My Rating Scale

My Rating Scale: How I Rate My Reviews

  Rating any material that I review is extremely essential and so I thought I would share how I grade the material that I review. Now, sites such as Amazon or Goodreads use their own scales, but most of these grades are still fairly similar. 

 I base my rating off a scale of 5-2. Of course, five is the highest and the lowest is, of course, a number two. In the four years, I have been reviewing I have only ever given seven authors a perfect five. Yes, only seven. Five is a perfect score and that means the material needs to be flawless. This rarely happens and so do keep that in mind when writing your own review.  Do not confuse your love for the author with the current book that you are reviewing. Always base your grade on the actual book.

Since my favorite genre is romance I thought I would use hearts as the symbol for my ratings. You can get creative, however. You can use crowns, teacups, flowers, books and honestly whatever it is that you want. You can of course just simply write the number, but for a blog, I wanted to go into a little more detail. Here goes,

5 hearts: Again, perfection. The writing, the romance, the characters, the chemistry and the plot have to be entirely flawless. There are no errors of any kind in a five rating. An example of a book that I gave a five rating to is Susanne Lord's, "In Search of a Scandal."

4 hearts: I always consider a grade four to be a close runner in the pursuit of a perfect rating. I usually praise the book because although there might have been a few flaws, the story and the romance was still a favorite of mine. A book example that I gave such a rating to is, author's Tara Wyatt's, "Chained Reaction."

3 hearts: Okay, we are are getting a little further away from the higher scores. A book that I give only three hearts to is a book that was entertaining as far as plot, characters, and romance are concerned, but the negatives outweighed the pros. Book example: "Rules by a Rogue," by Christy Carlyle.

2 hearts: I will confess to dreading giving any book such a low score, but it happens. This is a book that I cannot deal with on my own personal scale. The romance is missing as is the plot and the characters are not an ideal fit for an HEA-ending that the author insists upon featuring within the novel itself. This is the lowest score that I give any novel. Example: "While the Duke was Sleeping," by Sophie Jordan. 

Heat Levels:

 Sweet: Let’s be honest if you are like me you love the more sweeter moments of any romance novel. The moments that make our hearts sigh with joyful hopes that our HEA-ending isn’t a Disney fairytale dream. The moments include more of what a reader would expect to find in an inspired romance such as holding hands, a first kiss, a favorite crush and a subtle love story.

Moderate: Personally, I am not the biggest fan of a moderate heat level as I prefer either a spicy or a sweet romance. A moderate heat level I feel as if the author was undecided in the sensual scenes. Basically, this is not a positive rating for me. 

Spicy: Bring on the heat as I love a spicy romance novel. Spice means added heat and most modern-day romance authors are not shy at dishing out (pun intended) this spice. The hotter the flavor of the romance the more I love it.

Erotic: Okay, I have a quick confession to make-I can either love or hate Erotic romances. I really do not feel like there is a need to describe the Erotic heat level to readers as we have all seen the infamous “Fifty Shades of Grey,” trilogy. 

Remember that this is my own personal grade scale. I am only showing you how I rate my own reviews. If you would like to use this scale as a guideline for your own reviews you may do so, but please adapt the scale to benefit your own reviews. :)