I’ve really missed doing Friday Favorites, and since no one was currently hosting it, Cait @ Functionally Fictional decided to jump into the gap. Each week, she provides a prompt, and I get to talk about my favorite books that fit the topic. Feel free to join in – the more the merrier!

This week’s prompt is about broody/grumpy characters, and it’s surprisingly apropos for me. I love a good grumpy/sunshine story, and that obviously can’t happen without a grumpy or broody character. I also read a lot of fantasy novels, and those tend to be chock full of broody and grumpy characters, so I think I’m going to have plenty to choose from for this week’s list. Here goes nothing:

1. The infamous Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. He’s the epitome of a broody, grumpy character, and it just felt right to start my list off with him.
2. Qadir from The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah. He’s a jinn who basically functions as a bodyguard to the MC of the story, and he’s delightfully gruff, but you can tell that he really cares about Loulie.
3. Disgraced prince Gáspár from The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid. There’s nothing quite like the combination of a grumpy/sunshine and enemies to lovers romance (even though this is a fantasy novel).
4. Princess Luca from The Unbroken by C.L. Clark. Luca is the perfect grouchy pairing for Touraine, who isn’t a sunshine persona, but rather more serious, but these two have some serious sexual tension throughout the book.
5. Usurped prince turned assassin Cyrus in The Bladed Faith by David Dalglish. He’s such an introspective character with so many difficult emotions, and an incredibly difficult journey in front of him, and it comes through as grumpy.
6. Uhtred of Bebbanburg from The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell. As a Saxon raised by Danes, he straddles two worlds and is constantly in internal conflict, setting him up to be the perfect brooding hero.
7. Victor Vale from Vicious by V.E. Schwab. This guy is seriously the definition of a broody character. He comes off as a bit grumpy, but he’s really more broody with a soft heart that he keeps well hidden.
8. Revenge-driven Tau from The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter. I love his character, but he’s such a broody and grumpy character for a lot of the story until we get to know him deeper.
9. Shane from The Lost Prince by Cait Marie. He isn’t a grumpy character at all, but he’s an introspective man who comes across as brooding because he’s in his head so much.
10. Sasha from Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. She’s such an intriguing and unusual character in a unique story, but she’s one of the most broody characters in the story, which says a lot.

Who are your favorite broody or grumpy characters?