We’re so excited to have so many new visitors here at More Than a Review! It seems like it’s time for a reminder about how our system works.
Reviews of books at many review sites tell you a summary of the story and how much the reviewer enjoyed the book, but we think this isn’t enough. We’ve had the frustrating experience of ordering a book because it got such positive reviews — and then finding out that it has so much disturbing violence, offensive language, or graphic sex that we just can’t enjoy it. Maybe it glorifies alcohol or drug use or sounds like a romance novel but is really closer to erotica.
We’re not out to censor books, but we want to know what we’re getting into ahead of time.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t really help to say that a book is “too violent” or “not very sexy.” Two people can mean completely different things by the same descriptions.
That’s why Donna Feyen developed this star rating system. Each level is described clearly so that people who like a steamy story and people who want a clean romance can both read the book and give a consistent rating for the level of sexual content in the book.
When you leave a review, just read the descriptions on the review guidelines page or the drop down menus and use them to judge how many stars the book should get for sex, violence, language, and drug/alcohol use. That way, other readers in our community will know — before they buy the book — if they’ll be disturbed by what they read or not.
In addition to our reader reviews, we also bring you reviews of forthcoming books, books from small publishers we’ve discovered for you, and interviews with authors. We want this to be the kind of community you come back to over and over to find great books you wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Bring your friends, too!