Darlene's Book Nook: #Audiobook #Review: 4 out of 5 stars for Gladiator by Anna Hackett @AnnaHackett

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

#Audiobook #Review: 4 out of 5 stars for Gladiator by Anna Hackett @AnnaHackett

TITLE: Gladiator
SERIES: Galactic Gladiators, Book #1

AUTHOR: Anna Hackett

NARRATOR: Vivienne Leheny
PUBLISHER: Anna Hackett

PUBLICATION DATE: April 26, 2017

FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook

LENGTH: 6 hrs and 21 mins

GENRE: Science fiction, Romance

ASIN: B07169WX7M

Fighting for love, honor, and freedom on the galaxy’s lawless outer rim…

When Earth space marine Harper Adams finds herself abducted by alien slavers off a space station, her life turns into a battle for survival. Dumped into an arena on a desert planet on the outer rim, she finds herself face to face with a big, tattooed alien gladiator…the champion of the Kor Magna Arena.

A former prince abandoned to the arena as a teen, Raiden Tiago has long ago earned his freedom. Now he rules the arena, but he doesn’t fight for the glory, but instead for his own dark purpose—revenge against the Thraxian aliens who destroyed his planet. Then his existence is rocked by one small, fierce female fighter from an unknown planet called Earth.

Harper is determined to find a way home, but when she spots her best friend in the arena—a slave of the evil Thraxian aliens—she’ll do anything to save her friend…even join forces with the tough, alpha male who sets her body on fire. But as Harper and Raiden step foot onto the blood-soaked sands of the arena, Harper worries that Raiden has his own dangerous agenda…

MY REVIEW:

While I do love sci-fi/dystopia, I don't have much interest in anything even remotely space related. One of my reading challenges is to read a sci-fi romance, and I've been dreading it because it really isn't my thing...or so I thought! I saw this author's books featured on another blog, and I made a note of her name because I'm not familiar with this genre. I'm a convert! I really REALLY enjoyed this sci-fi romance and can't wait to read the rest in this series!

Harper Adams is a space marine, who has been working aboard the Fortuna Research Station 600 billion kilometres from earth for almost 18 months. An alien ship travels through a wormhole, and Harper along with two of her friends are captured. She is taken to a gladiator arena, where she must fight to survive. She is determined to escape, but not before she finds and rescues her friends. She forms an unexpected alliance with Raiden, a powerful alien who belongs to the House of Galen. Their chemistry is pretty hot! Who knew that aliens could be sexy?!

I loved this sci-fi world that Hackett created, and I can't wait to learn more about the Thraxians. This book had lots of action, and I loved the fighting that takes place in the ring. The budding romance between Harper's friend, Regan, and Thorin (another alien warrior from the House of Galen) continues in the next book in the series, Warrior.

Vivienne Leheny's narration was great! She gave each character a unique voice which made it very easy to distinguish between characters. I'm planning to continue the series on audio, and I hope Leheny does them all!

MY RATING: