His Royal Highness: A Book that rules over all books
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak will always be one of my all-time favorite books. It’s beauitful and unique and heartbreaking and life changing.
The Regal Queen: A book with elegant writing that left a strong impression
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is absolutely stunning. The writing and the story are magical, unique, and enchanting. Seriously, if you haven’t read this yet, please go and do so. Or listen to the audiobook by Jim Dale. That’s just as good. Go, go, go.
Evil King/Queen: A book/series with a great villain that you loved to hate
Can I have this prompt and not include Queen Levana from the Lunar Chronicles? Fairest is a prequel about how she became the evil queen she is…and I thought maybe I’d sympathize with her a little bit after I read it. But nope. I hate her even more. She’s the worst ever and super crazy.
The Brooding Prince: A book boyfriend that left you swooning
Persuasion by Jane Austen is an underrated but fantastic novel. And Captain Wentworth is just amazing and wonderful. He and Anne are goals. I dare say that I like him more than Pride and Prejudice’s Mr. Darcy!
The Fierce Princess: A book/series with a kick-butt leading lady
Uprooted by Naomi Novik! I just read this book, so it’s on my mind, but Agnieszka is an amazing heroine. She grows a lot in the 400-or-so pages, but all of the growth was really natural. And I loved how she was always an equal with her love interest. He didn’t see her as lesser just because she was newer to magic. Agnieszka really just took control and didn’t let fear stop her from doing what she knew to be right.
The Duke of Secrets: A book that make you wait until the sequel to learn the truth
The Program by Suzanne Young. Young knows writes these crazy epilogues in her books that make you question anything and everything. And in the Program, I literally didn’t know who to believe and who to trust after that epilogue. I had to wait until the sequel to find out…and I’m still not 100% sure to be honest.
Captain of the Royal Guard: A book/series where you shipped the secondary character instead of the main love interest
Éponine’s my favorite character in this (very long) book, so of course I shipped her with Marius. Unrequited love is never a fun thing, and she literally gives her entire life for her love. She’s a great and very interesting character. She has much more to her than the movie portrays!
The Court Jester: A book that made you laugh out loud
The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet is a book that came from the Youtube series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I love both with all my heart. They’re hilarious and wonderful and make my heart so happy.
Carlisa I can't beileve you've read Les Mis! That is a freaking tome! I love the musical, but I don't think I'm ever going to hunker down and read that book. Bravo to you!
Yes, it's probably one of my biggest accomplishments in life, haha. It took me probably like over a month of solid reading…and that's a long time for me. I did it for the AR points in high school, and it gave me a bajillion, so I was totally okay.
Fairest was such an interesting book for me! I went into it thinking I was going to sympathize with Levana, but like you, I ended up hating her even more. Honestly, it would have taken a miracle for me to like her at this point. But at it also helped me understand a little bit more about the state of Luna before Levana (like how it still mostly sucked). It was also really unique to see the fire and Cinder's "accident" from Levana's point of view.
One day and I mean one day I'm going to actually read Les Miserables.