Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Characters I Didn't Click With

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic from The Broke and the Bookish is Characters I Just Didn't Click With.  Every once in awhile I'll be reading a book and one of the characters just doesn't work for me.  I'm not talking Amy Dunne from Gone Girl level terrifying but more just annoyances.  The kind of person you try to avoid if you accidentally run into them at the grocery store.

1.  Jo March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - I know this is blasphemy in the book world but I never really clicked with Jo.  Maybe because I don't have a real desire to write?  It's been awhile since I read it so I can give specific examples as to why she annoyed me but I remember not liking her and feeling guilty because I knew even at 10 that I was supposed to.  I do remember what really annoyed me was the whole Jo/Laurie/Amy thing.

2.  Olivia Pennywort from The Night Garden by Lisa Van Allen - This was my first experience with magical realism and the cover is gorgeous.  I really wanted to love this one and the descriptions of the garden were stunning.  However, Olivia was so stand-offish I just never could connect with her and after awhile I lost interest in the book.

3.  Kendra Michaels from The Naked Eye by Iris Johansen - One of the things I have realized when reading mysteries is that I don't have to really like the characters to enjoy the book and this is a great example of that.  While Kendra would definitely not be someone I would want to spend time with if I'm murdered I'd definitely want her investigating.

4.  Ava Wilder from London From My Windows by Mary Carter - On the other hand some genres are so character driven that not liking a character makes the book basically unreadable to me.  Unfortunately, this one was one of them.  I didn't expect to really be able to relate to Ava but I need to be able to like her in some way and I just couldn't.

5.  Ella Preston from Sanctuary Island by Lily Everett - Ella had been trying to hard her entire life to keep everything together and it make her a little difficult to really get to know in Sanctuary Island.  However, while I wouldn't want to go to coffee with her I could sympathize with her and I liked the other characters enough that it made this book a good read.

6.  Pip from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - When I had to read this in 9th grade I wasn't a fan.  So I decided to reread it this year thinking that surely my tastes would have evolved in the 20 years that have passed.  And they have.  I was absolutely amazed by Dickens' writing but I still wanted to drown Pip.  I get what Dickens is trying to show with Pip's character but seriously - the boy could not stop whining.

7.  Katherine Huxtable and Jasper Finley from Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh - These two have everything I don't like in a romance -  A physical scene with some ick factor, the not redeemed enough bad boy, zero emotional connection, and some misunderstandings.  It was readable because it's written by Mary Balogh but this was definitely one of my least favorites.

8.  Preseley Christensen and Aaron Amos from Come Home to Me by Brenda Novak - This is another one with so many problems that if it had been written by any other author it would've been unreadable.  Preseley didn't really annoy me too much because I could see where she was coming from but Aaron was just a jerk and I thought Preston deserved better.

9.  Cordelia Gray from An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James - I really wanted to love this one.  I enjoy James' mysteries but her Adam Dagliesh books can get a little long.  I loved the idea of a private detective and I had seen this book on so many Must Read Mystery lists.  However, not only did I not like the book I ended up not caring who the killer was.  Cordelia was hard to like or to understand and there were some things she did that just seemed bizarre.

10. Mary Poppins from Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers - This is another book I wanted to love.  I love the movie and I figured with all the magic and wonder of the Julie Andrews version of Mary Poppins the book must be even more so.  But I didn't really like Mary and I didn't really like the book.  This is one of the very few times where I like the movie better.

So what characters have you not clicked with?  Are there certain genres that you find it more important to click with characters than others?  Also, please tell me someone else is not completely in love with Jo March!