The Valiant (Valiant, #1)

by Lesley Livingston

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.

• ISBN10: 0448493799
• ISBN13: 9780448493794
• Publish Date: 23 January 2018 (first published 14 February 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Razorbill
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780448493794

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

DNF @ 72%

I am a huge fan of any fiction set in this time period - movies, TV shows, books, I love them all! I hate when people say they minored in stuff, but I minored in Classics, so I adore getting to read about Ancient Rome. I was SO excited for this book! I love the idea of female gladiators and I didn't think there was any way this book could possibly be awful. But here we are.

The Valiant begins with Fallon and her first love. She puts off his romantic advances because she intends to join her father's war band. Nothing goes as planned though, so Fallon throws a tantrum and ends up getting kidnapped and sold to a school for gladiators. Up until this point, I was intrigued, but once Fallon gets to the school, everything went a bit off the rails for me.

There are a few issues I couldn't get past with this book, leading to my decision to put it down instead of trudging on through the last 30% of the story. There's a big twist about halfway through that doesn't make any sense. Without getting into spoiler territory, I'll just say that the reveal and the way the story progresses afterward is a stretch. There is no reason for certain secrets to remain secret and honestly, why is Fallon even still a slave?

The other major issue I had with The Valiant was the romance. Fallon's first love is so quickly forgotten once she arrives in Rome, I'm surprised I didn't get whiplash. Not only that, but her new romance comes completely out of nowhere and is kind of... gross? I absolutely didn't buy it. I actually thought her love interest, Cai, was way older than he was for some reason. I love the forbidden love trope when it's done well, but here it's instalove that I just couldn't get on board with.

Lesley Livingston does a decent job with the setting and incorporating characters from history, although I'm a little skeptical of her portrayal of Cleopatra. I also thought the scenes of Fallon training and interacting with the other girls were interesting. Unfortunately, those things weren't enough to keep me hooked or make up for the issues I couldn't get past.

[Cocktails and Books]

This one dragged a bit at times but I was intrigued enough by the storyline that I kept reading. Fallon was likable and I'm hoping with the next book in the series things pick up a bit.

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight Oooh how I adored this book! I thought it would be my kind of book, but damn, I was blown away. Badass women kicking ass and forming bonds, family relationship focus, romance, history... yeah, is it any wonder this made it onto my favorites list? Sequel has been pre-ordered, because I need more, of course. This book pulled at my heartstrings and had me engaged and enraptured at every turn. Love, love, love.

[readingwithwrin]

"Have you ever really thought about what it is to be a warrior, Fallon?
Have you?
Because I have. It means you kill. You kill men. You kill women. All while they are trying very hard to kill you. And if one of them is better at it than you, then you die. And you are so eager to dance with death, little sister?"

Honestly felt like I was reading a fantasy novel instead of an alternate history novel.

Characters
Fallon: Main character, who wants to be just like her sister, but he father wants to protect her at all costs.
Sorcha: Big sister, fearless, Fallon's hero
Elka: Helps fallon get through being sold into slavery, etc.
Mael: Fallon's sparing partner and love interest
Cai: Solider/Works for Caesar

Fallon is a character that I really wanted to like, but sadly as more time went on I found myself just getting really frustrated with her and wanting her to be focusing on other things instead of what she was focusing on.
Elka is exactly what Fallon needed to keep her on track with what she needed to be doing, and was just a really nice support system, once they started to become gladiators.
Mael we don't really get to know sadly so while he was important to Fallon, I never really felt that connection or like she truly even cared for him.
Cai I just found annoying for the most part and I didn't like what he was trying to start with Fallon.

"Rome only exists because of slaves. That's how it functions. We are it's muscle, its brains, and most of all its secrets. You are now a part of that world. You are what you are, no matter what you once were. But there is power in such a position. Understand that. And learn to use it. "

Overall I did enjoy the majority of this book. I do feel like at time it did rely on the action of fighting/training a little to much instead of really developing the characters outside of what they were. Not saying this is a bad thing, it just made it hard to connect with certain people that we met after Fallon had to start a new life. I really enjoyed the friendships she made with some of the girls and that she didn't just change into this super gladiator type machine right off. She struggled with it and really had to forget some of her values while in the arena, which wasn't an easy task. Also the fact that once the fight was over she went back to having her same values it seemed was confusing, but also understandable. You do what you have to in order to survive. Elka and Fallon's friendship was so nice to see, especially in the environment they were in and how a lot of the girls acted in it. I want it to keep on and to see what they can achieve together.

I'm interested to see where the next book goes now after that ending. Hopefully the love interest isn't as obvious and instead the focus is more on the women in the book.

"But they couldn't force me from my warrior's path unless I let them. Sorcha never would have let anyone choose her fate for her."

Some problems I had this may contain spoilers.

With Sorcha once we figure out who she in this story, it was painfully obvious when she was helping out Fallon, which wasn't supposed to be allowed. Yet pretty much everyone around them knew about it, they weren't trying to hide it either.

Love interest problem that became way too much of the story. Cai as a love interest I didn't like, friend maybe, he can't fully be trusted. But when fallon starts to really fall for him all because he buys her a gladiator outfit to wear, really.. Fallon you don't have to like him or be with him because of that. He is also the cause of why you were sold into slavery. Yes you are in a safe place now, but that doesn't mean you should forget what he did or the fact that you are still considered to be someone's property.

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I loved it. So much. A thrilling journey that looks at finding honor and freedom in unlikely situations. Also, kick-ass (literally) women. What more could you want?
Full review to come soon.

[Ashley]

So-so.

The first ~7% was literally like an info dump of the back story.

7-55% was like... nothing. A bunch of travelling and running around that wasn't all that interesting.

The book up until this point (~55% or so) was like the first half of season 1 episode 1 of Spartacus. You know... how Spartacus is captured, put on a ship, and winds up in a strange place as a slave. Just that tiny bit was a huuuuuuge part of the book (in other words, a whole lot of not-very-much).

Then it got some interesting bits. I like what they did with Fallon's sister.

There's an insta-love romance that's so underdeveloped that I wonder why it's even there at all.

I think I did kind of like the ending.

There are a lot of similarities between The Valiant and the Spartacus TV show. I'm not saying that as a copy cat thing, because, duh, they're both based on the same historical thing. I'm saying it more as an, "if you like Spartacus, maybe you'll like this" kind of thing. There are a lot of similarities between how they became gladiators (kinda), the brotherhood/sisterhood aspect, the hazing that went on at the ludus, the friendship, the deception, the weird ass Roman parties, etc. In The Valiant there's just a lot less sex and a lot less going on in general. :P

Ultimately I am kind of disappointed though. I loooove Spartacus so, so much and I think I was hoping to love The Valiant equally. Maybe I just built it up too much in my head... But there wasn't as much badass fighting as I wanted, the romance was really weak, and I was pretty disinterested for a huge chunk of the book.