In Her Shoes (10): Lenah from Infinite Days

In Her Shoes is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Vanya at YA Story Teller. To participate, simply put yourself in the shoes of a heroine you've recently read about, and then talk about what you would do in her place, or what you've learned from her.

Featuring this week:

Lenah Beaudonte from Infinite Days

Lenah is the main character in the Young Adult Paranormal Romance 'Infinite Days' by Rebecca Maizel. I am currently re-reading Infinite Days - it is my all time fave YA novel - and I decided to speak about Lenah and not Emily from I'm Yours by Lindsay Paige (my current read) because that book is a sequel and I don't want to spoil the plot points for those who haven't read the first book in the series.

So on to Lenah Beaudonte from Infinite Days. Well, first off, I would have to say that Lenah is my all time favorite heroine. She is just so bad-ass that I can't even count the ways of her badassery. She rocks. But, yes, Lenah is unique in that she literally was a vampire queen who became human. Something that you don't see too often. Usually the regular thing to see is that the character was a human and later became a vamp. Which, granted, did happen to Lenah some time in her lifetime but after becoming a vamp and the queen of her coven she became tired of it and wanted to be human again, wanted to feel again. And Infinite Days starts off with her story as a vamp queen turned human.

Personality wise, Lenah is one of the most unique female characters I have encountered in that she is different and so nuanced. She has a stoic regal-ness to her that you just don't see too often when it comes to female characters in literature. Most of it is thanks to the fact that she was a vampire queen who was immortal and very powerful. Her badassery doesn't come from the fact that she is overly sarcastic or outright aggressive or physical. Lenah just has this air to her. She will cut you with her words of wisdom. A wisdom that comes from having lived so long as a vamp and being a queen and observing people.

And what I loved about Lenah is that as she becomes a human again she retains that strength that she had as a vamp queen but at the same time tries to grow as a person. Because thing is that as a vamp queen, Lenah was as cruel and ruthless as they came. A very scary vamp but in her vamp life, though she didn't show it, she was tired of being so cold. So as she becomes human, she decides that she will not succumb to any pettiness (and she doesn't) because she wants to enjoy life to it's fullest. Also, Lenah makes note to not feel guilty over her past vamp life. She recognizes the error of her ways but her attitude is kinda like this, "ok, I'm human again and I want to enjoy the beauty of being human, so I'm putting my cold vamp days behind me because if I feel guilty about it, I will become miserable and not enjoy this gift of being human again" - an attitude that I thought was so great. She was flawless as a heroine.