The Fiction Enthusiast: Top 5 List & Giveaway

Kate Brady is here to share her top Top 5 Best Fictional Villains!

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photo credit K.C. Dean

Top 5 Best Fictional Villains

Okay, I have to stretch to answer questions like this because I’m one of those unusual writers who neither reads nor watches movies or TV in my own genre very often. Still, there are some classic villains I can hold up as models. Bear with me…they probably aren’t the ones you would expect!

5. The Grinch

He’s not after anyone in particular. He’s not after riches. He’s not hatching a specific plot of revenge.

No, this guy is out to destroy an ideal. And, my gosh, “No one quite knows the reason.” I like for my villains to have motive, but this is pretty powerful stuff, too. “Please don’t ask why…”

Whether you’re a believer in Christmas or not doesn’t seem to matter. This villain is cruel to all of us: He targets our love, our hope, our peace, our joy. He’s out to vanquish the humanity of the whole Who-man race.

And what will he do to succeed? He’ll do anything. He’ll lie to Cindy Lou Who. He’ll tie a massive, terrible weight to a loyal little pooch. He’ll steal a roast beast.

Of course, in the end, he is redeemed. So, there’s hope in the world, after all. But in the Grinch, I think the good doctor created a kick-butt villain!

4. Any Disney villain

Let’s face it. The folks at Disney know how to create villains. They’ve terrified generations of children. From Sid Phillips (that heartless kid in Toy Story) to Lady Tremaine (the wicked stepmother in Cinderella) to Hades (the devil in Hercules) to Scar (the evil brother/uncle in Lion King), and a host of others, Disney villains are pictures of evil. They have motive, means, multiple dimensions, and a sympathetic target at whom to aim their malice. What could be more heart-wrenching?

3. Sweeney Todd

I know only the stage version of this, not the movie version. So I’m picturing George Hearn with his rich, gorgeous baritone voice, singing the luscious, lyrical, and downright seductive melodies of Stephen Sondheim, while smoothly sliding a blade through an unsuspecting victim’s bared throat. It’s a juxtaposition of sheer beauty with inconceivable brutality.

*Shiver.*

2. Hannibal Lector

The mother of all psycho-killers in modern novels. Come on. We all wish we’d created this one…

1. Wicked Witch of the West

Yup. Green and cackling, wearing the stereotypical uniform of evil, she is iconic. She’s tricked out with all kinds of powers, like a turbo-engined broomstick, for heaven’s sake. She can watch you through her crystal ball without your knowledge, and I don’t care who you are: That’s creepy. She has resources like no one else—an army of flying monkeys who neither question nor judge her; they just obey. She targets an innocent girl who’s only trying to get home. And her little dog, too.

And mostly, she does more than wring her hands and shriek for the simple sake of being mean. She has motive—one of the most powerful motives known to villains anywhere: Vengeance.

That’ll teach you to drop a house on someone. Or to go to sleep and dream.

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About Kate Brady

Kate Brady is a RITA Award winning author, choral director, university professor, wife, mother, and caretaker of a variety of furry, feathered, and scaly pets. She lives with her family in Georgia, where she is currently at work on her next novel.

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SHE'LL RISK EVERYTHING

Special prosecutor Kara Chandler is very good at her job, so good that a homicidal mastermind vows to kill her and everyone she cares about. Desperate to save herself and her son, Kara seeks out cartel hit man Luke Varón. The last time she dealt with Luke, she saw him beat the system and escape prison. But now, the most dangerous man she's ever met is the only one who can keep her alive.

HE'LL STOP AT NOTHING Luke Varón isn't who he appears to be. After spending years in the criminal underworld, he seeks redemption . . . and revenge. Yet when he sees the fear in Kara's eyes, he can't walk away. People around her are being murdered, and only he can help uncover the killer's motive. Now as danger closes in, Kara and Luke must trust each other with their darkest secrets - before the evil in their lives destroys them both.

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Excerpt:

His head came down. Kara gasped but his mouth smothered it, and she started to push back, then realized he wasn’t forcing her. He eased in close, his knife hand bracing against the top of the SUV while the other came to her cheek, warm and strong as his fingers threaded into her hair and he tipped back her head to better receive his kiss. A second later, she heard voices, people climbing up the path from the dock, their laughter choking to a halt when Kara and Luke came into sight.

Act like it.

Reality struck: It’s an act.

Her limbs loosened, her lips softened, and she gave in to the kiss. Varón slanted his mouth over hers, warm and mobile, and he pressed her against the hot metal of the SUV, marauding and suckling, the very scent and taste of him invading her senses. Frissons of sensation stirred to life at the center of her body. In the distance, the crunch of gravel changed direction— the intruders cutting a wider swath— even so, Varón didn’t stop. His tongue slipped out and traced the crease of her lips, seeking entrance.

A spear of sensation shot straight between her legs. Kara parted her lips and Varón was right there— filling her, possessing her, a tender, insistent invasion that made her knees wobble as his hand slid the length of her spine and pulled her close. She heard what might have been car doors opening and closing, then the hum of an engine coming to life, but the sounds didn’t matter. Her heartbeat deepened and her nipples rose against his chest, and when she reached up to grasp his shoulders, his muscles flexed and strained beneath her fingers. A groan resonated in his throat and his free hand smoothed down the side of her rib cage, his thumb brushing the outer curve of her breast and setting loose a cyclone of sensations whirling in her belly. Sensations she hadn’t felt for . . . forever.

His tongue left her mouth and he suckled her lips, then nuzzled her face to the side and trailed a path of fiery kisses down the curve of her jaw and up again. He stopped in the hollow just below her ear.

“They’re gone,” he whispered, his breath fanning warmth over her ear.

Kara went still. It’s an act, her brain chanted, and embarrassment soared in. She sank back against the SUV, unsure if she could stand on her own. He’d robbed her limbs of strength and her mind of every last thread of cognition, sucked the oxygen right out of her lungs. For one, steamy moment, she’d forgotten about feeling afraid and exhausted and confused, and instead had just been feeling. And for one insane moment, she’d wanted to let him keep going. Keep supporting her weight, keep shielding her from the world, keep kissing her as if he wanted to swallow her whole. Even now, after his proclamation that they were once again alone, his lips still breathed kisses against her temples as if he, too, was reluctant to let it end.

“Okay,” she breathed. “Then back up.” She slid her hands over his arms and laid them flat against his chest, a hot wall of iron. She managed to form a thought in spite of the craven lust that had left her feeling hollow and damp, and exerted just enough pressure that he straightened to allow an inch of space between them. His thumb grazed the corner of her mouth, his gaze snagging there.

“Good work,” he murmured, and brushed his lips against her temple. “Very convincing.”

She blushed deep red, grateful for the darkness. “I know how to act,” she said, and he finally stepped back.

“Apparently so.”

And that was that: a kiss that just about knocked her off her feet, from a murderer who held her life and her son’s life in his hands.

And for a moment, she hadn’t minded at all.

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