Top 10 Women in Books

These are in no particular order because I honestly can't rank them. I love all of these ladies so much. It was hard to trim this list down, but I think every single character on this list is absolutely deserving. Of all the books, all the characters I've come across over the years, these ladies were my favourites.

1. Regan the Radiant

“Apparently unaffected, she rose. "Yeah, you're probably right. I should be going." She feigned a yawn. "You've gotta head back to work and I've gotta head to jail. Big night for me. I'm planning to shiv someone for a bar of soap. --”

I love her so much. There are so many characters in this series and I do love a lot of them, but Regin is just the very best of them. She is so inappropriate and hilarious. I couldn't put anyone else on this list because It would have been a lie.

2. Rose Hathaway

“When I saw you fall..."
"You thought, 'Wow, she's a loser.”

She was my favourite character right from the get-go. you may notice a theme throughout this list. The women on this list are the ones that don't do what they're told. They are forces of nature and that's what I love about them.

3. Aelin Galathynius

“She was fire, and light, and ash, and embers. She was Aelin Fireheart, and she bowed for no one and nothing, save the crown that was hers by blood and survival and triumph.”

She was born to be Queen and she very much embodies that. She is a force of nature. She gives off the "don't fuck with me" energy and I live for that.

4. Daria Followhill

“He pulls me into a hug. A rarity I know not to take for granted when it comes to Vaughn. I bury my face in his chest and let myself crumple, feeling my bones shaking inside my body.”

She is spoiled and selfish, and completely human. There's something so down to earth about her character despite her being the rich popular bitch. I don't know how to explain it. When I was reading the other books in this series I was just waiting for her to make appearances because she was my favourite character.

5. Isabel Culpepper

“She'd been here long enough that all of her feelings had been replaced with high-end linoleum.”

She was like the Daria before Daria. She was rich and popular and completely closed off and unattainable. I just loved her character so much. She is just such a bitch at times and I live for it. I like main characters with bite.

6. Lizbeth Salander

“There were not so many physical threats that could not be countered with a decent hammer.”

Lizbeth never allows herself to be the victim. Even when she is victimized, she gets her revenge and she doesn't let her abuser win. She's such a strong and intelligent main character and she made her book worth reading. I don't know if I would have liked the book half as much if she hadn't been in it.

7. Banks

“People dictate rules based on how they want to be treated, but I’ll tell you something. When someone else misbehaves, it’s black and white, isn’t it? We judge, and we condemn, but when we do it, it’s a gray area all of a sudden. Other people are subject to your convictions, but not you, right? Not Michael?”

I love Banks. She is so clever and loves to stir shit up. She's definitely her brother's sister. They're two peas in a pod. I love them together.

8. Mara Dyer

“How did you get my number?" I blurted, before I could stop myself.
"It's called research." I could hear him smirking over the phone.
"Or stalking."
Noah chuckled. "You're adorable when you're bitchy."
"You're not," I said, but smiled despite myself.”

Mara is so dark. It's great. She has this horribly disturbing power, and honestly, it fits with her. We slowly see her go from a protagonist, the "good guy", into more an antihero/villain. We rarely see the main character of a book turn into a villain and I can't wait to see where her story goes from here.

9. Isis

“I would love to slap you right now, but I’m currently wielding a nine-pound ball and I’m afraid that would be called murder.”

She is so funny. So maybe she isn't as strong as some of the other characters on this list, but she's probably one of the funniest. She also has a lot of emotional strength. She has had her own shitty backstory, but she doesn't let that stop her from being a ray of sunshine.

10. Cat 

“Let go,” I demand. “No.” My eyebrows snap together. “Why not?” “Because your gut reaction is always to punch, and I don’t like being tickled.” Tickled? Tickled! Indignation swamps me. I’ll show him a tickle.”

She is such a badass. If she had sucked I wouldn't have read A Promise of Fire as quickly as I did. She is always up for a fight. She is very near and dear to my heart. If you like fantasy romances this is a good one I promise.

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Rant: Rewriting Books from the Other Person's Point of View

Very rarely do I feel like a book needs to be told from someone else's point of view. I think sometimes it can be done really well, I think if the point is to show internal biases and how someone else may have perceived an entire situation, that would be a good reason to rewrite the same story from a different point of view. However, I feel like this is rarely the case. I can think of maybe one book where I actually enjoyed having this book from someone else's point of view. I think if there is actually important insight being added from this new book then it's great, but I hate when a book is literally from another character's point of view and everything is the same. Not having any new insight into the story.

“I’d said it before and meant it: Alive or undead, the love of my life was a badass.”

One book I would love to have another character's perspective on is the Vampire Academy series. I want to read that whole series from Dimitri's point of view. He was one of my favourite characters and I felt like he was just such a closed book. We knew what Rose knew about him and that really wasn't much. We only knew his present, we didn't know too much about his past and what he was feeling or thinking at any given moment. I would donate both kidneys to get this series from his point of view. There was a short story from Dimitri's point of view from their meeting and it gave me life.

“I've loved Hope since we were kids. But tonight? Tonight I fell in love with Sky.”

A book I did like from another character's point of view was Losing Hope. This one worked because Sky knew so little from her past. She didn't remember a lot of things that happened to her growing up, and having Holder's point of view and how he remembered things was really interesting and really built up their whole relationship. I think it was such a good addition to an already great book.

“I knew right then I would burn down the whole universe for her if I had to. I would do anything to keep her safe. Kill. Heal. Die. Anything. Because she was my everything.”

Now that I've talked about a few I liked/would like, I should talk about what actually bothers me. A couple examples that I didn't like were Oblivion by Jennifer L. Armentrout and Rush Too Far from Abbi Glines. Those are just two examples. I liked them enough, I didn't hate them, but that's just because they were books that I already liked. I liked the originals and these books were basically the same thing from another point of view. I don't feel as though anything was added from these books. I didn't really get anything out of them. There were no revelations, nothing I didn't already know about. I'm never going to read those books again, but that's just because I liked the original and I'm going to reread the originals. There really is no point to having these additions because they did nothing to add to the story. The only differences were that we were able to see their emotions, but it's not like their emotions were ever any secret. 

“Leaning down, I pressed a kiss to her head. "I will fix this. I swear I will make it right. I love you enough to get us through this. I just need you to love me enough. Please, Blaire. Love me enough," I pleaded.”

I just think that if you plan to rewrite a book from the point of view of a different character, it should add something to the story, not just play off of what we already have.  I overall just think most books like this are so unnecessary and I feel like I'm wasting my time when I do read them. 

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Top 10 Books of 2016 Redo

This might seem a little weird, but I looked up my Top 10 Books of 2016 list because I was curious since that was the first one I did, and I realized it was very wrong. I'm here to right my wrongs. Because 2017 me was incorrect. I got rid of like, half the books I had on there originally. The list was wrong. I might be a little neurotic.

Honourable Mentions:

The Raven King

“No homework. I got suspended,” Blue replied.
“Get the fuck out,” Ronan said, but with admiration. “Sargent, you asshole.”

This was the perfect conclusion and the perfect setup to Call Down the Hawk.

My Heart and Other Black Holes

“Maybe we all have darkness inside of us and some of us are better at dealing with it than others.”

This one made me think a lot and at the time I didn't really like it, but the more I sat on it the more I liked it. It was one of those.

Captive Prince Trilogy

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“A golden prince was easy to love if you did not have to watch him picking wings off flies.”

If this had been a top 11 list this one would have made it. It was so hard not including this one in my top 10. I couldn't even just pick one book, they were all so good.

Crooked Kingdom

“Crows remember human faces. They remember the people who feed them, who are kind to them. And the people who wrong them too. They don’t forget. They tell each other who to look after and who to watch out for.”

I couldn't put this in the top 10 because that ending upset me too much. This was a very good book, incredibly well written on honestly I'm surprised that 2017 me overlooked this one for the original list.

Tales from the Shadowhunter academy

“Little James Herondale, age two, was in fact holding a dagger quite well. He stabbed it into a sofa cushion, sending out a burst of feathers.
"Ducks," he said, pointing at the feathers.”

If you looked at my ranking of the best Shadowhunter books you may be surprised to not see this in the top 10. Lady Midnight just edged this one out by a slim margin. I couldn't justify putting both of these on the list. 

10. Empire of Storms

“Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen, knew the time would soon come to prove just how much she'd bleed for Erilea.”

This book stayed in the exact same spot. This was not my favourite book in the series, I liked it, but it definitely wasn't any higher on the list. 

9. The Power

“You don't apologize,' Deacon said, pressing a kiss to my greasy head, unlocking best friend status.”

This is a new addition to the list. I remember when reading this one, I couldn't stop reading it. The first book was okay, but this book was such a step up. I don't remember where I was when I read this one. I do remember I was on a trip or something when reading this one and I just devoured this book. So good.

8. Fires of Winter

(I could not for the life of me find any quotes for this book and I don't have the time or patience to go through the book and find them myself.)

I love vikings. I love biking romances. When I read this book I didn't realize I would love it as much as I did. I've reread this book so many times. 

7. Fear Me

“I will do everything in my power to make it work. You see, I have nothing to lose…but you do.”
“Maybe you do, but you just don’t care,” I argued.
“Then that makes me a very dangerous man.”

I didn't think I liked this book that much when I read it the first time. As time went on I realized I liked it more and more. It is now one of my favourite romance novels. Keiran is my favourite Antihero. Honestly me not thinking I liked this one that much to begin with was the reason I never put it on my list. I've definitely changed my mind though.

6. Emerald Green

“Did you know that Gideon and I were trained in Krav Maga?" Charlotte took another step closer to me, and I automatically took one back.
"No, but did you know that at this moment you look like that crazy rodent in Ice Age?”

I loved this book. I actually reread the series a year or two ago and I remembered that this trilogy only took place over the course of a week. All the time-travelling really messed with me. I really want more books about this. I honestly don't know why I didn't put this on my original list.

5. The Name of the Wind

“Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite.”

This is probably one of the best fantasy novels I've ever read. It's so well written. Everything is so well planned out and it's long but never boring. If you love fantasy and you haven't read this book yet I would highly recommend reading this one. 

4. The Bourbon Thief

“How are you going to get revenge against dead people? Dig ’em up and stake ’em through the heart?”
“I asked myself that same question, and I think I know the answer. You destroy what they loved, and you love what they destroyed.”

I never expected this book. I got an arc of it and just thought whatever, it's just a romance. But I read this book and it changed everything. I was so obsessed, I immediately reread it. I posted a review on it when I did read it, but I ended up privating it because I didn't think it was a very good review. I don't know if I updated it yet or not. I do plan on rewriting the review if I haven't already done so.

3. Lady Midnight

“He bumped into a pay phone and said, 'Excuse me, miss,' on our way in," said Julian.
"It's polite to apologize," said Mark with the same small voice.
"Not to inanimate objects.”

I just talked about how much I loved this book. It really showed how much Cassandra Clare has grown as an author. It was so well thought out and all the side characters were so interesting and dynamic. This book was an A+.

2. A Court of Mist and Fury

“He thinks he'll be remembered as the villain in the story. But I forgot to tell him that the villain is usually the person who locks up the maiden and throws away the key. He was the one who let me out.”

I remember absolutely losing my mind when this book came out. I know, it's no longer at number 1. I still love this book, but I think time has dulled it a little bit for me. I still think this is an amazing book and I would definitely read it again. I just think with time I do like the new number 1 book a little more.

1. A Monster Calls

“Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.”

This book was so good at displaying grief. This is a children's book and it so eloquently showcased grief and how we come to terms with life and death. This book was a masterpiece. 

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Top 10 Books of 2015

I did 2014 so I felt like I had to also do a list for 2015. I also read a lot of books that year so there were a lot of good ones to pick from. Some of these are my all time favourites.

Honourable Mentions:

Debt

“You don’t get to set me on fire and leave me like a pile of ashes.”

This was one of the first dark romances that I read and I surprisingly loved it. I've only read this book once, but I would definitely be open to reading it again.

Ten Tiny Breaths

“What if he's a psychopath who tries to stuff kittens in ATMs?”

This was such a good book. I loved Kacey, she was such a great main character. This entire story was so real and emotional. It was a great romance novel.

Alice in Zombieland

“Don't look now, but that's my ex over there."
Surely I'm not the only one who takes "don't look now" as "there's no better time than now." I looked.
"Bad, Ali!" Another slap to my arm. "Bad, bad, bad Ali! Have you no self control?”

This was a really fun book to read. I've enjoyed every book in this series, but I definitely wouldn't kick any of the other books on this list off for this book.

10. We Were Liars

“He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee. I could have looked at him forever.”

I remember reading this after a test in Social Studies class and just fucking crying my eyes out silently. I don't think anyone noticed I was crying since I'm a really good stealth crier. I guessed the twist, but I thought it was too far fetched so I dropped it about halfway through. I felt really justified when I got to the end and found that my theory was correct. Great novel.

9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

“Normally seven minutes of another person's company was enough to give her a headache so she set things up to live as a recluse. She was perfectly content as long as people left her in peace. Unfortunately society was not very smart or understanding.”

I tried to read this when I was 12 and I hated it. I almost got rid of it, but I decided to give it another try when I was 16 and I just have to say it's one of my favourite mystery novels. It's such a good book. 

8. The Iron Trials

“They all yelled in excitement. Tamara yelled because she was happy. Aaron yelled because he liked it when other people were happy, and Call yelled because he was sure they were going to die.”

I was surprised by this book. I only read it because Cassandra Clare cowrote it and I decided to do an assignment on it. I ended up loving it a lot much to my surprise. I love when I'm surprised by a good book. It's a different type of satisfaction.

7. Corrupt

“When you want to make an impression and you think you’ve gone far enough, go a little further. Always leave them wondering if you’re just a little bit crazy, and people will never fuck with you again.”

This was the first book in one of my favourite romance series' of all time. This series was so good. I reread this book so much considering it took 2 years for the next book to come out. It isn't my favourite book in the series, but it was definitely the one that got me interested.

6. Darken the Stars

“You can’t be serious!”
“I’m so serious.”
“He’s a psychopath.”
“He’s my psychopath.”

This finale was so good. I can't get over how good this book was. It kind of irked me that the ending was a cliffhanger. I need a conclusion. I need at least one more book. I don't think it's going to happen honestly, but I want it. This book totally surprised me because I didn't think I was going to like the couple that happened in this book. This ended up being my favourite book in the series.

5. Immortals After Dark Series

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“He's like six hundred years younger than you are. I refuse to be the moral compass of our cell! Most weekends I have an intoxispell bong attached to my mouth like a respirator. I love scatological humor, and I list 'pranks involving nuclear waste' and 'making demons eat things' as my hobbies.”

I read the first book not in 2015. I took a break and then I started up on the series again and literally read a book a day until I caught up on the series. To put that into perspective there were I think 17 books in the series that were out. I had already read one. So everyday for over 2 weeks I read one of the books from this series. It would be criminal for me to not include this series as a whole on this list.

4. The Sky is Everywhere

“That's a misconception, Lennie. The sky is everywhere, it begins at your feet.”

Whule I didn't like this one as much as I'll Give You the Sun, this was still soul food. It gave me everything I needed and also left me grinning like and idiot once I had finished reading it. If you've never read a Jandy Nelson book before I would highly recommend giving her books a try.

3. Carry On

“He's still looking in my eyes. Staring me down like he did that dragon, chin tilted and locked. "I'm not the Chosen One," he says.
I meet his gaze and sneer. My arm is a steel band around his waist. "I choose you," I say. "Simon Snow, I choose you.”

This book was so controversial for no reason. A lot of people hated it because they were like "It's literally just Harry Potter". No it was a fanfiction of Harry Potter. That is the entire premise of the book. If you don't want to read a Harry Potter fanfiction then don't read this. It's as easy as that. It's the story most of us wanted and it felt so good to finally get it. I can't express to you how much I loved this book. I finished it and immediately reread it. 

2. Queen of Shadows

“Behind them, across the hall, the dancers shattered their roses on the floor, and Aedion grinned at his queen as the entire world went to hell.”

This was my favourite book in the series. It was so hard for me to put this at 2. If I could, I would have tied this with number 1, I just felt like that would be a bit of a cop out and I didn't want to do that. In my personal opinion this is the best book in the series and no one can change my mind.

1.  I'll Give You the Sun

“Meeting your soul mate is like walking into a house you've been in before - you will recognize the furniture, the pictures on the wall, the books on the shelves, the contents of drawers: You could find your way around in the dark if you had to.”

If you are surprised that this is my number 1 then you haven't been paying attention. Even years later I think about this book. I'm kind of scared to reread this one just in case I don't love it as much as I did the first time. I don't think that'll be the case, but when you've built up a story in your mind so much, you can never be sure.

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