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Barbara : For The Pride
*momentary description, forgive me*
They were girls with swords and they were gay for each other.
Sapphic gladiator rivals if you will.
They were girls with swords and they were gay for each other.
Sapphic gladiator rivals if you will.
181 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 26, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 4, 2026
Bacchante is back with another weird and bloody book. Need I say more?
Review of advance copy received from Indie Reviewers
"𝘐'𝘮 𝘢𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯-𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦, 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥."
🖋️ This time, the author took another path, leading the reader down the mountain of rage, yearning, and incessant discord between shame and pride, love and hatred, ambition and love, and yearning, so much yearning it remains a mystery how one person can hold everything beneath the skin without breaking. For glory, for family, for passion, for revenge, for romance, for desire, for love. For everything, and nothing at all.
🖋️ Such excruciating longing is embodied in Barbara, a gladiatrix navigating the dangers of the vocation she was forced into. Face to face with enemies weilding the weapons made of steel, magical proclivity, and the more subtle and just as dangerous material, misogyny, Barbara is focused on freeing herself and her pride of lions from the clutches of slavery. In such raw ambition, the only thing that could make a warrior hesitate stood on her way to legendary greatness: her love for Iskra, whose life was lost in rebellion, and Iskra's brother, Barbara's greatest rival in the arena and threat to her life and the lives of her much beloved lions.
🖋️ The author has created a remarkably interesting protagonist filled with opposites. Barbara is quite sad and, and the same time surprisingly cheerful. She is feisty most of the time, and gentle when the need appears. She is ruthless, but full of love. Brave and impulsive, and sometimes, driven by fear. Vengeful, and forgiving. Despite frequent silly behaviour, she is also gifted with unusual depth, wisdom, and perceptiveness which are often associated with a much older person. Barbara is the perfect material for a legend. Barbara is yearning to be one, and if sacrifices need to be made to accomplish that... Well, then, she will mourn.
🖋️ Barbara is the perfect material for a legend. Barbara is yearning to be one, and if sacrifices need to be made to accomplish that... Well, then, she will mourn. All her depth is wonderfully incorporated into tales of brutal fights, political intrigues, heartfelt moments with friends and family, and the sweetness of all the bitter ends.
Read if you like:
🖋️ Gladiator stories
🖋️ Feral women
🖋️ Strong FMCs
🖋️ Sapphic romance
🖋️ Animal companions
🖋️ Gore and blood
🖋️ Fictional worlds
🖋️ Magic and weapons
🖋️ Found family trope
🖋️ This time, the author took another path, leading the reader down the mountain of rage, yearning, and incessant discord between shame and pride, love and hatred, ambition and love, and yearning, so much yearning it remains a mystery how one person can hold everything beneath the skin without breaking. For glory, for family, for passion, for revenge, for romance, for desire, for love. For everything, and nothing at all.
🖋️ Such excruciating longing is embodied in Barbara, a gladiatrix navigating the dangers of the vocation she was forced into. Face to face with enemies weilding the weapons made of steel, magical proclivity, and the more subtle and just as dangerous material, misogyny, Barbara is focused on freeing herself and her pride of lions from the clutches of slavery. In such raw ambition, the only thing that could make a warrior hesitate stood on her way to legendary greatness: her love for Iskra, whose life was lost in rebellion, and Iskra's brother, Barbara's greatest rival in the arena and threat to her life and the lives of her much beloved lions.
🖋️ The author has created a remarkably interesting protagonist filled with opposites. Barbara is quite sad and, and the same time surprisingly cheerful. She is feisty most of the time, and gentle when the need appears. She is ruthless, but full of love. Brave and impulsive, and sometimes, driven by fear. Vengeful, and forgiving. Despite frequent silly behaviour, she is also gifted with unusual depth, wisdom, and perceptiveness which are often associated with a much older person. Barbara is the perfect material for a legend. Barbara is yearning to be one, and if sacrifices need to be made to accomplish that... Well, then, she will mourn.
🖋️ Barbara is the perfect material for a legend. Barbara is yearning to be one, and if sacrifices need to be made to accomplish that... Well, then, she will mourn. All her depth is wonderfully incorporated into tales of brutal fights, political intrigues, heartfelt moments with friends and family, and the sweetness of all the bitter ends.
Read if you like:
🖋️ Gladiator stories
🖋️ Feral women
🖋️ Strong FMCs
🖋️ Sapphic romance
🖋️ Animal companions
🖋️ Gore and blood
🖋️ Fictional worlds
🖋️ Magic and weapons
🖋️ Found family trope
July 27, 2026
3.5 stars.
This book was a wild ride. There were things about this book that I loved, like the sarcastic banter, the hillarious inner monolouges of the FMC and the struggle between shame and pride. But then there were things that left me lacking, like how skipping back and forth in time made me a bit confused, it was a bit all over the place sometimes and some of the 'men-hating' moments were a bit too much. But at the same time, some of those moments were just spot on and very amusing! I didn't really know how to feel.
In other words, I have mixed feelings. But underneath it all, I really did enjoy the story. The first couple of chapters made me properly intrigued to where the story would go. It was a mix of unexpected found family, gore, vengeance, feminine rage, dibilitating grief, love, mysterious magic and humanity. Overall, I'm happy that I read it. And I'm sure I didn't get the point across in the best way.
If you're a fan of feminine rage, sapphic romance and deep emotions mixed with gore, grief and sarcastic humour? This is a book you should add to your TBR!
The blurb
When Barbara was only a child, her mother tossed her to the hungry lions in the gladiator arena. But rather than clawing her to ribbons, the lions raised her as their own. Barbara has trained her whole life in isolation, alongside her pride, to reenter the sands as a champion—to become the first gladiatrix. But when she falls in love with her secretly female sparring partner, Barbara falters, putting her pride and ambition at risk. Barbara's biggest rival, the gladiatoral legend, is Drak, the twin brother of Barbara's sweetheart. She must defeat and kill him to become the living legend—must forsake her heart and humanity, embrace gore, glory and gold. Choose her pride over love, one brother over another. Transform into a lioness.
This book was a wild ride. There were things about this book that I loved, like the sarcastic banter, the hillarious inner monolouges of the FMC and the struggle between shame and pride. But then there were things that left me lacking, like how skipping back and forth in time made me a bit confused, it was a bit all over the place sometimes and some of the 'men-hating' moments were a bit too much. But at the same time, some of those moments were just spot on and very amusing! I didn't really know how to feel.
In other words, I have mixed feelings. But underneath it all, I really did enjoy the story. The first couple of chapters made me properly intrigued to where the story would go. It was a mix of unexpected found family, gore, vengeance, feminine rage, dibilitating grief, love, mysterious magic and humanity. Overall, I'm happy that I read it. And I'm sure I didn't get the point across in the best way.
If you're a fan of feminine rage, sapphic romance and deep emotions mixed with gore, grief and sarcastic humour? This is a book you should add to your TBR!
The blurb
When Barbara was only a child, her mother tossed her to the hungry lions in the gladiator arena. But rather than clawing her to ribbons, the lions raised her as their own. Barbara has trained her whole life in isolation, alongside her pride, to reenter the sands as a champion—to become the first gladiatrix. But when she falls in love with her secretly female sparring partner, Barbara falters, putting her pride and ambition at risk. Barbara's biggest rival, the gladiatoral legend, is Drak, the twin brother of Barbara's sweetheart. She must defeat and kill him to become the living legend—must forsake her heart and humanity, embrace gore, glory and gold. Choose her pride over love, one brother over another. Transform into a lioness.
June 14, 2026
Feminine rage wrapped up in a gore filled sapphic gladiator story with the cherry on top being the fmc was raised by lions.
Such a unique story. Wildly out of the norm in all the best ways.
Such a unique story. Wildly out of the norm in all the best ways.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews