The Valiant by Lesley Livingston - ADVISABLE

Livingston, Lesley The Valiant (The Valiant, #1), 372 pages. Razorbill (Penguin), 2017. $18. 

Language: PG-13 (16 swears); Violence: PG-13; Mature Content: PG (kissing).  

Fallon is a princess warrior who is in love with her best friend, Mael.  When Mael proposes to her, she asks him to wait because she wants to join her tribe’s war band first, but her father, the Celtic King, announces her proposal to Mael’s brother instead of allowing her to be in the war band. Mael is mad at his brother, Adrien, because Adrien knew that Mael loved Fallon, so he draws Adrien into a fight, where Mael is killed.  Fallon chases Adrien after the fight, but is then snatched by Roman slavers, and she finds herself on a slave ship bound for Rome under the slave master, Cai.  

This book is action packed.  I love Fallon’s strength and she is a fun character to follow.  The time period of gladiators in Rome is interesting and well done with a cool twist of having female gladiators.  The violence is sword fighting, be-headings, and an especially grotesque cannibalistic act.  This is the first in what appears to be a three book series, but the ending is satisfying in its own way. 

MS, HS – ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.