Top Ten Tuesday (2): Top Ten Words/Topics That Instantly Make Me Buy/Pick Up A Book

(Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. To join in on this weekly meme, visit the blog here)

Top Ten Words/Topics That Instantly Made Me Buy/Pick Up A Book


As a big impulse book-buyer, this should be an easy list for me to create. So here goes:

'Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian/Apocalyptic' - I fell in love with this genre the second it was introduced to me, so if anyone tells me a book is dystopian or (post-)apocalytic, then I don't think twice. It all started, unsurprisingly, with The Hunger Games. I admit it wasn't until the movie was announced that I truly paid attention to the book and discovered the genre of post-apocalyptics. They just feel so real and 9.9 times out of 10, I enjoy them.
Some of my favourites: Divergent series by Veronica Roth, Legend by Marie Lu, Yesterday by C.K. Kelly Armstrong

'Paranormal' - Vamps, werewolves, fey, shapeshifters. You name it, I'm in.
A few of my favourites: The Mortal Instruments/Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare, Iron Fey series and Blood of Eden series by Julie Kagawa.

'Fairy-tale re-telling' - Who doesn't love fairy tales? One of my favourite things with fairy-tale retellings is comparing the re-telling to the original tale and seeing the changes and twists the author created to make the stories their own.
A few of my favourites in this genre: Cinder by Marissa Meyer, Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson, The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor.

'Characters with unique powers' - Not witches, per se, but I do love those too, any characters with an inhuman ability intrigues me. Do one or more of the characters have special and unique powers that make them inhuman? Can they control the weather, blast ice from their fingers, or have premonitions? Yes? Then I'm sold. Generally this genre ties into the paranormal and the character is alien or part-something that gives them these powers (fey, angel, etc), but sometimes they are just unique/were experimented on. Either way, I love love love it.
A few of my favourites: Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi, Frostbite by Lynn Rush (release date: September 17, 2013), Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout.

'Fantasy - Dragons/Medieval/Castles/Kingdoms/Magic' - Any book with one or more of these incorporated into them are ones I will pick up off a shelf. Fantasy is my absolute favourite genre, and one I have loved since forever.
A few of my favourites: Tamora Pierce's 'Tortall' novels, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes, Legacy trilogy by Cayla Kluver, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

'Similar to/For fans of [a book/series I loved]' - This is probably an obvious one, but I'm using it anyway. If you tell me a book is similar to one of my favourites, I will check it out. Simple as that. It's how I've discovered most of my favourites in the first place.
For example: The Hunger Games led to me Divergent and Legend and Shatter Me and a long, long list of books.

'"I really loved this book/some other compliment" - says one of my favourite authors' - If I see a quote and the name of an author I love of on the cover of a book, I will take the book a lot more seriously. I love what the author has written, so I trust their opinions on other books enough to give them a try. So far this has done me no harm.
Examples: Marie Lu's a quote on Taken by Erin Bowman, Cassandra Clare's quote on Claudia Gray's Fateful -- admittedly I've yet to read both of these, but they are the two books closest to me and I'm not going through my entire shelf, haha.

One-word titles - For a reason unknown, books with a single word as the title draw me to them. I don't buy these titles without question, but they are the ones I will pick up off the shelf to read the blurb of when I'm browsing.

'Love-triangle' - Yep, these are my guilty pleasure. Of course I like there to be more to a story than just the romance bit, but if the blurb on the back mentions a character and two love interests, it's a quick sell for me. They're just fin complications, and I don't mind that they're overdone in YA books. Of course, most of the time I end up rooting for the one person the main character doesn't choose, but there you have it.

'Mythology' - Done. Sold. Instant buy. I love mythology; it was my favourite thing we ever covered in my English classes (oh, how I don't miss school, though). Greek, Roman, Egyptian, etc. Love. It. Of course, Greek Mythology seems to be everywhere, but I love the others, too. In fact, if anyone knows of any novels/series that incorporate mythology that isn't Greek-derived, I am very open to recommendations. Egyptian especially.
Some favourites: Rick Riordian's novels (though I've not read them all, but I do own them and bought them without question), The Goddess Test series by Aimee Carter, and for some reason I'm drawing a blank, so moving on...

And that's it. There's my top ten words/topics that instant make my buy or pick up a book.
I've probably forgotten a few, but I've reached my ten so I'll leave it at that.
And of course, I'm curious: how about you guys? Link me to your TTT - I want to see the similarities in our lists (and differences!) :D
And of course, I'll return all comment love <3