How do I rate my books?

There have been some people that ask me how I rate the books I review. As in, do I give everyone 5 stars? Do I give mean reviews? Well, let me explain…

When I read a book, I look for much more than whether or not it was my favorite. I am not always going to have the same taste as my next door neighbor. As a professional reviewer, I have to keep certain things in mind:

1. Is this book well written? Is it clean of grammatical mistakes, bad sentence structure, or underdeveloped plots and characters.

2. I need to know if the book is aligned with Scripture. Is there false theology? Is there something that could misguide and give someone a false impression of Who God is?

3. Lastly, do I want to poke my eyes out when I am reading it? I understand that I won’t always particularly agree with someone’s idea of a good book. If I don’t want to scream, that’s a good sign 😉

Things I DO NOT count against the book:

1. A storyline I thought could have gone a better way.

2. Writing that is different than what I like. For example, if it is written in the 1st person, I don’t really enjoy that, but I know some people do.

That being said, I know how much a 5 Star rating can mean to an author. If there is nothing keeping me (in the first list) from giving a 5 Star review, I will automatically do that. It doesn’t have to be my favorite book to receive 5 Stars (obviously). If there are blatant issues (what I would call the first list), I will give it a lower star rating.

So, now you know! Every book that I read is not my favorite book of all time 😉 What are your thoughts? If you review books, how do you do it?