I'm not currently accepting unsolicited reviews, because I have so many books to review already! (Unless I've already reviewed one of your books, in which case I may make an exception if I like you. ;) However, if you check back another time, that might change, depending on what I have to read. Whether I buy, win, or receive a review copy of a book, I will always give my honest opinion. I think I'm supposed to say something about not getting any money or favors for reviews, and while I would think that would be obvious, in case it's not, I don't.
Current Policy (December 2011 onward)
I decided I didn't like the numbered ratings system, so now I'll be using a modified version of the OWL grading from Harry Potter! I love Harry Potter dearly, and since I wanted something that wasn't letters or numbers, what better way to do it? In case you've forgotten, those ratings are:
Outstanding
Excellent
Good
Good
Acceptable
Fair
Poor
Troll
I'm unlikely to give out any Trolls, since I don't generally finish books that I hate, but I think it will help to divide what would have been 3 cupcakes between Acceptable and Fair. What I give things when I post the reviews on Goodreads will thus vary depending on things like relative merits and whether I've had my coffee yet.
Furthermore, instead of dividing ratings into the categories of plot/characters/style, I'm going to have two separate ratings for overall quality and enjoyability, which I think might be more helpful. I'll still be sure to discuss the former categories in the review so you have an idea of what, specifically, I did or didn't like, but since Twilight demonstrated that it's possible for a story to have low quality and high enjoyability (and the reverse is certainly true), I'm hoping the quality/enjoyability ratings might give you a better idea of what you're looking at.
Note: all credit and copyright whatever for the OWL grades goes to the marvelous JK Rowling! My adapting them for ratings is meant entirely as a sign of respect and possibly the inception of an evil magic cult ;)
Before December 5, 2011
I rate books out of five cupcakes (because I bake, duh) in three categories: plot, characters, and style, then give the book an overall rating that's usually but not necessarily an average of the three, because logic is for boring people.
1 cupcake = I hated this book. I only finished because there was a necromancer standing over me threatening to give my brain to zombies if I didn't.
2 cupcakes = I didn't like this book much. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good either.
3 cupcakes = This was a pretty good book.
4 cupcakes = I really liked this book.
5 cupcakes = This book made rainbows of awesomeness explode in my brain. I want to marry it and have its babies, only not literally because I am not crazy. Probably.
