What do you look for in a Review?

Hosted by Reading Romances...

If you want to post in on the conversation, link up HERE!!

Back in May I threw up a Survey asking Colorimetry readers to vote on "What makes a Good Review?" I never got around to posting the results, so this is a great time for the reveal!!

Drum roll, please!!

The biggest winners are Book Cover Pic & Rating!!

Book Cover Pic	66 (85%)
Giveaway	52 (67%)
Book Premise	40 (51%)
Book Trailer	12 (15%)
Goodreads Link	34 (44%)
Short -n- Sweet	26 (33%)
Skimmablilty	17 (22%)
Recommendation	34 (44%)
Rating	57 (74%)
Summary in own words	20 (25%)
Character Breakdown	11 (14%)
Publisher & Stats (when pub)	19 (24%)
Plot Breakdown	7 (9%)
Author Links (FB, Twitter, etc)	25 (32%)
Buy-it-now links	19 (24%)
Romantic Breakdown	9 (11%)
Content Alerts	18 (23%)
Deep Thoughts	16 (20%)
Quotes	30 (38%)
Like this, Like that examples	18 (23%)
Reason read	14 (18%)
Where you rec'd book from	7 (9%)
Cover Commentary	18 (23%)
Book spoofs	0 (0%)
Reviewer personality	26 (33%)
Spoiler Disclosure Alert	38 (49%)
Genre Classification	39 (50%)

Votes so far: 77
Poll closed 

It's fascinating to see other reader's & blogger's opinions. I'm looking forward to checking out all the opinions on this hop, too!!  I agree with this survey mostly.....

Here are my priorities:

1. Book Cover Pic - I gotta see the cover!!!

2. Rating - Positive or negative, I wanna know what you think in a glance!

3. Premise - I like to see a blip copied from somewhere, vs. a summary "in my own words".

4. LINKS!!  I like the Goodreads link & I also like links to the author's website and any social sites. I'm nosey!!

5. For the review... I love readability. If the font is hard to read or very big, I don't read it. If the paragraphs are long, I don't read it. If something doesn't jump out at me screaming "You want to read this!!!" I don't read it. Pathetic, I admit.

I skim before I read... I read the first sentence of each paragraph and move on UNLESS that first sentence grabs my attention. OR - if there are bold words or sentences that allow me to skip to an interesting part of the review.

I don't like short reviews because they're missing all the juicy bits of WHY?! Those little paragraphs that announce that someone read a book and liked it? Bleh.

For me... give me details, give me lots of opinion and make the review easy to read!!

I am grateful for other things - like spoiler or content alerts. Some reviewers have cool lookin' content buttons. I like 'em. Book stats are handy, too. It's nice to get as much info as possible all at once.

If I could add one thing to my own reviews, I would break down my ratings so different elements in the book had their own rating resulting in the overall rating. 'Cause... two books may both be a "4" to me, but for totally different reasons which make sense in my head. You know? And seeing the same rating sitting on both of 'em just doesn't seem right when they're so different.

But that's 'cause I have so much trouble with classifications. Which also explains why I puzzle over genres.

What do you like best in a review?

What in the YA World?!

I pretty much mind my own business... in life, in reading, in reviewing.

When I ran into a big HUFF! over Selection last week, I thought "hmm" and moved on. I did not hurry to Goodreads to blackball or add my opinion to a dreary snowball that was just gettin' warmed up.

Nope.

I read and reviewed and met some new bloggers and joined Linked In (I'm up to 3 Connections. My email is burgandyice@live.com if you want to be #4!!)

Parajunkie's Book Blogging 101 is one of my favorite weekly posts, so naturally I hopped over to see what she had to teach us this week... and lo and behold (drum roll, please!)

YA Book Reviewing is a hot topic!!

To irreverently summarize, there were some negative reviews on front-runnin' YA books that really ticked off some friends of authors... which resulted in embarrassing author behavior. Then some Book-Reviewer bashing got going (via Twitter) that threw questions at the validity of Goodreads and Amazon reviews and Book Reviewers and the authenticity of the Star System which led to the question... and who is really a Reviewer?

Probably the fallout isn't finished, yet. But the question was raised regarding Book Tours and whether Tours are just to get free books and promote books and are more promotional than Book Reviewing in it's purest form and....

Really?!

Uh... I'm hosting my first Book Tour tomorrow.

I thought I would just clarify MY opinion to MY blog followers.

A Review is an opinion - a detailed, educated, written opinion, (right?) as well as basic info on what's between the covers that might interest other readers. And everyone has different opinions and people rarely agree completely.

Better yet, let me quote Parajunkie, who quoted the dictionary:

Dictionary.com states a review:1. a critical article or report, as in a periodical, on a book, play, recital, or the like; critique; evaluation.

Maybe I'm stretching things, but wouldn't people who like to read books be the best authority on what they like? Just saying.

So... I just want to announce, as officially as whatever... that I am a Book Reviewer.

Heck, I am a Book Writer, a Book Reader, a Book Blogger AND a Book Reviewer.  I'm a Mom and a Wife and a Small Business Owner. I'm a Personal Chef for six and some people think I'm a Maid. I'm a 24 hour on-call Nurse, too, who specialized in Croup.

I have happily agreed to a few Author Tours. I researched the book before agreeing to highlight it (and turned a few down.) I requested the book to review on my Tour stop...

...and as always, my Reviews express my own opinion without any consultation with the publisher or author.

I write my reviews immediately after reading in a saved document on my computer (where emotional rantings remain my own). I let the review rest a day or two or five before adding it to my posts. When I publish my post, I copy and paste the exact same review to Goodreads and Amazon (and Barnes & Noble and LibraryThing and maybe NetGalley) and move on to the next.

What about you?  Are you a Book Reviewer?  Did you know about all the Hullaballoo?!  Are you ignoring the clamor and getting on with the great, fun business of Book-Lovin'?  Or are you ranting about the mess? (Leave me a link!)

To get the full scoop, hop over to Parajunkie's post and follow all the links. It's educational.