In many  my reviews and anticipated releases posts, I often say something along the lines of “I knew I had to pick up this book because of X.” From the main character’s workplace to their hobbies, there are certain elements, aka book bait, that guarantee that I will pick up said book. As I prepare my summer TBR, I’ll be keeping the following book bait in mind.

Beach Town

Many of you know that I am a beach girl myself. I love reading books with this setting because it’s one that I can easily relate to and definitely crave in the summer. Okay, let’s be honest, it’s a year round NEED.

Baking

It’s practically 100% guaranteed that I will pick up the book if the synopsis mentions something along the lines of a character who loves baking or works in a bakery or restaurant. These books have recently been among my favorite to review because I like creating a inspired recipe from the book.

Food

This may go a bit hand-in-hand with baking, but I also like books that feature characters who work in restaurants or love to cook. Recently, I’ve been enjoying seeing some foodie trends come into play, like food trucks in Maurene Goo’s The Way You Make Me Feel.

Summer Camp

This book bait comes from a small part of me that never attended summer camp for the entire summer. Not that younger and current me wouldn’t have wanted to leave her books and dogs for that long. Instead, I attended week-long sports camps and Girl Scout camp. I particularly love seeing character development and relationships grow here.

Weddings

Blame it on my constant need for new episodes of Say Yes to the Dress and Four Weddings. Although I’ve only attended one wedding before, I just love reading about weddings. In most cases, the books I read don’t involve the protagonist getting married, but usually someone behind the scenes, working for a wedding business, or part of bridal party.

Characters Who Are Readers

How could I not fall in love with characters who are readers? This Rory Gilmore-esque element tends to add another layer of relatability.

Characters Who Are Bloggers

Another obviously relatable element, but I love exploring characters’ blogs in books. I’m either yay or nay for books that include ‘tech’ excepts , like fictional text messages, emails, or blog posts, but I do like reading about characters who blog and their routines (something I also like reading about in lifestyle-like blog posts!)

Sisters

As one of three girls, I look for books that explore sister dynamics or feature sisters.

Sports

I’m all about books that feature athletic characters, but I am definitely drawn a bit more to this book bait if we actually spend time with the character playing their sport or if the setting or plot revolves around the sport.

College-Age Protagonists/College Protagonists

This recent book bait for me is caused by the fact that I am currently a college student. Most books with characters in college or who are in that 18-21 year old stage tend to be more relatable for me now and often bring in some more maturity (not that I’m necessarily always looking for maturity in my reading life).

Fashion

This book bait is for sure caused by my love for shopping and clothes. I’ve also always been a bit interested in fashion and design- in my middle school yearbook, I said that I wanted to be a fashion journalist- so I really enjoy seeing this interest in characters.

Politics/Royalty

I find this one to be the most ironic because I am likely one of the people least interested in politics that you’ll ever meet. I’m also not the most up to date on all the royal news, but I find myself really drawn to fictional royalty stories (especially of the British and Scottish kind, although I would be open to royal stories of other cultures).

 

What book bait makes you pick up a book? Share in the comments!