Hunter

Valiant, Book One (The Valiant Series 1)

By: Joanna White

Narrated by: Timothy McKean

A prisoner by her own choice, Averella enters the prison known as Zagerah. There, the oppressive government throw innocent men and boys to either be killed by the dangerous environment or be brutally murdered by the Hunters—magically enhanced assassins with only one objective: to kill the prisoners.

The government never takes women, so Averella disguised herself as a man to save her sickly brother. As a Hunter, Jared has only ever known the life of a killer. Under orders, Jared disguises himself as a prisoner to get closer to the newest inmate and unravel the newcomer’s secrets.

With her secret on the verge of discovery and no sign of her brother, Averella must evade the Hunters while she scrambles for survival. But how can she save her brother when she can’t even save herself?

©2021 Joanna White (P)2024 Joanna White

Gets better as it goes

Really enjoyed the book. Kinda has a divergent meets hunger games vibe! Would love to see how the story continues!

Great adventure in an alternate world

I really liked this book. Both author and reader are very good. It is well written and easy to listen to and understand.

A strange world full of interesting people. No explanation of the world mechanics is provided but none was really needed. I found it very easy to suspend this world for the duration of the story.

Non-spoiler description of the story:
Men and boys are snatched from their villages and placed in Zagerah, a prison from which there is no escape. Averella's sickly brother Gabriel was taken from their home. Knowing he can't survive on his own, Averella becomes Dalex, a young man, in order to help him and allows herself to be captured. Inside Zagerah, the prisoners are hunted and killed by beings called Hunters.

Many battles and plot twists ensue in this very well written and plotted story intertwined with the word of God. The world building of the prison is very detailed. The characters are true to themselves as they grow and develop. I look forward to book 2 of the series.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys adventure stories with a twist or two or more.

The Book you’ve been looking for!

Meet Averella, a fearless fighter willing to do anything to find her sickly brother in a forbidden prison. She meets Jared, a trained assassin Hunter and things start to get interesting. Jared has alternative motives to find out secrets from another prisoner, Dalex and understand his ways of helping other prisoners. This story is about faith, redemption, forgiveness, empathy, compassion and love. Absolutely loved the banter between Jared and Averella. This was also my first Christian Fiction, and retelling of Moses filled with fast paced action scenes. You are rooting for all the characters here, with growth and development of this dystopia. How far would you go to save the people you love?

Thank you Joanna for writing this book! Looking forward to reading the rest of the series!.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Confusing at first

I found the first few chapters confusing. A lot of characters appearing all at once. The story was interesting and kept my attention. But… I could have done without the religious spiel at the end. Everyone has a right to their beliefs, but not at a books end.

Great book for fans of fantasy

A really enjoyable book which is perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and the Faire Guild Trails. The book follows a girl who disguises herself as a boy after her sick brother is taken from their home, in order to get herself captured as well so she could find and protect him. After capture she meets a man called Jared who is more than he seems.

The narrator does a great job of telling the story, however, I feel the decision to produce this multiple POV book with just one narrator made it harder to follow. I would have preferred to have seen it as a duel narration with the female character narrated by a female.

hurts me from start to end!

this was a very fun book to read. Jared is my favorite character for sure. I enjoyed how the Christian message was mostly introduced without being too much. and it felt so powerful. I always like listening to a good story of redemption. even when the characters have powers. I know we don't really have powers like that, but it makes you realize how great is God's love. it doesn't matter who we are or what we did we are redeemable in his eyes. thank you!

Surprising, Intense Fantasy

I read and listen to a lot of stories, even though fantasy is not my main reading jam. This book surprised me, and in the best ways. The author truly showed Jared's growth arc from what at first seemed to be an otherworldly dark being back to his human self. The prologue puts you in the mind of a serial, socially sanctioned killer, and it is not a comfortable place to be! But the author brilliantly unwinds this dark character as he comes to know more than just the brutal killing that is his role in his society. He comes to understand love, even though he didn't think he had the capacity for any feeling, let alone that deep, life-altering one.

This book has a strong Hunger Games vibe. The characters in this book battle for their lives every second of their night (the hours of their “day” are mostly dark) in this unique, artificial-reality prison where the odds are truly stacked against them. Instead of fighting each other, as in The Hunger Games, they develop alliances that help them survive--even though it isn't easy to trust others where death is always so close at hand. Yes, there are deaths in this book, and when it happens to characters we have come to care for, this isn't easy. I loved the psychological elements of this story, including true and false fathers, and ultimate reckonings that must come, especially when truly evil forces are at play. The scene of ultimate sacrifice for the greater good—after all that had transpired—at the end of the book is breathtaking, but the epilogue gives hope that all is not truly lost. If you're ready for fantasy that is certainly different and don't mind sitting with the uncomfortableness of watching a dark, brutal character transform, you will probably find this book as breathtaking as I did. Highly recommended.

The picture

The story was fine until religion came into play and took too much of the story.