I love when everything comes together. When the whole is better than the sum of its parts, everything fits into the story, the themes, etc. beautifully, like a jigsaw puzzle. Doesn’t have to be a mystery, any type of story can be this way.

I have a friend who’s top criterion is good prose, and some of the books she reads are too meandering for my taste; despite being written well, the book doesn’t feel “whole” to me. Maybe that’s bad of me but I’m not satisfied enough with the journey lol, I want the destination to tie the whole journey together. There can be loose ends and ambiguity, but it should feel just as purposeful as the rest of the narrative.

I love the optional romance in any story to be honest. I could read the romance genre itself, but they are too focused on the, well, romance between characters which is quite obvious because it was intented to be written like that. The other books have range of genres and different plots, but when characters have good chemistry with each other, especially romantic one, I tend to like it much more than if I was reading it just for the story itself.

Oh, and funny scenes as well. They are nice when they happen.

Books that write battles or fight scenes well. Often times those can be the most arduous parts to slog through even though they’re supposed to be climactic. Each battle is its own story within the greater story, and when there is a variety of scenarios that properly utilize the skills of the characters with no deus ex then that’s very satisfying to me.

I loved Ender’s Game for that reason. Not only does it have interesting world building with a simulated battle experience that anyone could write about, but you watch how Ender takes lessons, applies them to a variety of battles, and you never know how the next one is going to go.