Disclaimer: My reviews and recommendations come from personal opinion. If I am reviewing an ARC (advanced readers copy) or any other book I have received for review, I am completely transparent on my thoughts and feelings.
Book Ratings
Everyone has a different way of ranking books they read. If you are just discovering your love of reading or are exploring different genres, having a way to see what works vs what doesn’t, can be crucial to avoiding burnout. Reading slumps are typically correlated with reading a lot of books that you’re not enjoying. I would recommend that you attempt to read an author’s work or a specific genre at least 3 times before deciding if it’s worth your time or not.
DNF
These three letters stand for “did not finish” and learning when to put down a book that you aren’t loving is a huge help. I used to loathe the concept of not being able to finish a story! I couldn’t fathom not reading from beginning to end, even if I was miserable. Nowadays, if something is wrong with the content or there’s glaring issues, back to my shelf that book will go. Remember that you can always revisit a book later, DNF’ing doesn’t have to mean forever well maybe, sometimes.
How do I determine book ratings?
5 stars – LOVED everything about the story. Characters and plot were fantastic and the story sticks with me.
4 stars- Really good book. There may have been some things that were an issue (ie. pacing) but the overall reading experience wasn’t ruined.
3 stars- It’s good. It’s forgettable. Would I revisit a three star? Probably not.
2 stars- This rating is usually left for the more problematic stories. Too much drama / suspension of belief. Not enjoyable.
1 star- Nope. A big NO. Would I continue reading a book if I knew it was going to be a 1? Yes and no. Sometimes you don’t know how bad a book is until you’ve reached the end, but this is a rare occurrence for me.
0 stars- Would be a book I DNF’d. I do not assign stars to those books but I will begrudgingly happily review them anyways.
