Top Ten Tuesday: Books With Strong Young Women

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week’s list is the Top Ten Books With Characters Who X. I picked characters who are strong young women.

1. Hermione and Ginny from Harry Potter

Really, this could be all of the lovely ladies of the series, especially those in Dumbledore’s Army. Hermione keeps helping Harry in Deathly Hallows even grieving Ron’s absence. Ginny keeps the fight going at Hogwarts all year with Neville. These are some seriously strong women.

2. Kestrel in The Winner’s Curse

Kestrel doesn’t give up when things start to go wrong. She doesn’t stop plotting a way to save herself and those she loves. What she goes through is something I would never want to go through and I admire her strength.

3. Clio from Sacrificed 

Clio sees her mother and sisters murdered in a vision. She can’t go home because it isn’t safe. She goes after her one surviving sister who is going to be sacrificed on a pyramid in a city that hates oracles. If that wasn’t bad enough, Clio is now the Oracle. Yet she doesn’t give up. She has something to fight for and keeps going.

4. Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress from The Lunar Chronicles

Cinder survives basically slavery before escaping her step-mother. Then she is on the run for her life while trying to figure out what everything means and what she is supposed to do. Scarlet won’t stop fighting because she’ll do anything her grandmother asked of her. Cress won’t give up until she is safely out of Levana’s reach. Yeah, I would say they are all pretty strong women.

5. Amber, Jade, and Opal from The Prophecy of the Stones

These three are ripped from their former lives without warning and thrown into a struggle they don’t fully understand. These girls are fighting for more than just their lives but the lives of everyone they love and their very world.

6. April from Till Death Do Us Part and For Better, For Worse, Forever

First of all April is dealing with her own issues. Then she meets Mark who has cystic fibrosis and falls in love. She agrees to marry a man with a terminal illness who might not make it to their wedding. That is some impressive strength. In the second book, April tries to protect others from what she knows is the return of her brain tumor. Yeah, it is really sad but, even then, April is thinking about others.

7. Alanna from The Song of the Lioness series

Alanna wants to be a knight even though she is a girl. For four years she passes as a boy page and then for another four years she masquerades as a boy squire. She doesn’t give up even though that would be the easy choice. After she is knighted and everyone knows she is a woman, most of them are terribly upset. Alanna deals with stuff as it happens and doesn’t give into the pressure just to be a proper nobleman’s wife.

8. Karigan in Green Rider series

Karigan is super strong. She agrees to carry a message for a dying king’s messenger. The message is a life or death matter for the king. She agrees even though she knows it’s going to be dangerous. The dying messenger had two arrows in his back! Karigan doesn’t really hesitate though. She accepts the message and, in doing so, accepts a life that she never would have looked for.

9. Jessa in Snow-Walker

Jessa is kind of intense. She is practical and yet afraid. She and her cousin are exiled to the north where the Jarl’s son, Kari, lives. All their lives they are heard that Kari is a beast, a monster. Sure, Jessa is frightened but she deals with her fear. Even once she meets Kari, she still needs to be strong for him and for her cousin. And they embark on a journey farther north into the land of the enchanters known as Snow-Walkers. Yep, it would take courage to want to go there.

10. Faris in A College of Magics

Faris is the Duchess of Galazon sent to Greenlaw College because her controlling uncle doesn’t want her underfoot at Galazon. At Greenlaw, Faris sees a lot of strange things and meets quite a few interesting people. On her journey back to Galazon after her years at Greenlaw, Faris has to deal with highway robbers and a few people trying to kill her. She doesn’t let this all make her too afraid. Faris grabs the reins and takes control wherever she goes.

These are the Top Ten Books With Strong Young Women. Feel free to share yours as well and check out the rest of them at The Broke and the Bookish.