Clockwork Princess Countdown

I’m so excited! Literally can’t wait!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Characters of All Time

 

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the awesome people over at The Broke and the Bookish. Check ’em out! 😉

There’s something you should probably know about me before you start reading this post.

I LOVE characters (which is probably a good thing for my writer-brain), and I get attached to them in ways that are probably unhealthy. I weep for them, I laugh with them, and I mourn them when they’re gone. Don’t get me wrong– I love “real people” too. I just have a fangirl problem.

So be ready. There will be MASSIVE fangirling ahead. MASSIVE. (Also, it’s a darn good thing this one is limited to books/graphic novels– I have half an hour to jot out this post and if I had TV/movie characters in there as well, it might literally take me all day. :P)

1. Crowley (Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett, Good Omens)

Yeah, Crowley gets top billing here. Badass Angel-Who-Sauntered-Vaguely-Downward who has a weakness for good food and classic British cars? Me likey.

 

 

2. Aziraphale (Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett, Good Omens)

Annnd I couldn’t mention Crowley without Aziraphale, now, could I? I appreciate his book obsession, and also the strange balance of utterly selfish and pervasively GOOD that Gaiman and Pratchett have achieved within his character.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Remus Lupin (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter series)

I try not to play favorites with HP, since I love all the HP characters, but Lupin has always been and will always be a character that I really appreciate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Katniss Everdeen (Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games)

Katniss is a badass with a heart of gold. ‘Nough said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Daine Sarrasri (Tamora Pierce, The Tortallbooks)

Daine was always a girl after my own heart, and her character progression throughout this series is FANTASTIC.

 

6. Numair Salmalin (Tamora Pierce, The Tortall books)

Part of what drew me to Numair is that he is a TOTAL DORK…. but he’s also a badass who could kill you with his pinky finger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Jem Carstairs (Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel)

Plays violin. Kicks demon ass despite his physical limitations. Kind, generous, and loving. Yeah, Jem is my favorite.

8.  Death (Markus Zusak, The Book Thief)

Doesn’t look like this. Also, BEST NARRATOR EVER.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Anna Korlov (Kendare Blake, Anna Dressed in Blood)

I just love her so much, both as a vengeful ghost and as the girl Cas falls for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. Juushiro Ukitake (Tite Kubo, Bleach)

I’m cheating a little, because he is actually from an anime/manga, but whatever. At first, I kind of hated him because to me he broke the flow of the whole Soul Society arc, but he grew on me as time went on. What can I say? He became one of my all-time favs. Funny how that turns out.

 

 

 

 

What are your Top Ten characters? Let me know in the comments or link me back to your own TTT post! 😀

Freeform Fridays: A Love Letter to Cassandra Clare’s “Clockwork Prince”

(Hope you guys like this! You can check out my reviews of Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince by clicking the links.)

Dear Clockwork Prince,

You are the second book in a series. I, as a general rule, have an extremely hard time with second books. So when I finished Clockwork Angel, I was almost certain that I could wait for you to come out in paperback, allowing me to enjoy your story without laying down $19.99 on the hardcover and causing my poor bank account ultimate pain*. Duly, I shelved CA and moved on to the next book in my TBR pile.

However, you pursued me most aggressively. You enlisted the help of my friends, who told me tales of your exploits with great verve. You wooed me with your lovely cover featuring—who else? Only my favorite character in the entirety of the first book, possibly in the entirety of the series. Your 4.51 star rating on GR is what finally convinced me; still, I exercised ultimate caution for your first hundred pages, played the coy and collected one to your hopeless romantic.

Until I realized that I could not avoid your advances any longer. Until Jem started speaking Mandarin and telling Tessa she was beautiful and loved, until Will’s darkness threatened to engulf his soul, until Sophie became a badass little warrior-mouse-girl. You left me breathless and uplifted, tormented and twisted. I felt every pleasure and every pain as your characters did, and I could not avoid swooning into your arms.

And I, as a general rule, DO NOT swoon.

Also, you are never to tell anyone about that.

My point, dear CP, is that while I may have started out indifferent towards you—even cold at times—your charm has proved the winner over my cynicism. It gives me pain to shelve you, to move on to another novel, but I will do so because that is my way, and we are who we are, are we not?

Know only that I will always return to you, and when CLOCKWORK PRINCESS comes out later this year**, I will surely be torn between the two of you, even as Tessa is torn between Jem and Will.

You have my heart. You may now proceed to break it.

Sincerely,

Em

*Note: this account has been somewhat dramatized for the purpose of good storytelling. CP was actually 13.59 on Amazon, making it something of a steal :3

** Now the release date appears to have been moved to 2013.  😛

Freeform Friday Announcement

Okay. So. I am no longer doing Friday!reads on my blog because a.) sometimes I don’t have time to round up all my books and check to see how far I’ve gotten and b.) I’ve noticed that my blog has kind of become overwhelmed with reviews. I love writing reviews, and I like that you all seem to enjoy reading them, but I like to keep other sorts of writing present on my blog as well, which is why I’m pleased to announce:

Freeform Fridays!

You might get anything. Seriously. Some weeks, it will be essays. Some weeks, it might be poetry. And sometimes, it might just be me taking a prompt and running with it for a couple of paragraphs, or pic-spamming things I like that are relevant, or talking about writing. There might be even be videos

So, without further ado, allow me to present my first Freeform Friday offering: A Love Letter to Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Prince