Unhappy with how Brienne’s story arc ended on Game of Thrones? Yeah, we were too! And of course, spoilers for the below post and rec request. Thanks Sharon for sending this one in:
Do you know of any books where the heroine is like Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones?
A warrior woman, somewhat masculine, brave and honorable…but awkwardly in love with someone she doesn’t think she has a chance with or has a conflict with.
Amanda: I just want to note that this is the first Rec League will most of our new reviewers and holy smokes, I feel bad for everyone’s wallet!
Aarya: Elizabeth Kingston, and I think Claudia is going to say the same thing.
Claudia: Definitely the heroine in the first Welsh Blades book by Elizabeth Kingston.
you know me too well, LOL!
Not sure if she’d qualify but Freyja Bedwyn in Mary Balogh’s Slightly saga. Not a warrior, per se, but also described as mannish and in love with someone she feels out of her league, in terms of looks.
Maya, could chime in here as fellow Balogh fan.
Amanda: So Glynnis Campbell has a series (it’s on my kindle) called The Warrior Maids of Rivenloch. They all feature powerful looking heroine’s on the cover, but I haven’t read any yet. If any of you have, feel free to chime in.
Aarya: I’ve read Slightly Scandalous, and I agree with you, Claudia.
Maya: I’m thinking more YA. What about Harry in the Blue Sword by Robin McKinley ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au )?
And totes, Claudia, on Slightly Scandalous.
Kiki: Totally agree with Claudia on Freyja!
Aarya: I can think of many badass warrior women, but they don’t necessarily fulfill the “awkwardly in love” criterion.
I’m having flashbacks to Tamora Pierce’s Protecter of the Small quartet ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). Not romance, but so wonderful.
Claudia: It also needs to have that slight feel of inadequacy/fish out of water.
Maya: There was definitely a lot of commentary on Keladry in Protector of the Small not being appropriately feminine, but not much in the way of romance.
Aarya: She does get a romantic interest that ends happily, though. But it’s not the primary focus. Am I remembering this correctly, Maya?
Maya: Yup!!
Aarya: I’m halfway through an arc of The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas (out September 10) and I think it kinda fits the trope if you put a different spin on the rec request. She’s disguised as a man, so she’s not exactly a warrior woman (I mean, she is one, but no one is aware of it in the beginning). And there is some awkwardness with the hero (of course there is, he isn’t aware of her real identity). So it does fit, but in a different way. This is YA with a romantic element, FYI.
The other rec I can think of is a VERY SHORT novella called The Taming of Mei Lin by Jeannie Lin ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). It’s about a young woman who declares that she won’t marry a man unless he bests her in a sword fight. Mei Lin is amazing: all these cocky young men challenge her and she wins without breaking into a sweat. And I don’t want to give spoilers, but there is definitely some awkwardness/self-esteem issues in the novella.
Tara: There’s an f/f sci fi series (much more sci fi than romance) by Fletcher Delancey called The Chronicles of Alsea. Andira Tal is kind of like the military leader in it and falls for someone who’s taken in the first book, then meets her match in the second and third books, which work together as one story. There’s also a novella called Vellmar the Blade, and Vellmar especially reminds me of Brienne. She’s such a badass and is totally into the most learned woman in the land.
Amanda: Tara, help me out!
There was a f/f romance and one of the women is a princess’ bodyguard. The cover has the guard on the cover in her regal attire. I think in white.
Tara: Sword of the Handmaiden? Wait, let me check. I may have garbled the title
Amanda: Guardian! But yes!
Tara: That’s the one!
Amanda: Not white, but red. Would that work?
Tara: It’s probably close enough, although in that book, it’s more about Talon needing to pass as a dude. I think Sword of the Guardian ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Scribd ) would be a great addition.
Sneezy: I found this blog post!
Susan: If manga’s acceptable, Library Wars: Love & War ( A | BN | K | AB ) might fit? It’s set in a near-future where libraries are militarised to oppose government censorship, and the protagonist a) is the first woman to join the combat arm, and b) has a crush on her superior officer. I can give caution warnings if people want them.
YA Fantasy: The Assassin’s Curse/The Pirate’s Wish by Cassandra Rose Clarke (collected as Magic of Blood and Sea) ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) has a pirate who accidentally ends up with the assassin sent to kill her as a bodyguard, because curses are like that, and very grumpily falls in love with him
Carrie: The Afterward by E.K. Johnston!
What do you think of the recommendation request? Are there any romantic heroines that can capture the feeling of Brienne of Tarth?
Possibly considered rather off the wall to think of Georgette Heyer in this context, but how about Deb Grantham in Faro’s Daughter and Mary Challoner in Devil’s Cub?
Robyn Donald’s “Meant to Marry” – h is an Olympic javelin gold-medallist, and frequently described as Amazonian. She’s certain no one can love her. But…
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3358297-meant-to-marry?from_search=true
I love Brienne so much, my wallet will hate me today. I probably have more, but the one that jumps into my mind is Rachel in Susan Napier’s The Mistress Deception. She’s a bodyguard/masseuse who is taller and stronger Han The hero and feels awkward about her body and size. She’s not a classic warrior, but they just feel similar.
I have never watched or read GoT (but please don’t banish me from the Bitchery), and I know I’ve pimped Kati Wilde so hard here some of you must think I’m getting a commission (I swear I’m not!), but Wilde’s THE MID-WINTER MAIL ORDER BRIDE (or, I think I’ve seen it retitled simply THE MID-WINTER BRIDE) is a wonderful fantasy romance with a kick-ass warrior heroine who falls in love with a barbarian king as they travel through the Dead Lands on the way to liberate her home country from a spell. Sword-wielding heroine? Check. Magic/spells/casting/wards/balancing. Check. Great world-building? Check. Hot hero who appreciates the heroine’s courage and skill? Check. Sheet-burning sexy-times and we’ll-earned HEA? Check and check. All that’s left is for you to read it!
Not a book but a bit of celebrity sighting: I went to a play in New York last year (“American Son” starring Kerry Washington) and sat next to Oprah’s bodyguard, who was a woman who could be the cover model for exactly the kind of book under discussion. Credit to Oprah for having a female bodyguard.
Would Mina Wentworth from Meljean Brook’s The Iron Duke qualify? she’s a police inspector in an alternate London and generally capable of taking care of herself and others.
There’s also a series of books about a rock star written by Deborah Grabien and in it, the lead singer has a woman bodyguard who’s formidable to put it mildly. The first is called Rock and Roll Never Forgets.
Flame in the Mist by Renee Abdieh is the first of a YA where the heroine’s traveling party gets attacked and she flees into the woods, ultimately joining a rebel band disguised as a boy. It’s not quite the same but it’s really good!
Never Love a Highlander by Maya Banks – I just finished it the other day. Trigger warning for assault against the heroine and the issue where she keeps waking up with the hero already in the middle of sex with her.
I TOTALLY want to second Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword. Hari is one of my favorite fantasy characters.
Aerin in McKinley’s other book in this world–The Hero and the Crown–also has a thwarted love affair. Sort of. Mostly. It’s very weird.
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For mild romance, Kerowyn in Lackey’s By the Sword.
A Harlequin Presents from a few years ago, His Majesty’s Temporary Bride, comes to mind. The heroine is a professional bodyguard who endured bullying in her childhood (I think she was one of the king’s illegitimate children), who is hired to masquerade as her princess sister, and finds herself falling for a king her sister has been arranged to marry (who doesn’t know who she really is and is really off limits to her). One of the better Presents I’ve read lately.
To Touch the Sun by Barbara Leigh is an old Harlequin Historical (early 90s I think) that was a favorite. It’s the girl disguised as boy trope (which I love), but in this one she’s not really unmasked and she becomes a knight. This book blew my mind in not having her go back to dresses and having babies or whatever, which was super rare back then. You may be able to find a used copy somewhere.
Came here to recommend Lynn Kurland’s STAR OF THE MORNING. It’s high fantasy romance about a warrior and the prince/mage in disguise who falls for her hopelessly while he’s meant to be recruiting her to save the kingdom. It was published in 2006 but honestly felt a bit more dated than that to me since there’s a bit of the Not Like Other Girls trope going on, but mostly it’s a good read and it fits this request to a tee. HEA at the end of the trilogy.
OMFG The Shadow Warrior by Ann Aguirre is the stuff of Brienne/jaime shippers dreams. Huge warrior cat shifter heroine and the uptight virgin assassin who hates and then loves everything about her.
I support the recommendations of The Blue Sword for this. (Also, it’s about the fantasy version of the British Empire getting punched in the face WITH MAGIC by indigenous peoples, so what’s not to love?)
I’d also recommend Sherwood Smith’s Crown Duel/Court Duel, in hopes that they would hold up to the memories of my teenaged self. The heroine likes sword-fighting but has to navigate court etiquette (for reasons? I think she’s Saving The Kingdom, somehow) and communicates with the hero secretly with flowers, I think, while of course resenting him in person… a bit of a “Shop Around the Corner” element, as I recall. These are definitely fantasy, possibly YA.
It doesn’t quite fit but the first GA Aiken dragon book, Dragon Actually, has an awesome warrior heroine. I think there are more badass women in the series, but it’s been a while.
I love Glynnis’s books. She’s not only an author, she’s been a voice actress, in a girl band (even appeared on Merv Griffin years ago), plus she’s wears many other hats, and her husband is a bassist and tour manager for America, The Band. Truth! Rock royalty family! Her daughter is a writer and her son is a high school band director. So much talent in one family.
Kat Latham has a great story “Unwrapping Her Perfect Match” about a woman who is over 6 feet tall and the man she falls in love with: http://katlatham.com/books-2/unwrapping-her-perfect-match/
The H is not a warrior but because of her size she’s had trouble finding someone.
Lauren Royal’s Emerald has a mistaken identity bounty huntress, not quite a warrior, but a pretty strong female. Restoration Era.
She also rewrote with her daughter a sweeter version, The Marquess’s Scottish Bride, so be sure to get the correct version if interested.
Susan, no! You’ve opened this rec league to manga and (by extension) anime. There are lots of warriors there.
Since I haven’t seen GOT, please excuse any irrelevant recs. If it doesn’t have to be romance, then Attack on Titan has Mikasa, who is a fighter extraordinaire and has a crush on her foster brother. Who knows if it’ll come out to anything.
Then there’s Riza Hawkeye in Fullmetal Alchemist, the best shot in the land, and who I’m sure has feelings for her superior.
Lovely Complex is a high school romance. Koizumi is 5’10” and her rival/best friend is 5’2″. She has a major crush on him but he doesn’t see her that way because of their “physical imcompatibility”.
“God’s Eye” by Susan Fanetti
It’s a Viking historical. A young woman who people shy away from because she was born with the mark of Odin becomes a warrior and finds love with a neighboring tribe’s Golden boy. She’s very awkward and he’s very sweet to her.
@Lucy, love seeing Sherwood Smith recs! Crown Duel fits in the sense that Meliara is trying to learn to be a warrior, despite having no training to speak of, but she’s very petite. Sasharia en Garde has a 6 ft tall fencing champ heroine who goes back to her father’s kingdom to reclaim it from a usurper and has interesting run-ins with a mysterious pirate and the usurper’s foppish son. Coronets and Steel has another tall fencer heroine who falls in love with the prince of a made-up European country.
Sarah Maas’s “Throne of Glass”? It’s been a while since I read it, but the heroine is an assassin who has also suffered a bunch of trauma. In the first book, she is part of a Hunger Games-like contest where she has to try to kill 23 people (or be killed). She’s scarred, too, I think. I seem to remember that she feels like her life experiences have made her unsuitable for romance?
Forever Wolf, which is the final book in the wonderful Legend of All Wolves trilogy. Heroine is the lone survivor of a massacre, taken in by another wolf pack & acts as their ‘sword’.
What about The Hunter Bride by Cynthia Woolf? She’s a bounty hunter who captured the outlaw who murdered her family that signs up as a mail order bride because she doesn’t think she can find a man on her own. She lies about her housekeeping skills in order to marry the sheriff of a frontier town. The outlaw escapes and the sheriff turns out to have secrets of his own.
An American historical.
Fate and Fortune, which is my favorite from Sharon Shinn’s Thirteen Houses fantasy series (and one of the last books). Heroine was a King’s Guard. There was civil war (um spoilers for previous books) and king killed. Now she wanders feeling inadequate and kicking ass. Definitely a romance.
Tamora Pierce’s series about Beka Cooper (Terrier, Bloodhound and Mastiff) is great – about a young woman who joins a fledgling police force and never gives up. I also second her series about Kelandry and the Robin McKinley books. Sharon Shinn’s Fortune and Fate is part of a wonderful series and Senneth is a warrior woman as well. Charlaine Harris’s first book in her new series is a woman gunslinger who may well fit in this category as well
Possibly Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn (also the Thirteenth House series). The main character, Senneth is a strong, brave, honorable mystic who can control fire and she is paired up with a King’s Rider who is skeptic of the mystics. Love the series!
Seconding Sharon Shinn’s Fortune and Fate. Although spoilers for the previous 4 books, so you might just have to read those too.
I have to do a shoutout for another of Tamora Pierce’s series, Song of the Lioness. Alanna is a warrior, short and stocky, but still ends up with love interests, but again, isn’t the primary focus of the books.
I definitely need to second (third?) The Blue Sword, as that is one of my favorite comfort reads. Definitely fits that criteria.
I feel like I read a lot of books that fit this, but they’re generally young adult and/or science fiction with really strong heroines.
I’ve got a soft spot for Lorelei James’ “Hillbilly Rockstar.” The female lead is a kickass veteran who is contracted out to be the undercover bodyguard for an entertainer who’s being stalked. When she first shows up dressed for work, as one does, he doesn’t think she’ll be believable as her undercover role as his girlfriend, one fabulous makeover later and we’re off to the races, though they have to get into a tussle about letting her do her job. The best part is that eventually, she wins. I quite enjoyed it.
Definitely love Tamora Pierce! Alanna in Song of the Lioness disguises her gender to most people, but only in the first book. The rest of the books, a secondary theme is her exploring what her femininity means to her. Kel in Protector of the Small is tall and muscled. However, the author says that she’s aro/ace. She has some crushes, but nothing ever really comes of them.
As for Celaena in Throne of Glass, she is a warrior, but she’s also unapologetically stereotypically feminine. She loves shopping for clothes and eating chocolate, and is never once even compared to a guy. It’s a wonderful fantasy romance series, but she is no Brienne.
Kristin Cashore’s Graceling is my pick. Katsa may be described as pretty but she certainly doesn’t think of herself as anything more than a thug, an assassin and feels strongly that nobody would want her because of the potential for the king to use any relationships as leverage against her.
This isn’t super prevalent in contemporaries, but I would recommend Kati Wilde’s MC novellas with Lily and Jack (there’s three of them, can’t remember all their names). The heroine is a kickass member of the club. Also, Kate Meader’s Playing With Fire – heroine is a firefighter, hero is the hot mayor. It’s the second in a series but it will stand alone.
I would say Sharon Shinn’s Fortune and Fate which is fantasy with a romantic subplot
@24: I just looked up ‘The Hunter Bride’ and found it is currently free on Kindle! Thank you for the rec!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B018OBOAOI/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_b018oboaoi
Taura from Bujold’s short story Labyrinth.
I would say the first Reckless Bride book by Elizabeth Essex, “Almost a Scandal”. The heroine is boyish looking enough to take her brother’s place aboard a Navy ship, and she can climb the rigging with the best of them. Also a couple of Sharon Cullen books: “Bound To a Spy”, although it doesn’t become apparent just how fierce the heroine is until she gets kidnapped. And “MacLean’s Passion”, another book where the heroine is disguised as a boy, and her and the hero find themselves sharing a prison cell.
This may seem a little bit out in left field, but what about “A Girl Like Her” by Talia Hibbert? The heroine feels awkward and out of her league.
And that reminds me, Alyssa Cole wrote a short medieval novella that might fit the bill, “Agnes Moore’s Wild Knight”, which has a fish out of water heroine.
I know the “Mina Wentworth” from Meljean Brook’s The Iron Duke was already mentioned, but I think the short story in “Night Shift” anthology from Meljean Brooks, writing as Milla Vane, fits the bill, too. In it a warrior princess falls in love with a barbarian known as The Beast of Blackmoor. Also, Patricia Briggs’ hero from Dragon Bones/Dragon Blood falls in love with a mannish/awkward lady. While I cannot remember if she was as talented with a weapon as Brienne, I do know that our hero’s confession of love for her in the second book was one of my favorite literary moments. And, if you want YA, I think Holly Black’s Valiant also could work. It’s the second in a trilogy but I don’t think you need to read the other two stories as this one really stands alone and outshines the rest!
The Protector (Medievals Book 4) by Madeline Hunter.
‘The first time he laid eyes on her she had come to his rescue with a sword in her hand…For her part, Anna de Leon had no interest in men as lovers or husbands. She was used to commanding men in battle…’
I can’t think of a better match – enjoy!