Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Female Characters from Books I’ve Read This Year (2015)

 
 
It's actually not often that I find female characters I love or even like.

It's not that I don't like females---I am one! But I don't seem to relate to them as often in books. Maybe it's just how they're written, what with all the pressure there is on writing females.

That's why, when I do find one I like, I get ridiculously excited and obsess over them. And I'm so happy to found a few amazing female characters this year, plus more who were maybe not perfect but were relatable and likeable and had me truly rooting for them.

(If you're wondering where the guys are, don't worry, they'll get their time in the spotlight next week!)

This is actually not an official Top Ten Tuesday topic, I’m just doin’ my own thang to commemorate the end of the year. So my topic is:

Top Ten Female Characters from Books I’ve Read This Year

 
Chase the Dark by Annette Marie | books, reading, book covers
Betrayal's Shadow by K.H. LeMoyne | books, reading, book covers
Tainted by Alexandra Moody | books, reading, book covers
The Bane by Keary Taylor | books, reading, book covers
House of Royals by Keary Taylor | books, reading, book covers
 

10. Piper Griffiths – Steel & Stone Series by Annette Marie

Piper can seriously kick some ass. She works hard and isn’t afraid to get rough, but she’s still got fears and emotions to round her out.

9. Mia Bowman – Betrayal’s Shadow by K.H. LeMoyne

Mia got thrown into a strange, terrifying situation in which she would travel to a dangerous place in a cell with a strange man every time she slept, but, instead of throwing a tantrum or sitting around asking, “Why me?” she started packing clothing, weapons, food, and water each night, learning to fight, practicing with her newfound magic, researching to figure what was going on, and planning ways to fix things in order to keep herself and the man safe. Talk about a character who is NOT a damsel in distress.

8. Elle Winters – The ARC Series by Alexandra Moody

Elle is possibly the most believable character I’ve read this year, with the way she reacted to things hesitantly, rather than diving in head first to save the world, but still did what was right. It made her relatable and realistic.

7. Eve – The Eden Trilogy by Keary Taylor

Eve is badass and loyal but also handles tough situations with tact and compassion. She always put the safety of her people and those she cared about above all else.

6. Alivia Ryan – House of Royals Series by Keary Taylor

Alivia is super down-to-earth. She has her priorities straight and doesn’t make mountains out of mole hills. She also gets proactive, taking her fate into her own hands, rather than sitting around waiting for other people to make decisions for her or letting them push her around.

Ripper by Lexi Blake | books, reading, book covers
Core by Teshelle Combs | books, reading, book covers
The Selection by Kiera Cass | books, reading, book covers
The Key to Erebus by Emma V. Leech & Roison O'Connor | books, reading, book covers
 

5. Kelsey Owens – Hunter: A Thieves Series by Lexi Blake

I’m pretty sure it was this line, after she punched someone who got handsy, that made me realize I definitely loved her character.

Blood dripped from the offended appendage. “I think she broke my nose.”

I contained my gleeful giggle because he sounded like he had a horrible cold. I totally broke his nose.

4. Ava Johnson – The Core Series by Teshelle Combs

While she does have kickass fighting skills, Ava’s real strength is her intelligence and the way she actually uses her head and her common sense to make smart decisions. She’s also a fighter in every sense of the word, never giving up even when situations look bleak.

3. America Singer (in the first book) – The Selection Series by Kiera Cass

First-book America is kind, down-to-earth, respectful of the privacy of others, and relatable to me in a lot of little ways. She stays true to herself and sticks up for herself.

2. Jehenne Corbeaux – Les Corbeaux: The French Vampire Legend Series by Emma V. Leech

Jehenne is young, so she makes the occasional bad decision and gets emotional, but I find her thoughts and actions to be hilarious, understandable, and relatable.

1. Grateful Knight – Knight Games Series by Genevieve Jack

I cannot say enough good things about Grateful. I LOVE HER. Her greatest asset is her mind, and, although she does know when to accept help, she NEVER sits around waiting for help or opportunities—she makes them herself. She’s always thinking, observing, and piecing things together until she’s able to solve her problems. Plus she stands up for herself and never puts up with the males’ controlling, dominating crap.

 
 
 
 

Talk to me!

Who are YOUR favorite female characters from the books you've read this year?

 
 
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Your Thoughts

 

10 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Female Characters from Books I’ve Read This Year (2015)

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  1. Greg

    I like this as a topic (and will be curious for your thoughts next week on the guy protags). I read a lot of female POV’s since I read quite a bit of YA, there are some where I’m clearly not the target audience (LOL) but that’s OK. Others I relate to just fine. Some of my faves this year might be Kady from Illuminae (she doesn’t take any crap and is hilarious) and Lana from The Blue (she makes some mistakes but tries to do the right thing)…

    Great topic, this made me go back and think about some of the POV’s I’ve read this year. The Eden trilogy looks good…

    1. Kristen Burns

      I think you’re going to be disappointed with my list of guys lol. I actually prefer the male POV/protag, but it’s more difficult to find. So most of the guys on my list are love interests or side characters. I don’t know how you do it though—even I find it hard to deal with teenage girl characters sometimes, and I used to be one not too long ago, haha.

      I haven’t read those books, but they do sound like good characters! Clearly I like the girls who don’t people’s crap since that’s like half the characters on my list.

      I really do recommend The Eden Trilogy! The first one is a little YA romance focused, but the other two not so much, and it’s sci-fi with cyborgs and lots of awesomeness.

  2. Lola

    From this list I only know America Singer and just like you I thougth she was a great character and I liked how down to earth she was. I only have read the first book in that series so far. I do like female characetrs, but there are less females that I really love or connect with, those are rare. I always like how SJ Pajonas and Kelley Armstrong write their main character. And I just finished a MG book with a great female main character. I am looking forward to your top ten list with male characters next week :).

    1. Kristen Burns

      I have the first book in the Nogiku series on my kindle, but I haven’t read it yet. And I looked up Kelley Armstrong—The Summoning sounds really good! So I’ll have to make sure to read both at some point (ugh, TBRs lol). What was the middle grade book you read? I don’t read much MG but I did read one series I really liked this year.

      1. Lola

        The Nogiku series is so good! I hope you’ll enjoy it! And the Summoning is a good book to start if you haven’t read anything by Kelley Armstrong yet. And I know what you mean about TBR list, I always feel like there are so many books I want to read and not enough time.

        The MG book I read was Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Mystery, it was awesome. I don’t read a lot of MG books either, but this one sounded so good I had to read it. One of the best MG books I’ve read in a while.

        1. Kristen Burns

          TBRs are great but also stressful, especially when you have so many book you want to read RIGHT NOW but only two eyeballs lol. The Amanda Lester book looks cute 🙂

    1. Kristen Burns

      Oh, she can. I’m not usually a big fan of fight scenes, but there are some epic ones in that book, especially when they end up in this kind of underground dance/fight club.

    1. Kristen Burns

      I’ve seen mixed reactions, too, but I think it’s because she gets increasingly less likeable as the series goes on lol. But she was great in the first and always stood up for herself!