Top Ten Tuesday is a list-based meme hosted by the amazing Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. If the meme sounds familiar, it was formerly hosted by The Broke and Bookish.

Happy Galentine's Day!  Since I am a rebel (and by that I mean single and slightly bitter), my Top Ten Tuesday is not going to focus on love and other sappy stuff as it was supposed to. Instead I am going to celebrate a much more important holiday, Galentine's Day.

For those who have not had the enlightening experience of watching Leslie Knope celebrate this holiday on Parks and Recreation, let me educate you. The day before the mushy gushy holiday on February 14 is dedicated to the power of female friendship and the awesomeness that is being a woman, regardless of whether or not you have a significant other. Galentine's Day is about girl-power and self-love, not about crying while watching The Notebook with a pint of Ben and Jerry's as your only companion.

To celebrate this wonderful day, I am sharing with you some of my favorite, kick-butt heroines from YA lit.

Click the link to learn more about some of my favorite heroines from YA and join in the discussion!

It is 200 years since the birth of Charlotte Brontë, who in Jane Eyre created one of fiction’s most memorable heroines.

Read more here.

From pioneering doctors to fearsome warriors – and the author of the first ever novel.

This video is all about the YA heroines I adore, organized somewhat by “personality type.” I’ve included them in “types” so that if you’ve read a book from one PoV of the same personality type, maybe you’ll like the rest in that category. I’m a huge character oriented reader and most often I continue reading in books only if I feel invested in the characters’ lives, so I thought that this could be a sort of recommendation feature.

Despite having written a post on why I like fantasy better than contemporary novels, every time I found myself compiling lists of favorite novels, I would see about an equal number between the two. I’d wonder, why. I definitely do like fantasy more than contemporary novels, and I think I’ve stumbled upon a reason.

Having created this list, I wonder at the lack of contemporary heroines here. I think that sometimes contemporary heroines may not be allowed to “shine” as fully as their peers in fantasy, or some personality types are missing from contemporary. Most of the contemporary stories I’ve read have featured some sort of introverted type, few with the “bold, brash, confident” exterior. And I wonder why – is it harder to pull off the moments of reflection needed in a contemporary novel if you choose a heroine who’s a little more intense?

Or am I reading the wrong books? I don’t discount this last question – I leave that to you, my readers, to tell me. And if I am, perchance recommend me some others. Because right now, I’m thinking that contemporary more easily translates to the romantic/dreamer type while fantasy, it’s harder without the character getting a lot of “hate” (e.g. Sansa Stark).

Do you think this is a useful way of recommending books / will you be reading some of these books now? Do we share any favorite heroines? Do you have any books that you would recommend to me based on the above? Let me know!

It's official: Jackson Pierce is here to stay. You know how I know? Because her books get better as time goes on.

Is it odd to say? That this series gets better with each book, I mean? For book bloggers, that doesn't seem to be much of a recommendation, yet for some reason the series that got talked about the most are the ones that deteriorated over time. Is it because high-profile books get more scrutiny? Or is it the opposite, that we talk more about stuff that provides us with the material?

Why am I even on this tangent? 

Probably because, had it not been for the 2014 prequel/sequel challenge, I would have never looked at Pearce's novels beyond Sisters Red. Despite the beautiful covers and the intriguing synopsis, I would have classified them as sequels to that book with the problematic portrayals. (So thank you, Novel Heartbeat!) That said, if you did read "Sisters Red" and you decided that this series is not for you, I can understand that. But I'm personally glad I gave this one a shot.