The Hufflepuff Appreciation Book Tag

I decided to do this Hufflepuff Appreciation Book Tag this week in homage to the victory of the Richmond Tigers in Aussie Rules Football, who won the Grand Final last weekend and share the house colours with Hufflepuff (yellow and black!).

The only rule here: you must pick things that are outside of the Harry Potter world.

Define ‘sidekick’: a person’s assistant or close associate, especially one who has less authority than that person.

My favourite loyal sidekick is Rose Hathaway from Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy. Rose is the lead character, but make no mistake, she’s Lissa’s sidekick. Lissa is a princess in a privileged world and Rose, although she’s our tough lead, is considered a secondary citizen in this world. Lissa has all the authority even though we follow Rose’s story.

Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1) by Robin LaFevers.

I tried to start reading this and found it too heavy to stop and start. I wanted to read it all at once so I had to wait until a long weekend to find the time to get it all done at once. It was a really great book.

I’m chosing Kendare Blake’s Three Dark Crowns even though at the time of writing the series isn’t finished and I haven’t read the second book yet. The reason I am choosing this book is because every queen gives birth to three triplets and then races off the island to live with her consort, giving the princesses to three different factions to raise. The princesses can’t become queens until they turn 16 and then have to kill each other to be crowned queen. So logically thinking, the queen is only queen for ten years more or less (average age of woman giving birth is 26) before the throne is empty for 16 years. Who governs in that time? It doesn’t seem fair to have any royalty at all if someone else is going to govern for 16 years then the queen’s most important responsibility is to produce heirs. It frustrates me, and I’m hoping this issue will be addressed in the series as I continue to read it.

I don’t normally finish ‘difficult reads’ because I use reading as a stress-relieving relaxation and escapism ‘me time’ technique, and difficult books stress me out. But I do recall in high school one of our assigned readings was called ‘Remembering Babylon’ by David Malouf. Not only was I the only person in my class to actually finish the book, I went totally overboard and read it twice. I didn’t like it, I didn’t enjoy it, and neither did anyone else in my class. However, I am proud not specifically that I finished it but that I was the only person in my class to do so.

Nowadays I don’t waste my time on books I’m not enjoying if they’re not by an author whose work I haven’t previously enjoyed.

My favourite bookish organisation is The Book Depository because they give free worldwide shipping on decently priced books.

The fictional creatures I would like to see come to life are Anne McCaffrey’s Dragons of Pern from the series of the same name (including fire lizards). I’m not hugely into dragons but I love McCaffrey’s dragons because they are big enough to ride, intelligent enough to have a conversation with, and deeply, deeply loyal to their rides to the point where they commit suicide if their riders die.

I fancy myself a dragon rider of a non-traditional gendered colour. Normally females only ride golden queens or common greens. I fancy myself as a Wingleader on a brown, to be honest, because bronze males mate with golden queens and their humans respectively form partnerships as well, and I don’t fancy being the rider of a golden queen but I do like the idea of being a Wingleader and greens just aren’t big enough to take on that responsibility. In the history of Pern there’s only been one brown Wingleader (they’re usually bronzes), so it is possible.

Freya from Long May She Reign by Rhiannon Thomas.

Freya is thrust into the monarch role when everyone before her in line to the crown are tragically mass murdered. She’s a decent person who believes in helping the less fortunate, and she doesn’t really covet power, she’d prefer to perform her science experiments. And she has an adorable cat who prefers her best friend over her. She takes a kingdom that’s falling apart and a nobility that is self-destructing from hedonism, and gives it hope for the future with her calm rational approach.

The Vampire Stalker by Allison Van Diepen has a librarian character that’s pretty important to the plot, however I can’t remember her name and I thought the relationship with student Amy was pretty inappropriate for a teacher. Amy would go to the librarian’s house for dinner and stuff like that. That’s weird, right?

Emelina from Ruined by Amy Tintera.

In the opening chapter, Em murders a princess and then takes her place in the hornet’s nest marrying her enemy’s son, all to free her kidnapped sister. Em is amazingly tough, not just physically, but mentally as well.

The Hypnotic City (Gold and Gaslight Chronicles #2) by Andrea Berthot.

This book was just so awesome I can’t even. The author teaches music theatre so all the performing stuff was spot on. The character Philomena was awesome, smart, sassy, hard working, willing to take risks, and just so so awesome. I said awesome twice, that’s how awesome she is. I loved this book and I wished more people would read it. The romance was super cute and the atmosphere was just so uneasy.

Also it has a really pretty cover (but I read an ARC before I saw the cover so I’m not biased):

Cynthia Hand’s Unearthly series is set in Wyoming, USA, and I’ve always wanted to see it with my own eyes. It has plains and mountains (I LOVE mountains) and Yellowstone National Park.

Brokeback Mountain, Dances with Wolves, Django Unchained, and Starship Troopers were all shot in Wyoming.

Sinner (Wolves of Mercy Falls #4) by Maggie Stiefvater:

Which Harry Potter house do you belong to? Have you read any of the books in this book tag? Let me know in the comments!

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