The Valiant by Lesley Livingston

The Valiant

by Lesley Livingston

384 pages

Published by Razorbill Feb. 2017

Plot: Princess. Captive. Gladiator. Always a Warrior. 

 
Fallon is the daughter of a proud Celtic king and the younger sister of the legendary fighter Sorcha. When Fallon was just a child, Sorcha was killed by the armies of Julius Caesar. 
 
On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Fallon is excited to follow in her sister's footsteps and earn her place in her father's war band. She never gets the chance.
 
Fallon is captured and sold to an elite training school for female gladiators—owned by none other than Julius Caesar himself. In a cruel twist of fate, the man who destroyed Fallon’s family might be her only hope of survival. 
 
Now, Fallon must overcome vicious rivalries, deadly fights in and out of the arena, and perhaps the most dangerous threat of all: her irresistible feelings for Cai, a young Roman soldier and her sworn enemy (Amazon, 2018).

Review: Fallon, the daughter of a Celtic king is captured and sold as a slave to Rome during the reign of Julius Caesar.  She becomes a female gladiator and has to fight in the arena for survival. It’s a brutal and unforgiving life, but she’s been training since she was a child to become the famed warrior her older sister Sorcha once was.  So, becoming a gladiatrix is not difficult for Fallon to grow accustomed to. But, life as a warrior slave in the Ludus Achillea is not how she envisioned her future. With the advice of some unexpected allies, Fallon learns she can earn her freedom by performing well in the arena and winning the admiration of the crowd.  

During this time she meets Caius Varro, the son of a wealthy senator, and her and Cai develop a forbidden romance.  There is not a lot of interaction between Fallon and Cai, so falling in love was slightly unrealistic. I would say it was more falling in lust than love.  I did enjoy the plot overall. It was an interesting story-line with the gladiator warrior being a female. I would have liked to have seen more interaction between Cai and Fallon, and maybe that will happen more in book 2.  The only part of the story that didn’t make any sense to me was the ending. Obviously, there is going to be some sort of cliffhanger because it is a series, but the ending was not realistic in my opinion. I can’t say too much without spoilers, but a decision that Fallon makes is very surprising.

Rating: 3 Hearts!
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