My favourite Kick-Butt female characters

My favourite kind of book is when the main hero is a female who can kick-butt. Here is a list of my favourite characters from a range of genres.

Mercy Thompson from Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Mercy is a mechanic and a shapeshifting coyote. Now what I love about her is that she has a little bit of power amongst super powerful beings. She throws herself in with everything in her and yes she gets hurt but she has taken down some serious super powers in her series. A few fairies, a vampire or two even a god. Actually two gods. One was local and ancient and the other was a visiting deity who thought she was a weak link. His mistake. She isn't afraid to lean on her friends and they are truly amazing as well. We have a very old fairy. A high powered attorney. A vampire and of course her hubby an Alpha werewolf.

Kate Daniels from Magic Bites by Illona Andrews

Kate Daniels is hiding her identity which when you find out who she really is it is pretty awesome. I'm not going to tell you because 'Spoilers'. Kate has been training all her life and can cut anything to ribbons with her sword. She has the ability to control vampires and use Power words which really means she can kick some serious butt. Though what really makes her awesome is that she isn't the best. She has been hiding so long from her past and her abilities that when she needs them they are all a bit rusty. At the start of the book her foster father has just died and she is dragged into trying to get to the bottom of he problem.

Alanna from Alanna first adventure by Tamora Pierce

Alanna wants to be a knight more than anything in her life. Lucky she is a twin and her twin brother is willing to trade places with her as he wants to become a wizard. She pretends to be a boy for years and only trusts a few. She works her butt off to get where she wants and there are a few love interests along the way. I recently was listening to someone talking about Alanna and the fact that she doesn't end up with the Prince because he wanted a queen and not the knight she so wanted to be. I always liked that about this story. All the female characters in Tamora's worlds are awesome and kick butt and I would recommend especially her Tortall series.

Amaranthe from The Emperor's Edge by Lindsey Buroker

Amaranthe is the only female policewoman in her department and she makes the mistake of making an enemy who sends her to kill the most dangerous man in the Empire. Her life is only spared because he decides she should live. I won't tell you the real reason because, spoilers. As a policewoman she often tries to talk her way out of trouble now that she has been declared a traitor. More often than not she does manage to talk her way out of trouble but mostly she just comes up with plan after plan that seemingly are making trouble for herself. Even though Sicarius often has her back they work more as a team.

Lily Yu from Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks

Another policewoman Lily is a FBI agent by the end of the book and continues to kick butt and it is lucky that her werewolf boyfriend is happy to back her up rather than getting all alpha male. I think that is what makes this series stand apart from the other werewolf genre as the wolves come in many personalities instead of the one size fits all alpha model. Lily never turns her back on a challenge and since she can feel magic it certainly gets her into trouble. She is also lethal with a gun.

Vree from Fifth Quarter by Tanya Huff

I had trouble picking which of Tanya Huff's female character to choose as I really like her Torin Kerr in her Valor series as well but I thought Vree the better choice as though both are soldiers Vree is elite even among soldiers as she is an assassin. Probably the best as she is able to actually retire which is a rare thing for an assassin. Like Torin she is also strong minded as she has an immortal soul riding along inside of her. First her brother then someone else.

All of these characters kick butt and are strong enough to have at least two books written about them. Do you agree with my list?