Elizabeth C. Bunce

A few weeks ago in my post Reading Bittersweet, I mentioned that I read two novels that weekend, but I only wrote about one of them, Bittersweet.  The other book I read that weekend was Star Crossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce.  After reading that, I ordered her other books, Curse Dark As Gold and Liar's Moon, on interlibrary loan.  Now I have read all three of her books twice each, and I have added her to my list of favorite authors, alongside Frances Hardinge, Mercedes Lackey, Cynthia Voigt, and Tamora Pierce.

In my post Reading Bittersweet, I described the kind of book I usually read:

Mostly I read Young Adult fantasy novels with female main characters written by female authors. I read that kind of book because I can't relate to books about people with jobs or cars or children or guns or adult cynicism. I don't like fantasy novels that drip with magic, unicorns, dragons, and quests to find magical objects. I like fantasy novels because they often involve time spent in forests, and because they don't usually involve cars, jobs, offices, factories, and guns.

Bittersweet was not that kind of book.  Bunce's books are that kind of book (although guns do make minor appearances).  I like her books because they have rich plots, so they hold up to multiple readings.  I like her books because they have the kind of main characters I can relate to -- strong, stubborn women who plunge ahead in the fight to protect the people they care about, who are not the least bit dainty, who aren't afraid to get dirty, who scale walls, who blurt out things they shouldn't say.

Maybe that's not the kind of person that other people think I am, but when I'm immersed in books, that's the kind of character that I can immerse myself in being, the kind of character who feels like me on the inside.

(Warning: don't read Liar's Moon if you don't like cliffhangers.  Or at least, don't read all the way to the end.)