming what was theirs at the very beginning. I was just sort of going into the sequel hoping that there were some improvements from the first book. I’m the odd one out, so to speak, among the RI&W girls because I wasn’t super in love with The Valiant- the first book in the series. So, let me just start by saying I went into this book with low expectations. Genre and subgenre: YA Historical Fiction Title and Author: The Defiant by Lesley Livingston

The defiant by lesley livingston