Tropes I hate: "Strong" female characters that constantly gets rescued or written weak for the sake of romance. Quirky "I'm so random" female characters. Female characters that can't hold grudges and are massive pushovers. Illogical annoying female characters that constantly makes mistakes as a personality trait.
Not a fan of any books with writing like Colleen Hoover and YA like Sarah J Maas. I tried them.
I like Anime world building the most – like Bleach and Naruto, but the female characters are written HORRIBLY and they always getting rescued left and right and frankly are dumber and more annoying than male characters too. I just want that world building but with a female main character. I found some good fanfiction: Dreaming Of Sunshine, Pulling My Weight, Pink Fang, Odalisque, etc. but searching for good fanfiction gets old sometimes.
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My favorite main character group dynamic so far is Maximum Ride by James Patterson.
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My favorite general plot and main character is Darkest Powers by Kelley Armstrong.
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My favorite book series world-building so far is the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan.
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My favorite YA romance is Night World series by LJ Smith.
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The Folk of the Air by Holly Black was also ok, but I kept feeling like something was missing and it was frustrating all the times that all they needed to do was communicate.
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Adult romance that I felt was ok: The Dark Side by Kristy Cunning, but honestly the characters and plot didn't feel that fleshed out compared to other books I've read. At least the main female was powerful in the end. Curse of the Gods Series by Jaymin Eve was ok, but the women are purposefully written weak for romance and I didn't like the characters, though it had entertaining ideas.
Not a fan of:
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Any Book By Sarah J Maas – Juvenile whiny bad writing that took me out every paragraph
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Hunger Games – Made it to book 3 but world building felt kind of boring to me
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Divergent – World and characters were not believable to me
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Matched by Ally Condie – Not believable and boring
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The Handmaid's Tale – Depressioncore, honestly I don't know why I tried because this is nowhere near the type of stories I like to read
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Vampire Diaries – Writing was ok but I made it to book 6-7 or something and realized the main female character was always going to be useless
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Twilight Series – Not only is the female main character weak, I did not like the sparkly people
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Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo – Takes away the main female's character at the end
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Gate of Myth and Power by KM Shea – This is the only weak female character type of book I'm willing to read anymore but it got boring when she was no longer a cat
I guess I lose interest when the only "excitement" and accomplishment the female character has in the book is related to romance.
by ProfessionalPay2167
3 Comments
Not 100% sure if it’s the best fit for what you’re looking for, but NPCs by Drew Hayes could be worth looking into. 5 books so far, still being written, not really romance focused at all. Female character isn’t the *main* character but she’s part of the main group, starts off with kinda lame backstory as the mayors daughter but develops pretty quickly!
Does it have to be a series? Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie would fit. A standalone book.
Also:
The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
The Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence: The first book, Red Sister, introduces a strong female lead in a world of assassins. And these woman/girls are ALL not in need of rescuing, that’s for sure!
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik- Harry Potter and DND with a witty female protagonist. I think it’s a trilogy. If I remember, there is an early on “rescue” by a male character but it’s both unwelcome and pretty unnecessary.
Discworld’s The Witches books- Wyrd Sisters is the start. You may also enjoy the Tiffany Aching ones if you are preferring YA or a younger protagonist.