Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week’s theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!
This week’s theme is ‘Secondary/Minor Characters Who Deserve More Love’, so today I’m sharing a selection of secondary characters I adore – and I think quite a lot of them are loved by many other readers, too!
Cadence Blackburn from the Nevermoor series by Jessica Townsend: I love Morrigan’s friends – Hawthorne, in particular, is a delight – but I’ll always be weak for the rivals-to-friends friendships that are done well, and Morrigan’s friendship with Cadence is done very well. Cadence is quite a spiky character, and I’ve said before that I tend to enjoy spiky girls in my fiction, but the more you learn about her, the more you understand why. I love her.
Thomas Wilker from The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan: This series is one of the best out there for proving that men and women can just be friends. Isabella’s long and lasting friendship with Tom – another friendship that doesn’t get off to the best of starts – is one of my favourite things about this series. I love Tom’s loyalty; if he and Isabella can’t work together then he’s not afraid to turn down work that would help his career.
Deret Beshelar from The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: Beshelar is so grumpy and proper and loyal and I love him deeply. He’s one of those characters I fall more and more in love with each time I re-read this book.
Cleopatra Quinn from The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow: Far too many witch stories not only focus on romance, but, on the whole, tend to focus on heterosexual romance. Honestly the lack of queer witches in fiction is kind of ridiculous. Enter Cleo, who is both Bella’s love interest and a fantastic character in her own right.
The Disreputable Dog from Lirael by Garth Nix: I never wanted a talking dog more than I did when I was about 14 and I read Lirael for the first time.
Louis from Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray: Louis is the sweetest of beans and his relationship with Henry is beautiful.
Lady Patience from The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb: There’s a severe lack of kind stepmothers in the fantasy genre, so watching a genuinely tender relationship bloom between Patience and Fitz throughout this trilogy was a joy and I love Patience a lot.
Aqisa from The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A Chakraborty: Aqisa is snarky, she likes swords, and I’m pretty sure she’s queer. In other words, she’s my kind of character.
Genevieve Lefoux from the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger: Genevieve is one of those characters I knew I was going to love the moment she appeared on the page. She’s queer, she’s a snappy dresser and she’s an inventor – what’s not to love?
Agnes from Doomsday Book by Connie Willis: Lots of authors don’t write children very well, but Agnes is one of the most realistic children I’ve ever come across in fiction and I fell in love with her. Connie Willis, I still haven’t forgiven you.
Jessticulates 
The Parasol Protectorate and The Diviners have so many fantastic characters. Great list!
Check out my TTT
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Nevermoor is my favorite ongoing book series right now. I’m super excited to see where it’s heading.
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I haven’t read any of these, but I definitely feel you on wanting more page time for your favorite minor characters. A lot of times, they’re more interesting/entertaining than the major ones!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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I haven’t read any of these yet, but I’m saving The Once and Future Witches for a spooky Halloween read, and now you’ve made me even more excited to read it! Great list 🙂
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I really need to read some Alix Harrow…
I completely forgot about Lady Patience!
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On the surface it doesn’t sound like my kind of thing at all, but I actually really wanna read the Parasol Protectorate books! Actually, as I write that, I realise it’s actually the other series she wrote, that has Etiquette and Espionage in it. But maybe I’ll also now look up the Parasol Protectorate books…
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The Parasol Protectorate books are so fun! They’re like if Jane Austen wrote urban fantasy, only more fat positive and with more openly queer characters. Gail Carriger’s one of those authors I turn to when I need something that’s guaranteed to make me happy.
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Great list! More books need good friendships between men and women. Now I’m even more interested in picking up the Lady Trent series. And oh yes. Doomsday Book was hard.
My post this week
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Great list! I agree about Cleo; I want to know more about her and her family’s style of witchcraft.
I twisted the topic some, as I have trouble remembering secondary characters.
When you get the chance, I hope you stop by my post: https://readbakecreate.com/10-books-that-deserve-more-love/
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I haven’t read any of these books but that only means more characters to potentially discover! 😀
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The Lady Trent books felt like there was a lot of spinoff potential will all the interesting characters that popped up along the way. I relly did love that she never tried out Thomas as a love interest too.
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These are fab choices! I needed to include someone from Goblin Emperor as well — I went with Csethiro, but Beshalar is such a good choice too! Love Genevieve Lefoux — have you read the novella about her (Romancing the Inventor)?
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Louis and Henry broke my heart!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/08/10/top-ten-tuesday-328/
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You’re making me so curious about Doomsday Book!
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-secondary-characters-who-deserve-more-love/
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I’d certainly love to see a book featuring a talking dog.
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I still haven’t read Hollowpox (forgive me) but I did love what we got of Cadence in Wundersmith. Ngl though I love so many of the secondary characters in Nevermoor ❤️ Great list!
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A great list of characters – I loved The Lady Trent novels! And Lirael was great. Can’t believe I’d forgotten about the disreputable dog! This is my TTT.
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