In various book-review posts I have alluded to a list of shiny ‘n’ exciting things in books that make me more likely to buy and/or enjoy a book. Up until now it has been a hypothetical list. But no longer…
(This page is updated every so often.)

• boarding schools
• time travel
• fairytale adaptations
• characters who are writers
• characters who are otherwise artistic/creative (visual arts, drama, music, dance, etc)
• historical settings (especially ones I am vaguely familiar with)
• summer camp
• footnotes
• dystopias
• ‘problem novels’ for young adults
• school or college being a large part of the story
• lots of literary or other pop-culture references
• lots of flirting
• complicated relationships
• legal battles as long as they are written by Jodi Picoult
• rounded adult characters appearing in YA books
• identifying-as-feminist characters
• academia, ideally as written by David Lodge
• jealous characters
• female teenage characters with actual not-punished-for-it sexual desires
• books set in Trinity College, Dublin (where I went to college – mostly so I can go “oh, I know that place!” the whole way through)
• smart ‘chick-lit’
• analytical characters
• humour
• books that pass the Bechdel Test
• complicated friendships
• teenage characters who have a good relationship with a step-family member
• witty dialogue
• rivalry or competition between female characters over things that are not boys (e.g. academics, arts, etc)