The other day, one of my friends -- whom I got into Filipino historical fiction, by the way! YOU'RE WELCOME! -- asked me how I select the novels I put in my "time travel collection".
Well, the first thing I do is read the story summary. If it's particularly compelling (nothing too grammatically outlandish, hindi OA, etc.) , I give the first chapter a glance -- and if THAT hooks me in, I step back and add the novel to my private library. I read it on my own for a while. If the storyline progresses well (and if I don't get impatient with character development, etc.), then finally I add it to my reading list. And when I finish it, I remove it from my library.
It's a little backwards, I think, but that's how I work. I don't want to recommend stories that I don't like, just because it fits my criteria.