Over at the Broke and Bookish this week the theme for Top Ten Tuesday is

“books for readers who like character driven novels’

My choices this week are:

1. Mercy Thompson from Patricia Briggs urban fantasy series.  I really like Mercy and it’s great to watch her character change as the series progresses.  She sometimes makes mistakes and she’s not perfect but she’s also not afraid to ask for help and to understand that she can’t always do everything single handed.
2. Alexia Tarabotti from Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate.  I haven’t actually finished this series but I enjoyed Alexia’s character.  Very witty and intelligent.  Intriguing steam punk with vampires, werewolves and gadgetry.
3. Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files.  It’s very simply.  I like Harry!
4. The Copper Cat from The Copper Promise by Jen Williams – I’ve only recently read this novel and loved the Copper Cat character.  This was a very character led novel and the CC was my favourite.
5. Dug, Spring and Lowa from the Age of Iron by Angus Watson.  I loved this book and the main three characters were just excellent. None of them were perfect and Dug in particular was quite flawed – that being said so was Lowa.  Very easy to read due to the characters just being so easy to get on with.
6. Melanie and Miss Justineau from M R Carey’s The Girl with All the Gifts.  This is such a good read and I thought was a really unique twist on the ‘zombie’ theme.  Melanie and Miss Justineau definitely steal the show with their teacher/student relationship.
7. Mark Watson from Andy Weir’s The Martian.  Basically, if you don’t like Mark you’re going to struggle with this book as he pretty much is the main focus of the whole story.  A botanist, stranded on Mars and coming up with all sorts of drastic measures to survive until a rescue mission can be pulled together.  A guy who thankfully retains his sense of humour.
8. The Thousand Names by Django Wexler – two very different characters who stole the show – Captain Marcus D’Ivoire and Winter Ihernglass – military ‘flintlock’ fantasy.  Really good.
9. Lisbeth from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson – such a kick ass character.  I love the way that she survives against the odds.  A tough character who actually does have a softer side – not somebody to mess with though!
10. The characters from The Way of Kings/Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson – I could literally chat on and on at great length about the amazingness of these two books.  The plot, the world building and the strength of the writing – but, without doubt Sanderson manages to pull out of the hat a whole bunch of characters that you can’t fail to love.  My personal favourites are Syl and Kaladin but frankly there’s no shortage of characters to adore!