Okay, so the title is a little misleading. It’s not an art, really. It’s simply expanding beyond the “This was so good! I loved it!” line as the entire review and telling the reader why you loved a book. It’s not hard. Just be honest. Otherwise, you’re gushing without depth, and the reader of the review will simply roll their eyes, click “unhelpful” and move on to the negative reviews – which for some reason never fail to go on and on in great detail.
For the love of readers (and authors) everywhere, if you like a book, tell the world about it the right way. Don’t just tell them you like the book. Tell them what it was about it that made you want to write the review in the first place.
Well, since I have had 6 people like my review of The Hunt on amazon and 2 on goodreads I guess I pass the test. 🙂 Writing a good review is easy when you really do like the book you read. I hate writing a negative review, so I tend to not even write one if I have nothing good to say. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen too often. I tend to go to reviewers I trust before I read an unknown author. Another good reason to write an honest and informative review. I also tend to ignore the negative reviews when they are surrounded by great reviews by loyal readers. (I also love the negative reviews written on every book in a series from book 1 – book 3 or more – if you didn’t like the first one at all, why read the others in a series? – but that’s another topic entirely.) I probably gushed a little too much on The Hunt, but what can I say, it was a great story and I’m a little partial to those BBW boys.
I completely agree with you. I just wish there was a public way we could get this across. *nods* (more than just our blogs)