The 2nd book in The Hunger Games trilogy. After reading the first book I was eager to jump into this book and see the fate of Katniss and her love triangle with Peeta and Gale. Honestly, I was never really a big fan of Peeta. Yes he loved her from the beginning, but I never really saw that love in the romantic sense. In fact, romance was definitely not a big part of this whole story at all, which is usually a deterrant because those are the books I tend to gravitate towards, but Collins kept it interesting enough that I enjoyed it nonetheless. 
 Collins' world within The Hunger Games was very creative and when Katniss and Peeta are thrown back into the Hunger Games again, it's exciting to see how things have changed and the new characters that come into play. This time around you see an even more vast array of characters as victors from all the previous games are brought into play and I actually liked them a lot better than the first round of characters, although I loved Rue, these characters are actually more important to the story and are more developed than the previous ones. I loved the new dangers, twists, and creativeness of the Games and the challenges the players have to face in order to survive. 
 The book is really just the "middle of the movie" type of story where there's no real beginning or end to it, not that it's a bad thing. It definitely leaves you wanting more and I'm glad I waited so long so that I could read all the books straight through. Things are starting to get bigger and Katniss is beginning to see her world change and forcing her to grow and I'm anxious to see how her character turns out because she doesn't seem to have a real sense of her place in all this and when she finally realizes her role and how things must play out, then the real action begins. I do get a bit annoyed at how she always tries to play the martyr and how clueless she is throughout the story, but that is how it supposed to be I guess, since she must grow and learn in order for the story to progress well. 
 It was truly a great read and a perfect stepping stone to the ultimate finish line of the whole story. The ending was a bit crazy and unexpected, make sure to keep Mockingjay right next to you when you finish!