There always seems to be a debate happening somewhere in the online book world about reviews and ratings. One thing that always seems to come up is 3-star ratings. A lot of people seem to think that a 3-star rating is bad, but it’s honestly not. Anywhere that I have seen the 5-star rating system always defines 3 stars as “I liked it” (this applies to a variety of platforms and not just books). Saying that you like something is good.

Before I talk about my personal ratings and what they mean, I wanted to mention that I, personally, do not look at ratings (or reviews) when choosing a book to read. They do not impact my decision to read a book at all (I have a post coming in early February that talks about how I choose books).

So here is my rating system:

* You will NEVER see me post a 1-star review. Or see a book on my shelves with a 1-star rating. This would be a book I did not like at all and did not finish. This is usually because of racist or homophobic language (not in character), misinformation, or just really badly written. I do not rate these books, I remove them from my shelves and move on. This does not happen often.

** A 2-star review or rating is also very rare for me. This would again be a book that I did not enjoy, but one that I did complete. This happens rarely, but I have a personal rule of completing any book I receive for review (it may take me years to do it, but I will review every ARC or DRC received from a publisher/publicist).

*** The 3-star review/rating means that I enjoyed the book. It wasn’t a favorite, but I still liked it and would recommend it to others. This rating crops up frequently from me.

**** My most popular rating/review is 4-stars. These are the books that I loved. I liked the characters, the storyline, the message. A book with a 4-star rating may or may not make it onto my re-read list and I may or may not seek out a physical copy for my shelves if I don’t already have one. But I will talk about it and recommend it and share it with others. You will see this rating from me all the time.

***** And finally, the coveted 5-star rating. I save this one for the books that really move me in some way, the ones that bring me to tears (usually more than once) or make me laugh out loud. These are the books where I see myself clearly in the characters or the message resonates in my heart. These books are almost always added to my physical shelves and re-read again and again. They are my favorites that I talk about time and again and recommend to everyone. This rating shows up frequently from me as well.