Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This week's topic is a freebie, so since I missed last week, I'll just do it this week!  So here are my:

Top Ten Favorite Kick-Ass Heroines

I was going to put Katniss Everdeen on this list, but I figured she was an obvious choice, so I went for some others instead.

Isabelle Lightwood from The Mortal Instruments series

I know that Clary is the actual girl protagonist in this series, but Isabelle is a total tough girl!  I love her black leather, her stiletto boots and her demon-killing whip!  She rocks!

Tris Prior from the Divergent series

This girl has got it going on!  She left her safe and happy little home in Abnegation and joined up with Dauntless faction.  She found herself jumping on and off of moving trains even!  I would so want to be her.

Ismae Rienne from Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1)

Ismae not only got herself out of an arranged marriage that would have been horrible, but she also joined up with a group of assassin nuns and learned how to fight and use weapons and poison people.  Hello!  If that's not kick-ass, then I don't know what is!

Alina Starkov from Shadow and Bone:  The Grisha series #1

Alina joined the army and then found a dormant power to save her best friend, Mal.  I love it when the girls save the boys!!!
 
  

Chloe Saunders  from The Summoning

Don't let that cover fool you!  Chloe Saunders is one tough chick!  She deals with horrible visions of dead people, one moody werewolf and a bunch of supernatural mean girls without losing her cool!  Kelley Armstrong is the queen of writing kick-ass women characters and this book proved that she could do that in YA as well.

Rachel Adams from Defiance

Rachel lives in a world where women are held to the whims of men and must be escorted everywhere and stay in their "place".  So what does she do?  She learns how to fight with weapons and starts a search for her missing father even when she knows there is a terrible beast outside the city walls!

 

Blue Sargent from The Raven Boys

This is a girl who hangs out once in a year in the cemetery with her mom to watch the shades of dead people walk by.  Not much phases this girl and she holds her own on this quest with a whole group of boys!  Ha!

 
Ari from Gods and Monsters series

Kelly Keaton is another writer of bad-ass urban fantasy heroines and she transferred that into her YA series.  Ari is an orphan who has learned the repossession business from her adoptive parents.  She also battles all manner of supernatural creatures without batting an eye.  And picks up a hot guy while she's doing it!

 

Helen Hamilton from Starcrossed series

Helen is not only a beauty, she kicks the butts of boys descended from great Greek warriors!  And to top it all off, she confronts the Furies head on and descends into the Underworld to battle!  

 

Quincie P. Morris from the Tantalize series

Quincie handles a werewolf boyfriend, a vampire uncle and suitor and then faces down Satan himself!  All without breaking a sweat!  



So, these are my kick-ass heroines from modern-day novels, but I have a couple of shout outs to some homegirls from classic works.....
 

Beatrice from Much Ado about Nothing

Oh, how I love Beatrice!  This is a woman who had no qualms about putting a man in his place even when she lived during a time that women were to be seen and not heard.  She laments openly about how she can't do more than what she does also, crying out "Oh, that I were a man!"  But she definitely does not fit the mold of her gender for her times and it's a good thing she found a man like Benedick because other men would be too wimpy to handle her.

 
Lizzie Bennet from Pride and Prejudice

Lizzie is the Regency England version of a kick-ass heroine.  She is not simpering and sweet.  She is feisty and she doesn't let Mr. Darcy get by with acting like a royal ass.  She puts him right in his place and does it with grace and manners!  She also lets Wickham know exactly what is what and she doesn't take any crap off of Lady Catherine either!  Go Lizzie!


Are any of my kick-ass heroines the same as yours?  Who did I miss?