Hi! Great question - I typically don’t re-read books but I do post reviews on Goodreads, bookstagram and booktok. Before I get into this further, I want to mention that no book is perfect. Some people may love a book, that you may not. For example, the Colleen Hoover books are loved by so many and hated by so many. Also, indie authors cannot afford to have low ratings. If you have any suggestions for them, please reach out to them personally and let them know your feedback. I will still give them a decent review on Goodreads/Amazon/Booksta,etc as long as the book was not unbearable. I always like to give feedback in a positive way. No reason to bulldoze someone’s dream to be an author. Sorry if I’m coming off strong regarding this topic, but I have many author friends and read their books and read the reviews on their books.

Here are my thoughts on rating a book:

5 stars - I LOVED the reading experience, the plot and the character growth was perfect, writing style was amazing, and may or may not read the book again many years later as there are too many books in this world I still want to read. I also give 5 stars to books that gave me a great overall reading experience. Sometimes I may not love the book but there is nothing wrong with it and also if it is an indie author I give them 5 stars if there is nothing particularly wrong with it. One more thing - if I HATE a bad guy in your book, you are an awesome author!

4 stars - the reading experience was good or I loved it, but there was something missing or there was more potential. It also means I appreciate the author’s work on the book. Or the plot was good but character growth was not or vice versa.

3 stars - it was not anything extraordinary but I did enjoy reading the book, it was entertaining or the characters were fun to read about. It is not a book that I would have picked up if I knew all this beforehand. However some days I find myself wanting to read a simple book, not an extraordinary one so I am on the fence.

2 stars - I did not enjoy the book. Nothing is good about it. I just finished reading it because I don’t like to DNF books and I am working on myself for that. I rarely give 2 stars.

1 star - I am speechless that this book exists. I rarely give just one star to a book. It shouldn’t exist. Only super popular books can afford to get a 1 star but I refrain from giving it to most books that I feel that way about.

All that being said, I respect anyone who has the courage and creativity to write a book so my ratings are always generous. The whole point of me reading a book is to have an enjoyable experience, and if I enjoy a book enough to want to find out what happened in the end or to keep reading till the end that book is good enough for me. I read a lot of indie author books which are basically self published books. I know that it can be annoying for people to see grammar or spelling errors when you’re reading but writing a book is not easy so I respect that. I do not account for them in my ratings. I am more generous towards self publishing authors.

Also, I want to mention that I have seen many books written by famous authors with spelling mistakes or grammar errors or something that would catch my eye. As long as it doesn’t take away from the story, it shouldn’t affect the ratings. I learnt this from an author friend. We are humans. Let’s appreciate the efforts and spread love 💕😊