"Are you the weapon or the target? Choose, Fallon." 
 I have very strong mixed feelings about this one. 
 on the one hand - badass female gladiators.. Rome. Julius Caeser. Sounds pretty great, right? 
 "I'm so sorry, little bright thing." 
 "For what, lord?" 
 "For not making the world a place where you could choose to fight for yourself." 
 The story just didn't make all that much sense to me. I mean, I managed to predict a few little twists, but there's a spin at the end that for a second sounds monumental and important and terrifying (according to the characters, I was a bit confused) to the story that just gets brushed over and Fallon is just like 'meh'. 
 I enjoyed Fallon as the MC, she's a strong determined girl and we always love those. 
 "Which meant there was nothing to stop me from trying to shove the Varini girl's ugly insinuations back down her throat." 
 But I didn't manage to connect enough with Fallon to feel the journey with her. Or rather, maybe she just didn't feel things as I thought she ought to! A lot of hectic things happen which she gets over quickly, so maybe it's just that the emotions weren't tangible enough for me. 
 The ending is exhilarating, but I was left feeling a bit befuddled as to motives and what she really wanted. 
 Caius is great, but the romance didn't have enough build up or foundation for me to ship it. And I was a bit surprised over how quickly she managed to get over Mael. 
 So overall, while I enjoyed the premise and it was definitely not a hardship to get through this book, I had a few too many issues to overlook to love this.