#SixforSunday is… it’s really just that. You choose 6 books (normally) that you’d choose to fit whatever the prompt is that week. This meme is hosted by A Little but a Lot and you can follow the link to find the prompts for January to March. I’ll also post this month’s prompt’s at the end of the post.
This week’s prompt: Best character arcs/growth
May’s theme is Spring Into Action. For the fourth week, I will try and highlight some characters that experience growth in their stories.
I have read tons of stories that featured character arcs/growth, so it was difficult to fully narrow it down to just six stories. Some of my choices are growths that occur in a standalone novel and others are growth that occurs over a series.
**My choices are in no particular order. You can click on their covers to explore their Goodreads entries.**
1. Secrets of the Starcrossed (The Once & Future Queen #1)
I love Cassandra’s character journey in this series. The character presented at the beginning is shaped by her experiences in all three novels and she grows a lot that it almost is a new character by the end.
In a world where the Roman Empire never fell, two starcrossed lovers fight to ignite the spark of rebellion…
Londinium, the last stronghold of the Romans left in Britannia, remains in a delicate state of peace with the ancient kingdoms that surround it. As the only daughter of a powerful merchant, Cassandra is betrothed to Marcus, the most eligible bachelor in the city.
But then she meets Devyn, the boy with the strange midnight eyes searching for a girl with magic in her blood.
A boy who will make her believe in soulmates…
When a mysterious sickness starts to leech the life from citizens with Celtic power lying dormant in their veins, the imperial council sets their schemes in motion. And so Cassandra must make a choice: the Code or Chaos, science or sorcery, Marcus or Devyn?
Panem meets the Grishaverse in this explosive new YA trilogy perfect for readers of Marie Lu, Bella Forrest, and Cassandra Clare.
2. Float Plan
Anna just lost her fiancé and is consumed by grief, so she sets off on a sailing journey in the Caribbean. Throughout the story, she learns how to move forward with her life and tries to figure out her future after dealing with tragedy.
Critically acclaimed author Trish Doller’s unforgettable and romantic adult debut about setting sail, starting over, and finding yourself…
Since the loss of her fiancé, Anna has been shipwrecked by grief—until a reminder goes off about a trip they were supposed to take together. Impulsively, Anna goes to sea in their sailboat, intending to complete the voyage alone.
But after a treacherous night’s sail, she realizes she can’t do it by herself and hires Keane, a professional sailor, to help. Much like Anna, Keane is struggling with a very different future than the one he had planned. As romance rises with the tide, they discover that it’s never too late to chart a new course.
In Trish Doller’s unforgettable Float Plan, starting over doesn’t mean letting go of your past, it means making room for your future.
3. Circe
Circe starts the story among the immortals where she does not quite know her place. In her story, she goes through a lot of obstacles and tries to find her own happiness.
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child – not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power – the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.
4. Beach House for Rent (Beach House #4)
In this novel in the series, there are two main characters, Heather and Cara. Although Cara was a great character, Heather’s growth stood out to me a little more. She deals a lot with anxiety and although it does not magically go away, I love how she gains some tools throughout the story to at least help her a little live her day to day life.
Bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe returns to her beloved Isle of Palms to tell the poignant, charming story of two women, one summer, and one very special beach house.
When Cara Rutledge rents out her quaint beach house on Isle of Palms to Heather Wyatt for the entire summer, it’s a win-win by any standard: Cara’s generating income necessary to keep husband Brett’s ecotourism boat business afloat, and anxiety-prone Heather, an young artist who’s been given a commission to paint birds on postage stamps, has a quiet space in which to work and tend to her pet canaries uninterrupted.
It isn’t long, however, before both women’s idyllic summers are altered irrevocably: the alluring shorebirds—and the man who rescues them—begin to draw Heather out of the shell she’s cultivated toward a world of adventure, and maybe even love; at the same time, Cara’s life reels with sudden tragedy, and she wishes only to return to the beach house that had once been her port amidst life’s storms. When Heather refuses to budge from her newfound sanctuary, so begins the unlikeliest of rooming situations. While they start out as strangers, as everything around the women falls apart they learn that the only thing they can really rely on is each other.
And, like the migrating shorebirds that come to the island for the summer, these two women of different generations must rediscover their unique strengths so by summer’s end they, too, can take flight in ways they never imagined possible.
5. The Cruel Prince (Folk of the Air #1)
This is another character that grows throughout a series. Jude changes a lot from the very first page to the last with the reader closely following along with her journey and plans.
Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
6. The Runaway Bride
Kitty is introduced in this story as running away from her wedding. It is initially a mystery and some of her decisions do not always make sense, at least to me. By the end of the story after everything is revealed, her character growth is very heart-warming and clear.
Here comes the bride … but how long can she hide?
When Kitty Clayton flees her wedding with no money, no bank card and no phone, her life seems worryingly futureless. All she knows is, she’d rather sleep on the streets than go back home to cheating Ethan.
After picking her up hitch-hiking, widowed children’s author Jack Duffy takes Kitty under his wing, looking out for her until she gets back on her feet. And it’s not long before the two grow close…
But with Jack struggling to recover from the guilt he feels over his wife’s death and Kitty refusing to face up to the problems she’s running away from at home, will the two ever manage to share a happily ever after?
A heart-warming novel about love and new beginnings, you won’t be able to put it down!
May – Spring into action
2nd – Stories set in spring
9th – Pastel coloured covers
16th – Covers with plants on
23rd – Best character arcs/growth
30th – Books on your Spring TBR
That completes Week one for May’s Sunday posts! Even after completing this list, my mind is still blank for novels set in Spring. How did you interpret this week’s topic? Feel free to sound off in the comments as I also explore around to check out everyone else’s lists!
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