Hello and welcome to February, everyone! How is this year already going by so fast??

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker. Here are the rules if you want to play along:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week’s teaser comes from The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson.

“Weren’t you scared?” I ask.

“Yes. But it was a good scared.”

“There’s a good kind?”

“Oh, yes.” Her voice drops so low I have to strain to hear. “Orlin made me scared all the time. Scared I would starve. Scared I would get too cold. Scared he would hurt me again or get so mad he’d throw me to one of the men. That was nasty bad scared.” She pauses, scuffing her boots against the floor. “But you never hit me, even though I’m your slave… You always feed me. You call me my true name. Now when I’m scared, it’s not because of meanness. And today, I chose my own scared. It’s always a good scared, when you get to pick it your own self.”

I know I pulled a quote from this book last week, and this one is rather a long one, but I absolutely loved it. I love the idea of choosing your own scared. I love it even more that the character who gives this wisdom is a little girl, about six or seven years old.

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is:

Ten Books with Names/Character Names in the Title

I thought this was a fun topic, and not as common as I thought.

1. Jane Anonymous by Laurie Faria Stolarz – While Jane is obviously a pseudonym, it is what we call the main character for a good part of the novel. My review is here if you want to check it out.
2. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke – Two names for the price of one! I’ve wanted to do a re-read of it at some point, since I never actually reviewed it on the blog, but it’s just so long! Maybe soon.
3. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde – A classic tale of what greed and vanity can do to a person.
4. Finn by Jon Clinch – A very dark retelling of the famous adventures of Huckleberry Finn, this time told from the point of view of his drunken, abusive father.
5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – If this book isn’t on several lists today, I’ll be very surprised. I discovered it first when I was a senior in high school and it’s been one of my favorite books ever since.
6. Regina’s Song by David & Leigh Eddings – A contemporary novel from some of my favorite fantasy authors, this is a story of murder, mystery and revenge with a slight supernatural twist.
7. Sabriel by Garth Nix – Several of the books in this series are named after their protagonists, but we’ll just go with the first one to make it simple. This series also needs a reread soon since it is on my list of series to try and finish. Maybe this is the year! You can read my review here.
8. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins – This is such a sweet YA contemporary romance and I love it so much. It makes me want to go away to a boarding school in Paris. Or maybe just go to Paris. You can read my review here.
9. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen – I always enjoy a good retelling of a classic story. This one is a retelling of the tale of Robin Hood and his loyal friend Will Scarlet. Except that Scarlet is actually a girl in disguise (not a spoiler, it’s in the blurb). You can read my review here.
10. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs – Another book that needs a re-read and a series that I need to finish. I loved how the old vintage photographs provided the atmosphere for this story. Such a cool idea! You can read my review here.

Some honorable mentions:

• Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey – Kushiel isn’t a main character, actually isn’t even a character, really, but a goddess. Still, it’s a name that is important in the story so it counts! I have two reviews for this one, one from when I first read it and one from a more recent re-read.
• Alanna: the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce – This book kicks off the story of everyone’s favorite tough girl heroine. I love how determined she is to follow her own path. My review is here.
• Belgarath the Sorcerer by David & Leigh Eddings – This book is so much fun. It takes one of the side characters (I hate to even call him that since he is very important to the story, but it’s true) from the Belgariad series and tells the story of his very, very, very long life.
• The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – I mean, these are pretty obvious, aren’t they? That’s why I didn’t put them in the regular list.

Please leave your teasers and top tens in comments!

Categories: Teaser Tuesday, Top Ten Tuesdays

Tags: books, teaser tuesday, top ten tuesday