45+ Of Your Favorite Lead Characters in a Book Series

This giveaway is sponsored by Shovel Ready and Near Enemy by Adam Sternbergh. ____________________ The futuristic hardboiled noir that Lauren Beukes calls “sharp as a paper-cut” about a garbage man turned kill-for-hire. Spademan used to be a garbage man.  That was before the dirty bomb hit Times Square, before his wife was killed, and before the city became a blown-out shell of its former self. Now he’s a hitman. In a near-future New York City split between those who are wealthy enough to “tap in” to a sophisticated virtual reality, and those who are left to fend for themselves in the ravaged streets, Spademan chose the streets.  When his latest client hires him to kill the daughter of a powerful evangelist, he must navigate between these two worlds—the wasteland reality and the slick fantasy—to finish his job, clear his conscience, and make sure he’s not the one who winds up in the ground. ____________________ A surefire way to keep your readers with you book after book is to write kick-ass lead characters. We like ’em flawed, brave, gritty, and smart- maybe you prefer a lead who is kind and bookish (Anne Shirley!), resourceful and all-or-nothing (Daenerys!), or all of the above. We asked you what your favorite lead characters in a book series were, and you answered! Here are 45+ of your favorite leads. If you’re wondering, the most popular answers included Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen, and Jason Bourne: Jason Bourne from the Bourne series Penn Cage from the Pen Cage series Cinder from The Lunar Chronicles Alex Cross from the Alex Cross series Eve Dallas from the In Death series Flavia de Luce from the Favia de Luce series Arthur Dent from the Hitchhikers series Maisie Dobbs from the Maisie Dobbs series Gemma Doyle from the Gemma Doyle trilogy Harry Dresden from the Dresden Files series Nancy Drew from the Nancy Drew series Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games series Inspector Armand Gamache from the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series Sophie Hatter from Howl’s Moving Castle Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock Holmes Izabel from the Saga series Percy Jackson from the Percy Jackson series Philip Marlowe from the Philip Marlowe series Elena Michaels from the Women of the Otherworld series Kinsey Millhone from the Kinsey Millhone mysteries Thursday Next from the Thursday Next series Stephanie Plum from the Stephanie Plum series Hercule Poirot from the Hercule Poirot mysteries Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series Tris Prior from the Divergent series Easy Rawlins from the Easy Rawlins series Lincoln Rhyme from the Lincoln Rhyme series Mary Russell from The Russell series Lisbeth Salander from the Millennium trilogy Scarpetta from the Scarpetta series Seraphina from the Seraphina series Anne Shirley from the Anne of Green Gables series Jon Snow from A Song of Ice and Fire Spademan from the Spademan series Spiderman from the many iterations of Spiderman Sookie Stackhouse from The Southern Vampires mysteries Stargirl from the Stargirl series Arya Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire Cormoran Strike from the Cormoran Strike series Bella Swan from the Twilight series Daenerys Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire Odd Thomas from the Odd Thomas series Don Tillman from the Don Tillman series Ender Wiggin from the Ender’s Game series