Looking for novels with strong, empowered female protagonists.
Looking for novels with strong, empowered female protagonists.
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Looking for novels with strong, empowered female protagonists.
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
America’s First Daughter by Laura Kamoie and Stephanie Dray
The Witch of Cologne
Mistress of Spices
Chocolat
The Thirteenth Tale
Hehe while Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series. Lizbeth Salander is a major badass.
I tried so hard to get into this book but I just can’t. Might try audiobook
Totally!! I finished almost all of them in a day or so. I love Lisbeth Salander.
The Alice Network, Kate Quinn
Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye Taylor
The other side of midnight by Sidney Sheldon
Check out @Ann Deadwood series. Shes a fantastic indie writer and Violet will rock your world.
Shining Through by Susan Isaacs.
Bastard Out of Carolina
Dana Stabenow’s Kate Shugak series
I’m only in the beginning but -Rebecca!
I can’t say she knows she is strong, she’s very unconfident. But I relate to her and it makes me feel stronger or want her to be stronger.
Check out Marion Zimmer Bradley or Judith Tarr. The Dovekeepers by Alice Huffman is wonderful too!
The Kate Burkholder Series by Linda Castillo
The Vanessa “Michael” Monroe series by Taylor Srevens in order:
The Informationist
The Innocent
The Doll
The Catch
The Mask
…Taylor Stevens… not Srevens
Genre?
You mean something like Gone With the Wind? No one will fit that definition better than Scarlet.
Maybe not as strong a role as you are looking for but the Lady Emily books by Tasha Alexander you may enjoy.
The Wet Nurse’s Tale, totally unexpected writing, one of my favorites.
The first three books in the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson:
* The Final Empire
* The Well of Ascension
* The Hero of Ages
The Wax and Wayne books following that trilogy also have some strong female protagonists, but they are supporting characters.
The Alice Network
Howl’s Moving Castle. Even though its a kids book. Sophie was great.
Those who save us by Jenna Blum
Mrs Pollifax series by Gillman
Cyteen and Regenesis by Cherryh
Honor Harrington books by Weber
Protector of the Small series by Pierce
Clan of the Cave Bear by Auel
The Feed of Paksenarrion by Moon
Clan of the Cave Bear!
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo .
At Risk by Stella Rimington…In The Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming…Baltimore Blues: The First Tess Monaghan Novel by Laura Lippman…The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency [first in a series] by Alexander McCall Smith…The War Against Miss Winter (Rosie Winter Mystery #1) by Kathryn Miller Haines…Absolution by Murder [Sister Fidelma mysteries] by Peter Tremayne…In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker…The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty…The Red Tent by Anita Diament…Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen…Circling the Sun by Paula McLain…True Women: A Novel of Texas by Janice Woods Windle…Follow the River by James Alexander Thom…Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende…Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler…In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez…
The Mary Russel series and the Kate Martinelli series by Laurie R King.
The Temperence Brennan books by Kathy Reich’s
Middlemarch. George Eliot.
Hidden Figures
Anything by Mercedes Lackey
Ohh or the Honor Harrington series by David Weber
Anything by Barbara Kingsolver. Also the Number One Detective’s Agency by Alexander McCall Smith or for a fun time with at strong female protagonist, the Miss Julia series by Ann Ross.
What about antagonists?
Americanah by Adiche
Or her other novels Half a Golden Sun
Octavia Butler has several
Mama Day by Gloria Naylor is awesome
Sing Unburied Sing….
Just finished Americanah!
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. It’s the first in a trilogy. The female lead is amazing, hilarious and powerful.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Outlander
Mists of Avalon
If you want some fun middle grade books you could do The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C Wrede
Whole premise of the first book is that she’s a princess who doesn’t want to do princess-y things so she runs away to find a dragon to volunteer to be the dragons princess.
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife is good. The main character is smart and a total bad ass.
Following
Hunger Games
THE QUEEN OF THE TEARLING!!!!
Our Immaculate by Jason Hes (horror at an all girls school)
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Outlander has Claire who can do just about anything.
She never listens
Oh well, everyone has to have some flaws
She annoyed me
The Progeny & Firstborn by Tosca Lee
The Sisterhood Series by Fern Michaels (these are some kick ass bitches!)
The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson (all of her books have strong females. This one has the strongest)
The last Mrs. Parrish
Autobiography of Mrs Tom Thumb, My Name is Mary Sutter, The Aviators Wife
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Yes! This one.
Little Women
The Crimson Petal and the White!!
Reese Witherspoon’s “Hello Sunshine” book club is all about Strong Women.. 🙂
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Lilac Girls
In fantasy: Lila Bard in A Darker Shade of Magic series by V.E.Schwab, Kate Harker in the Monsters of Verity duology by V.E.Schwab, but they are both part of a protagonist duo (male and female protag). However, I love both characters, they are badass and fight their own battles.
Following
I loved “Signature of All Things” by Elizabeth Gilbert. Very strong, intelligent female protagonist. Historical fiction.
The strongest female I’ve run across is Jane Whitefield. The series is by Thomas Perry. She’s a Native American ‘guide’ that helps people disappear. Talk about badass…
Love that series!
Outlander series
“The woman warrior” by Maxine Hong Kingston. An inspiring tale with autobiographical notes about being Chinese and American.
Throne of Glass
A Woman of Independent Means by Elizabeth Forsyth Hailey
Wow! That’s a great one from so many years ago!
I just reread a couple of years ago and was so happy that it stood up!
The Glass Castle!
The Red Tent; The Library at Mount Char; The Parable of the Sower; if you like YA, I’m two books into the Illuminae Files trilogy and both of them had great female protagonists
The red tent was amazing
Just finished The Language of Flowers. Victoria Diffenbach.
Circling the sun by Paula McClain; The Power by Naomi Alderman; Euphoria by Lily King; Circe by Madeline Miller
Alice Network
Inheritance Series
Circe by Madeline Miller
Divergent series
Small great things
Outlander – and the rest of the series.
The Power – Naomi Alderman
How was that?? I bought it but I haven’t gotten to it yet. It sounds really good!
It’s really good. Very intense. Kind of dark but gives you a lot to think about.
Uprooted. Sabriel trilogy. Parable of the Sower. Beloved. The Bear and the Nightingale. Spindle’s End. An Untamed State. Bourne. Winter of Fire.
Jane Eyre
Storm and silenc -robert thier
Rita Mae Browns novels
Atlas Shrugged
Try the Det. Kathy Mallory series by Carol O’Conner.
Forbidden Places by Penny Vincenzi.
Divergent
If you like urban fantasy, one of my favorites is the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. Kate’s a seriously kickass heroine.
Lei crime series ❤️
Following
Carol O’Connell’s Mallory series. A very strong character.
How could I have forgotten Mallory! The most empowered ever!
Outlander
If you like fantasy, the Wayfarer Redemption series (6 books) by Sara Douglass has lots of strong female characters.
We Were the Lucky Ones. The male characters were strong too, but the women were unbelievable.
At my book club meeting yesterday I was reminded of one of my favorite empowered women in fiction: Jean Paget from A Town Like Alice. It was written not long after WWII.
Hugh Howey’s Silo series (Wool and others) has some good strong female characters.