Top Ten Tuesday – Books That Feature Adorkable Heroines

Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday post. This week’s topic from the girls at The Broke and the Bookish is Ten Books That Feature Characters ___________. The blank is where we are free to define which characters we want to feature, and so I thought I would introduce you to some adorkable heroines.

What’s adorkable, you ask? It’s a combination between adorable and dork, and I have to credit Pepper Basham’s upcoming release Charming the Trouble Maker for introducing me to this particular word. According to Pepper, it perfectly describes the hero, Dr. Alex Murdock: Silly in an adorable kind of way—the kind of silly that has you shaking your head and laughing at the same time. Hence, you’ll find the hashtag #AdorkableAlex associated with this book on social media.

While dork can sometimes be used in a derogatory sense, meaning socially inept or silly in a negative sense, that doesn’t describe the heroines I’ve chosen today at all. They may be a little unconventional at times or have a knack for getting themselves into funny situations, but most of all, they aren’t afraid to be themselves—in a totally adorable way, of course! And it’s being themselves that makes them such lovable, memorable, and adorkable characters.

To begin with, a character everyone will recognise:

Anne of Green Gables – L. M. Montgomery
Anne is quintessential #adorkable material if you ask me. She poetic and whimsical and inclined to get into all kinds of scrapes and misadventures, like mistaking redcurrant wine for raspberry cordial, jumping on an elderly lady in her sleep, or becoming stranded in a sinking flat reenacting Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott.

 

 

 

Just the Way You Are – Pepper Basham
Yes, it’s another Pepper Basham character. This time, Eisley Barrett, who trips her way right into readers’ hearts on the first page when she exclaims, “Gracious sakes. I’ve squished a grandpa.” She’s delightfully unpretentious and prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to save dolls, whatever the cost to her pride. Among other things! You can read all about her in my review.

 

 

A New Shade of Summer – Nicole Deese
Artists are known for being colourful people—in more ways than one—and Callie Quinn brings colour wherever she goes, right through the bathroom window if she has to! Or even if she doesn’t have to, because front doors are for conventional relatives only! Read my review here.

 

 

 

The Camdyn Taylor series – Christina Coryell
You have to meet Camdyn Taylor to appreciate the kind of scrapes she can get herself into. She’s had the misfortune to be proposed to FIVE times, two of which went viral, and none of which were expected or accepted. And that’s just the beginning of her story. And everything is a story with Camdyn Taylor. Oh, and you have to meet Cole Parker, too. That’s totally worth picking up this series! 😉

 

The Writing Desk – Rachel Hauck
Writers are sometimes known for being a little eccentric, but Tenley Roth is the only writer I’ve known to pedal furiously down a motorway on a bicycle with the red plaid robe she’s wearing billowing behind her. In fact, she lives in that red plaid robe, and she’s somewhat attached to her desk too.
Read my review here.

 

 

Turtles in the Road – Rhonda & Kaley Rhea
Oh. My. Goodness. Of all the characters in this list, Piper Cope has to be THE most adorkable. I nearly died laughing at some points in this book, most notably when Piper sets out on a homicidal terrapin rampage armed in soccer shin guards, knee pads, chest protector, and a plastic hockey goalie mask and bearing a lacrosse stick. Because everyone knows villains always return to the scene of the crime. Even turtles, apparently. Read my full review.

 

 

Then There Was You – Kara Isaac
Josh Tyler always seems to be around for Paige McAllister’s embarrassing moments—near proposals, vomiting on her own feet, fighting off attacks from drop bears, impromptu celebratory dances, and even splitting her jeans. But she’s still adorable. And Josh’s ‘oops’ moment at the end eclipses them all! Read my review.

 

 

 

Close to You – Kara Isaac
Yes, Kara Isaac has a talent for creating adorkable heroines! And when you’re discussing adorkable, how can you go past a heroine whose English-lit doctorate has been reduced to leading tours around Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movie sites dressed like a Hobbit—complete with prosthetic hobbit feet? Then there’s the incident with the swamp and the cow… Let’s just say, the gal’s got spunk! You can read my full review here.

 

 

True to You – Becky Wade
Nora Bradford is the sweetest kind of adorkable you can imagine. She’s a bookish historian who loves genealogy, feels fictional crushes are safer than real ones, and who thinks that it’s indubitably prudent to check, after being thoroughly kissed by a man who just confessed that he was interested in dating someone, that she was, in fact, that someone. Read my full review here.

 

 

Begin Again – Crystal Walton
Last, but not least, is the free-spirited hippie-chick from New York, Ti Russo. An artist who’s always singing, who speaks her mind, often right into the little microphone of her cell phone—because she takes notes—and who presses every one of Drew Anderson’s buttons. And he wouldn’t have it any other way. Read my review here.

 

 

 

Who are some of your favourite adorkable heroines?