Blood and Sand

Princess Attia has been raised to succeed her father, king of the warlike Thracian people. But when Thrace is annexed by the Roman Empire and its ruling class decimated, teenaged Attia is taken to Rome where she is sold to Timeus, a wealthy Roman who awards her as a gift to Xanthus, his prizewinning gladiator. But Xanthus, despite his brutal occupation, is an honorable and empathetic man who refuses to take advantage of the situation. Instead, he and Attia develop a friendship based on mutual respect as warriors. At first, Attia wants only to escape and kill the men responsible for the destruction of her people, though as her relationship with Xanthus and her fellow slaves deepens, this desire becomes more nuanced. This book offers lots of swordplay (and spearplay and daggerplay, for that matter) and the combat scenes are bloody and convincing. But there are lighter moments too, such as the boyish locker room camaraderie among Xanthus and his fellow gladiators, or the way Attia’s deeply buried maternal instincts began to surface as she nurtures a young girl who’s been placed in her care.

Fans of Lesley Livingston's Valiant series or Esther Friesner’s Princesses of Myth should place this book – the first of a planned series – on their to-read lists.