My Rating System

First of all I’d like to make something clear: This is my own, personal rating system. It’s just how I’ve always rated books, since I started my Goodreads account back in 2012.

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Now, I do read a lot and most of the time I read up to 4 books at the same time. That’s because I read what I’m in the mood for and it can happen that I start one book, read a couple chapters into it and I’m suddenly in the mood for a dark romance instead of a rom com. It’s just how I’ve always been and that means that I won’t review every single book I read. I will only write reviews for the books that I LOVE. You know those books, where you race through the pages to get to the end because you just have to know what happens next?! The ones you can’t stop thinking about even days after finishing it. You have the biggest book hangover and just can’t bring yourself to jump into the next one because you keep thinking about the characters and the story in your everyday life. Those are the kinds of books I love and will write a review about because I need to talk about it, shout it from the rooftops how much I’m in love with it. That most certainly doesn’t happen with every book I read.
Those are my top favourites, my 5-Star-Ratings… the ones I will most definitely re-read at some point. 

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4-Star-Ratings are the books that come pretty close to my top favourites but there was just something missing, that little extra spark that made me obsessed with finishing the book. It could be that the story dragged a little bit at some point in the book or the dialogue was a bit weak. Little things like that, that make it easier for me to stop reading for a bit and come back to the book at another time.
If it’s part of a series, I will most definitely continue reading because I am invested in the story and want to know what happens next or how it ends. Overall a book I really liked and would definitely recommend to others.

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You know, sometimes you need a book that’s a light, easy read with a predictable plot and decent characters that don’t go very deep. Those are the 3-Star-Ratings for me. Especially after that book hangover I just need something that doesn’t have a million layers to the story or the characters.
I can sit back with a cup of tea, relax and read something fun and easy, where I don’t really have to think about it. A lot of the time, rom-coms fall into that category for me. It’s something light-hearted I enjoy reading with funny characters and witty banter.
So for me books with a 3-star-rating are not bad books at all, they are just not as intense as the 5 stars and that’s totally okay. I can’t read dark and intense romance all the time. I need something light and easy in-between.

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Now, I will never review a book, I gave a 2-Star-Rating or a 1-Star-Rating.
A 2-Star-Rating for me was an okay read… nothing special, nothing original, read it a million times already. I just wasn’t invested. 2 Stars doesn’t mean that it’s a really bad book, it’s just that I totally struggled finishing it. A 2-Star-Rating for me can be a 5-star-rating for someone else. That’s the beauty of reading, everyone connects to something on a different level and we all have different opinions and that’s totally okay. I’m just saying that I couldn’t connect to the story at all.

 

1-Star-Ratings are very rare for me because over the years I have become more skilled in picking the books I am most likely to love (or at least like). If I do give 1 star to a book on Goodreads it can mean two things:

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• I don’t agree with how a certain topic has been handled. I’m all for pushing boundaries in literature but I do believe that certain subjects and topics need to be explored with extreme care and sensibility to the targeted readership. No consent at all between characters is a huge NO for me.  

• I couldn’t connect to any of the decisions the characters made. Stupid misunderstandings that could’ve easily been solved by having a short, simple conversation. Now, I understand that books need to have drama but there’s a difference between drama that drives the story forward and leads to character development and drama for drama-sake that’s only there as filler to make the book longer. If there’s no valid reason for the characters to be apart but something really stupid (like ‘I’m not good enough for him/her’…*cue eye-roll*) that can be resolved in five minutes, I will DNF that book. I hate doing that because I’m the kind of person who hates not finishing what she started but this kind I just can’t…

 

With all of that said, I do my best. I know that authors spend a lot of time and energy writing their stories and I respect that. I have participated in NaNoWriMo* (which is National Novel Writing Month and takes place in November) a couple of times and still write my own stories occasionally. So trust me when I say that writing your own book is time-consuming and hard and I would never in a million years bad-mouth someone’s work just because I wasn’t satisfied with it. Besides, why would I spend my valuable time writing a review for something I did not enjoy, when I could use that time diving into the next great book. That doesn’t make any sense to me. 

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I love books… and reading… and everything book-related, really and I want my blog to represent that. A space where I can write about the things I love and voice my opinions on the stories that brought me joy, broke my heart and mended it in the best possible way, hoping they would do the same for someone else.