#ArmchairBEA: Character Chatter

by Donna Huber

Favorite Characters

English: A photograph of an engraving in The Writings of Charles Dickens volume 20, A Tale of Two Cities, titled "The Accomplices". (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Great characters can make me keep reading a so-so story. I re-read A Tale of Two Cities every year because I loved Sydney Carton, Charles Darney, and Lucie Manette. Sometimes I would just skip to where they arrive on the scene in the book.

I'm not exactly sure why, but I also love Twilight's Bella and Edward. I got involved in fan fiction because I liked the characters. By the end of my fan fiction reading days, I wondered if the stories I chose to read truly resembled Meyer's characters or it was more that Edward was a strong male with a bad boy vibe and Bella was kind of the every girl.

Layton Green's Dominic Grey might be the first character that I would put in the book boyfriend category (though Sydney and Charles might have been there too if I knew there was such a thing when I reading that book). Grey could kill a man 50 ways with just his pinkie, yet he has a checkered past that just begs for you to hug him (though that might make him uncomfortable).

Maggie Lee definitely is on my favorite characters of all time list. JB Lynn's Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman is hilarious, but also a huge sweetheart. She is backed up by a wonderful cast of secondary characters which makes Maggie even more lovable.

I'm sure there are several more that I could name, but I know you are wanting to get to other blogs so I will leave my list there. For me a great character is someone I can relate to. It may be something I see in myself or in people I know. Other times, it is because I know I would be friends with that person if they were real. It is all about well defined characters that are realistic.


Today's Instagram Challenge: Character Quote

A typo free version #armchairbea #characterquote

A photo posted by Donna (@girl_who_reads) on May 29, 2015 at 7:50am PDT