#BookReview: The Valiant (The Valiant, #1) by Lesley Livingston

  Princess. Captive. Gladiator.

Fallon is the daughter of a proud Celtic king, the sister of the legendary warrior Sorcha, and the sworn enemy of Julius Caesar.

When Fallon was a child, Caesar’s armies invaded her homeland, and her beloved sister was killed in battle.

Now, on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Fallon is eager to follow in her sister’s footsteps and earn her place in the fearsome Cantii 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. 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 and deadly fights—in and out of the arena. And perhaps the most dangerous threat of all: her forbidden yet irresistible feelings for Cai, a young Roman soldier.

Lesley Livingston is an award-winning author of teen fiction, best known for her Wondrous Strange trilogy. She holds a master's degree in English from the University of Toronto and was a principal performer in a Shakespearean theatre company, specializing in performances for teen audiences, for more than a decade. Visit her at www.lesleylivingston.com and follow her on Twitter @LesLivingston.

Although I really wanted to love this book it just lacked the emotion and pacing to make it great.  The pacing was always on and never let up and for me, that was just too much too fast. I wish that the author would have taken the time to slow things down just a little to make the story flow better.  

As for the emotion, I just felt like it just didn't have the emotion that was needed for the situations that these characters were in.  

The rest of the story was ok at best I kept having the feeling that I just wanted to put it down but I kind of wanted to know what happened.  The characters were ok but I kinda like the side characters more than the main one.  She just kinda felt bland to me. 

The ending was very quick and again I wish that the author would have taken her time with the ending. It felt very rushed. 

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Posted in: 3 Stars, Jessica P., RazorBill, Review, Young Adult