Lesley Livingston
Young Adult/Fantasy/Historical
Releases February 2017 from Razorbill
From Amazon:
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.
A richly imagined fantasy for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Cinda Williams Chima, The Valiant recounts Fallon’s gripping journey from fierce Celtic princess to legendary gladiator and darling of the Roman empire.
A female gladiator? YES AND PLEASE! While the type on this cover is a little underwhelming, especially when compared to the general badassery of the girl showing Rome what's what from the floor of the arena, as soon as I saw this I wanted to know more about her. Gladiator is one of my favorite movies (ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!) (don't judge me), so I'm already obsessing over Fallon and the things that await her in the pit. I'm so intrigued by her I almost don't even care about the enemies-to-lovers romance with Cai. Almost. Okay, the romance of course is right up my alley, but I need it to be February so Fallon can show how epic a gladiator she can be!
