Top 10 of 2015 Day 3: Ten Best Villains of 2015!

Top 10 of 2015 Day 3:
 Best Villains of 2015!!

I love Jaime from Two Chicks on Books. When I heard she was doing a WEEK dedicated to Best Book of the Year Wrap-Ups, I knew I wanted to take part! The event is co-hosted by  Fiktshun, Tales of a Ravenous Reader, and Magical Urban Fantasy Reads.

Today, we got to choose a topic from a list of ten choices. I went with villains because I have read some AWESOME books with truly amazing villains this year!

The book had to be READ this year, but it didn't have to be PUBLISHED this year, which is good, because I want to highlight some villains it took me a while to discover!!!

Interestingly, this post pointed out a trend:

A lot of the most vicious villains this year were ladies!!!

In No Particular Order...

1) MANON BLACKBEAK from QUEEN OF SHADOWS by Sarah J. Maas

The Throne of Glass series has some truly amazing villains, but one of my all-time favorite characters is Manon Blackbeak. She's evil and vicious and INCREDIBLE. What's even more insane is that you don't even MEET her until Book 3 in the series!!! I was so excited to see her again, and I can't wait to see how her character arc evolves because she's such a fantastic character!

QoS Spotlight




2) ADELINA AMOUTERU from THE YOUNG ELITES and THE ROSE SOCIETY by Marie Lu

This series is amazing in part because of the line Adelina walks between darkness and light. She's mixed up and confused. She has a lot of darkness inside her, but she wants to do good things. She's also addicted to power, though. You never know quite where you stand with Adelina. She's an antihero, and you're not quite sure if you should root for her or if she's going to be an all-out bad-ass villain. I love that edge to the series and it makes it such a page turner!

My Review of THE YOUNG ELITES
My Series Spotlight: What Makes a Hero and What Makes a Villain?





3) VICTOR VALE from VICIOUS by V.E. Schwab

*V*ictor. *V*ale. *V*icious. *V*ictoria Schwab. All those Vs, and V IS for villain, right!?
Only...maybe not!?

I pre-ordered a hardcover of VICIOUS back before it came out because I loved the author's YA novels. I just...never got around to reading it! When I was asked to be a part of the blog tour for THE ROSE SOCIETY by Marie Lu and talk about villains, I decided to finally read this, and I'm so glad I did! On paper, Victor is absolutely a villain, while his college roommate Eli is a hero. However, all is not as it seems, and it might just be that Victor is more heroic while Eli is more deranged...
I loved all the dark matter and the way this book makes you think! I was really glad to hear Victoria recently announce that she's signed a contract to write a sequel!!!



4) QUEEN LEVANA from FAIREST and WINTER by Marissa Meyer

This year, Marissa Meyer had not one but TWO novels out in her Lunar Chronicles Series. In both, Queen Levana features heavily. She gets her own backstory in FAIREST and is the Evil Queen from Snow White in WINTER, as well as the series villain. We learned so much about her and her life this year, and reading FAIREST really enhanced the way I read WINTER!



5) TYLER BROWNE from THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS by Marieke Nijkamp

I had the incredible luck to read this early. (It's out officially on January 5th, but some stores have it in stock RIGHT NOW! I know my B&N has it already!) This book is horrifying and unsettling. It deals with a school shooting. The shooter chooses one of THE most brutal ways to carry out his goal. This book will haunt me and stick with me for a long time.

You're Gonna Love Me Spotlight

6) THE BANE from The Elementals Trilogy by Sherry Thomas

I really adore the Elementals Trilogy by Sherry Thomas. This year, I re-read the first two books before first-reading the final book in the trilogy. I was reminded about how great the trilogy is all over again!!! The Bane is horrible and puts main characters Iolanthe and Titus through such grief. All of Atlantis is out for their heads. The Bane will stop at nothing to capture Iolanthe and consume her in order to live longer, while Titus will do anything to keep her alive, even if it's prophesied that to do so will kill him. SUCH A GREAT TRILOGY!!! (And it's complete, so go binge it!!)



7) THE QUEEN from THE SIN EATER'S DAUGHTER by Melinda Salisbury

The Queen from THE SIN EATER'S DAUGHTER is so twisted and evil, OMG!!! I was stunned at her viciousness. She is a dictator in every sense of the word, and she's made horrifying choices that cement her role as a villain!



8) THE WOOD QUEEN from UPROOTED by Naomi Novik

It's hard to talk about this one without spoilers! But many, what a corrupt, twisted wood! It's no wonder that no one wants to go in it!!! It destroys humanity and is hard to escape. It adds a deadly air to UPROOTED and brings fantasy to the story in a new way.

My Review




9) COMMANDANT KERIS VETURIUS from AN EMBER IN THE ASHES by Sabaa Tahir

The Commandant is another piece of work! She has done some truly despicable things and isn't afraid to destroy someone's life, not even her son's. I wouldn't want to be within a hundred feet of her, but poor Laia has to SPY on her without getting caught--or worse!

My Review



10) XXXXXX from THE LAST EVER AFTER by Soman Chainani

There's more than one villain playing ball in this powerful series finale from Soman Chainani. I can't spoil it for you because even just NAMING villains spoils book one for new readers!

But let's just say....the third book is the one where villains come out to play, and the most evil villain of them all has been plotting to take over and bring ruin to the world for a LONG time!

My Non-Spoilery Spotlight on this Amazing Series!
My blog Tour Stop Interview with Hester from TSFG&E Series!



    
Check out the Linky on any of the week's tour hosts to see what everyone else chose!!!   Who were your favorite villains to hate or love in 2015?