Female with pride loses in novel (7)
I believe the answer is:
lioness
'female with pride' is the definition.
(as in a pride of lions)
'loses in novel' is the wordplay.
'novel' indicates anagramming the letters (letters in a new or novel order).
'loses'+'in'='losesin'
'losesin' anagrammed gives 'LIONESS'.
(Other definitions for lioness that I've seen before include "It's beastly" , "Fierce female feline" , "Female carnivore" , "Female big cat" , "One with pride" .)