But what's interesting is that, as I said, it's rare for me to give 2 stars to a book. That is because I've noticed that often enough, if I don't enjoy a book but can imagine other people enjoying it, I'm likely to up the rating to 3 stars out of kindness, even if, objectively, it would be more of a 2 star for me. If it's not something I passionately hate, I often feel like rating something 2 stars is too mean. On the other hand, if I hate a book, then it's a one star (and usually, if I completely hate a book, it is because it's problematic in some way). That means that I rate very few books 2 stars.

I have never intentionally read a book with the knowledge that it was problematic and don't see myself doing that in the future. I don't read books I think I won't enjoy.

Here is how I rate books:

5 stars - A new favourite, I'm obsessed with it, it's likely to stay on my mind for a very long time. I loved it, it's well-written, and I don't have any negative criticism of it.

4 - I really liked it, I found it thoroughly enjoyable, but it's not necessarily a favourite. This might mean I have some slight criticism of it, or that it it didn't leave a strong enough impression on me to rate it 5 stars. But still, really good book.

3 stars - This can mean a variety of things for me. It can mean that it was an average, generic reading experience for me. I didn't hate it, maybe I even liked it, but I didn't find anything that interesting about the book either. Or it can mean that I enjoyed a book and found it interesting but I have a lot of criticism. Thus, I have "mixed opinions". Or maybe I thought the story was interesting but didn't like the writing style, or something about the book didn't quite connect with me. In that case, I would say that it's still a good book and it's worth a read, but it didn't click with me that much, and so I only somewhat enjoyed my reading experience.

2 stars - This one is a very rare rating for me. It usually means I disliked a book but not due to it being problematic. Perhaps I thought it wasn't a very well-written book, but I don't have any beef with the book or the author. It means "I disliked it and I'd like to move on and not talk about it".

1 star - I reserve this for books I despise, especially if the book is problematic, for example by reinforcing misogyny or homophobia. The books I rate 1 star are books that use harmful tropes or normalise unacceptable things.

For me it was the other way around - I was single for a very long time and reading romances. I think it was in order to compensate for the lack of love in my life, but nothing satisfied me as much as reading love stories. Then, after getting into a relationship, I became more interested in darker books and romances started to bore me.