It's Follow Friday #30

Yes, it's that time of the week again! It's Follow Friday which is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. The question of the week is:

Define what characteristics your favorite books share. Do they all have a kick-ass heroine or is the hot love interest the Alpha Male?

The thing about the books I love the most is this: they're page-turners, books I get so absorbed in that I have to keep reading them because not finishing them means being unable to sleep, and perhaps most importantly, the plot is absolutely engrossing. Nine times out of ten, there tends to be romance and in my book, a good romance adds to the plot without distracting from it. That means that there's enough romance there to make me swoon over the love interest (or interests) but more than enough plot to keep me from going, "Well, this is getting rather boring." The heroine doesn't need to be strong, but she can't go running about like a ninny and screaming whenever something frightens her. She also can't be overly pessimistic or complain about her life too often. As for the love interest? Ideally he gets frustrated with the main character, doesn't always agree with what she does, but loves her anyways. (And a bad boy never hurts either.)

Also, there tends to be a cliffhanger at the end--if it's a book in a series (which it tends to be). By this, I mean to say that the cliffhanger? It makes me want to pull my hair out, spend several nights wondering just what will happen next, and ultimately wait impatiently for the next book.