This week over at the Broke and the Bookish the Topic for Top Ten Tuesday is:

Top Ten Favorite Heroines From Books

This was more difficult that I imagined mainly because I found myself with quite a lot to choose from so narrowing it down was difficult.

1. Lady Trent from Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons.  I love this series and Lady Trent is an excellent character who refuses to be restrained by the demands that polite society of age would place upon her.
2. Mercy Thompson from Patricia Briggs series of books about werewolves and shapeshifters (well and plenty of other characters from the supernatural world).  I really like Mercy she’s a gutsy character and certainly not a damsel in distress – but she’s not stupid and not afraid to ask for help when she needs to.
3. Miriam Black from Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig.  I just really like Miriam.  She comes across as a hard assed, foul mouthed so and so but underneath it all she is softer than she likes to imagine.  I think that being able to predict a person’s death simply by touching them has given her a harder exterior than most and pushed her to a fairly solitary life but she always tries to do the right thing.  Even if it doesn’t sometimes feel like that.
4. Suzume from M L Brennan’s Generation V.  I love this character.  Suzume is a Kitsune which means she’s actually a fox that can turn into a human.  She’s got such a great sense of humour, she can stick up for herself and she stands by her friends.
5. Eowyn from Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring – who with the help of a hobbit helped to bring down one of the worst enemies of the final battle ‘I am no man’!
6. Atlanta Burns from the book of the same name by Chuck Wendig.  Another fantastic character with a dark and sad past, scarred by past events who is still not too scared to stick up for those in need.
7. Shara from Robert Bennett’s City of Stairs.  Such a wonderful character.  Intelligent and witty and able to calmly analyse a situation even under threat.  A book loving woman who’s motto could be ‘the pen is mightier than the sword.
8. Wydrin from Jen William’s Copper Promise.  She’s a sell sword come rum swigging pirate.  Sassy, smart, clever with her twin swords – she’d give Jean Tannen and his sisters a run for his money!
9. Lisbeth from Stieg Larsson’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Lisbeth is another young lady with a sad past.  Analytical and calm she isn’t afraid of her own company and her knowledge of computers and hacking help her to tackle her enemies.
10. Spring from Angus Watson’s Age of Iron – a young character, mysterious and enigmatic.  I can’t tell you much about her because it would definitely contain spoilers for the book.

That’s my top ten – like I say, I had a good few more but have contained myself!