Top Ten Tuesday #358

Hi everyone! Happy International Women’s Day all, I hope you’ve all been able to celebrate the amazing women in your life today (and every day of course). I’ve put up my annual thread of women-led, women written 2022 releases up on my Twitter, so if you’re looking for your TBR to grow even longer (which why wouldn’t you be?) then head over to @iloveheartlandX on Twitter and you’ll find the thread pinned to the top of my profile.

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so that means another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is Books With Your Favourite Trope/Theme, so naturally I’m going to be talking about my Favourite Found Family Books because if you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know how much of a soft spot I have for found families. So here we go, some of my favourite found family books:

1. Six of Crows-Leigh Bardugo

Ah the Dregs! My favourite gang of fictional criminals of all time. They just have such a great dynamic as a group, it’s so fun to read about and they definitely have the whole “I’d die for you, but sometimes I just want to kill you” vibe that I love in found families.

2. The Raven Cycle-Maggie Stiefvater

I love the Gangsey so much, theirs is one of my favourite fictional friendship groups ever. I love the dynamics between the group as a whole, but also the individual pairings, both romantic and platonic because they all have such different relationships with each other, and they’re all very different people but somehow work perfectly as a group.

3. Ballet Shoes-Noel Streatfeild

The epitome of found family, Noel Streatfeild’s classic follows three sisters, not blood related but brought together by an eccentric fossil collector who took them in following the deaths of their parents whom he had come across on his travels. It was one of my favourite books as a child because I loved the relationship between the three sisters and I’ve always loved performing books (probably because I’ve always loved the performing arts but never been skilled at them myself, so it’s a kind of wish fulfilment for me!).

4. The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants-Ann Brashares

Another staple of my teenage years, I loved this one because of the positive female friendship at its centre, Lena, Carmen, Tibby and Bridget consider the others family, and even when they argue, they’re always there for each other no matter what.

5. The Gilded Wolves Trilogy-Roshani Chokshi

I love Severin’s crew so much, they have my whole heart. Laila is 10000% the mum friend of the group, Hypnos is the friend who is there so often that he’s just become part of the family and no one can remember a time when he wasn’t there. Tristan is the younger brother that everyone is overprotective of. Severin is the dad who is constantly exasperated that the kids won’t do as they’re told. Enrique is the overachieving sibling, and Zofia is the one who is both entertained but also incredibly confused by the antics of her siblings.

6. The Diviners Series-Libba Bray

The Diviners has one of my absolute favourite group casts, and it’s a shame that they’re only really all together as a group in Before The Devil Breaks You, as the other books largely has them split up into smaller groups. The whole group has such a great dynamic, and they all bring something different to the group which makes them really interesting to follow. Plus they have awesome banter!

7. Percy Jackson and The Olympians Series-Rick Riordan

Yes, I’m talking original series here, not Heroes of Olympus, because Percy, Annabeth and Grover being a better group than the Seven is a hill I will die on. Their dynamic kind of reminds me of Ron, Harry and Hermione in Harry Potter, which is probably why I love it so much. They’ve got such great banter as a group and they all bring something different to the table.

8. Vicious-VE Schwab

Victor, Sydney and Mitch have one of my favourite kinds of found family dynamics, as Sydney and Mitch have basically decided that Victor is their family without consulting Victor and Victor is the begrudging dad who doesn’t really want to have to deal with other people and would much rather be alone but cares too much about Sydney and Mitch to let them go, and would ultimately kill for them even though he didn’t want them around in the first place.

9. The Rose Code-Kate Quinn

Female friendship is the central focus of this book and oh how I loved it so much. Osla and Mab basically decide quite early on that they’re going to take Beth under their wing, and from that point on, they form this little sisterhood. Seeing their friendship blossom to the point where they are basically each other’s family, makes it even more devastating when it all falls apart (not a spoiler, you see that they are no longer friends within the first few chapters of the book).

10. The Book Thief-Markus Zusak

Hans and Liesel’s father-daughter relationship is one of most heart-warming family relationships that I think I’ve ever read. The way he takes her under his wing and teaches her read and slowly gains her trust is just so heart-warming. Even Rosa, who is more abrasive, is actually a very warm and loving person at heart and clearly cares for Liesel like she was her own, it’s so lovely to see the these three people who started as strangers, form their own little family.

So there we go, those are some of my favourite books with found families! Have you read any of these? Did you enjoy them? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is our annual Spring TBR topic, which is always a fun one, I actually did slightly better than I was expecting on my Winter TBR, so here’s hoping that carries forward to the next one!