What a week it’s been. I’ve been completely out of sorts and rather grumpy. Actually, let’s just call a spade a spade. Bitchy. I’ve been extremely bitchy! Everything and everyone got on my wick like you wouldn’t believe. Massive thanks to my sounding boards (the shallow tribe, pea in a pod, kindred spirit and my book pimp aka the rather annoying one 😉) for letting me rant and rave and just quite generally being the best friends a girl could possibly have.
On top of that, last week I made the mistake of mentioning Winter. That pesky cold season that seemed a tad elusive at that point, which my big mouth obviously summoned like magic. Ugh! Cue hail, snow and freezing temperatures at a time when I’m actually starting to count down to Spring. Not cool Mother Nature!
Reading-wise, I actually thought I’d been incredibly productive once again. But no. By the time Friday arrived, I realised I had only finished one book. I even checked Goodreads to make sure. I have no idea what happened but at this rate, I’ll be behind schedule again instead of ahead and that just won’t do. Seriously, because February is utterly mental! 🙄
| BOOKS I READ THIS WEEK |
Well. That could have been a whole lot worse, I suppose. And at least, all three were brilliant. But still. Must do better. Reminds me of my school report cards. Ah, nostalgia. 😏
| BOOKS I BOUGHT THIS WEEK |
Oh, dear. Although … I personally didn’t buy any. But my book pimp (the rather annoying one) took me virtually shopping and we hit various charity shops and my goodness, it was sheer heaven! Drop me off in one of those shops and you won’t see me for hours! We got some very nice goodies, let me tell you.
| ARC’s RECEIVED VIA NETGALLEY |
One request that was actually approved for a change (Closer Than You Think). I was on a negative run there for weeks and considering a Netgalley boycott out of protest *. The other two I was invited to read.
(* : No, I clearly did not think that one through because obviously it would hurt me a hell of a lot more than it would hurt them)
| BOOKPOST THAT LANDED ON MY DOORSTEP |
Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward, with thanks to Quercus, for a blog tour. Yes, that’s my hand. Don’t get too excited. I’m looking at you, Zoë 😂
| ON THE BLOG THIS PAST WEEK |
Monday : Shared an extract for my stop on the blog tour for The Liar’s Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard
Tuesday : Joined the blog tour for Changeling by Matt Wesolowski
Wednesday : Joined the blog tour for Only A Mother by Elisabeth Carpenter and shared My Week in Books
Thursday : Hosted a stop on the blog tour for Red Snow by Will Dean
Friday : Joined the blog tour for Deep Dirty Truth by Steph Broadribb
Saturday : Took a day off.
Sunday : Weekly Wrap-Up
| NEXT WEEK ON NOVEL DEELIGHTS |
Monday : Review | Bridge to Burn by Rachel Amphlett
Tuesday : Review | Blackberry and Wild Rose by Sonia Velton
Wednesday : This Weeks in Books
Thursday : Review | Gone By Midnight by Candice Fox
Friday : Blog tour | Review | The Woman Inside by E.G. Scott
Saturday : Blog tour | Review | A Promise to the Dead by Victoria Jenkins
Sunday : Blog tour | Extract | In Safe Hands by J.P. Carter
Sunday : Weekly Wrap-Up
I say I’ll be posting reviews but well, let’s just say my review pile hasn’t exactly gone down so if they don’t get written, there will obviously be no posts. 😂
Question of the week : Prompted by a conversation earlier this week, I’m wondering about star ratings and rounding up or down. I only use star ratings on Goodreads, Netgalley and Amazon because I don’t have a choice. I’d rather not use them at all. I’d like to think my reviews give you a fairly good idea on what I thought of a book, so I don’t use them on my blog.
Up until now, I’ve been rounding up. But the rather annoying one made a very valid point a few days ago. It’s rare but it happens 😉.
Let’s say you give a book 4.5 stars. I have been rounding that up to 5 but others would turn it into a 4. The reasoning is, if you really loved the book that much, you’d give it 5 stars and not 4.5. So there was something that held you back from finding it “perfect”. Thus, round down to 4. That makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Yet, I can’t seem to do it. I’ve always rounded up. I’m pretty sure it’s what I was taught in school, although that was such a long time ago that my memories could be slightly blurry. So, what do you do? Up, down, don’t care? These are serious questions, people!
Right. Enough babble. Must read! If I’m even more quiet than usual around various parts of the internet this week, don’t worry. I’ll either be reading, trying to catch up. Or I’ll be trying not to shoot my mouth off and hurt people’s feelings. 😂
Hope you all have a fabulous week! See you next time! Happy reading! xx
Novel Deelights 
I’m going to chip in on the star thing – since all stars are subjective I don’t feel it matters one iota whether you round up or down as long as you are consistent. Technically in maths if it was a 4.5 you would round up but a 4.4 you would round down – yeah that’s why I only give full stars in my own subjective rating system.
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I may have to go back to the full stars. Sometimes I feel 4 is too low and 5 is too high, hence the half stars but it’s really just overcomplicating things.
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I feel the same as you with the star ratings, I never use them on my blog reviews, so I don’t actually think about the star ratings until I come to put the review on the other sites.
Amanda.
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They’re a bit annoying, aren’t they? The review should speak for itself, really. It happens that I look back on a book and see I rated it however many stars but didn’t review it, and I can’t for the life of me remember why I gave it that amount of stars!
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HHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!! LOL #shallowtribe always!! i might just get the book based on the picture because if your hand is in it then it is worth a read lol x
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Brilliant Eva. These posts just get better & better!! xx
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I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying them, Mairead. They take a while to do so I’m glad it pays off 😂
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I don’t use stars on my blog either. I occasionally use a half star on Amazon/GR but always round up, with a (x.5*) note at the start of the review. It would be much easier to use full stars but there are just times when a book is too good for say a standard 4 star rating but just not quite perfect enough for a 5.
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Yes, exactly that! I knew you’d get me! 😂
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I don’t give starts! I have a personal x/100 and convert it to stars for Amazon and Goodreads (but I round up for Amazon from 4 on Goodreads… so it’s all meaningless!)
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That sounds extremely complicated, Linda! 😄
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‘Tis a bit!
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Must have been something in the air 😉 #shallowtribe x
It’s tough with the stars, I always have a nightmare trying to decide when leaving my reviews on Amazon etc!
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I love this post! The star thing? I have to be blown away by a book to give it 5 stars. I have to want to tell everybody about it and insist they read it. That happens rarely, but there are a lot of books I genuinely do like (a lot). They get 4 stars. I have no guilt. 🙂
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Guilt is highly overrated! 😉
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I don’t use stars but I do recommend at the end of a post if I think other lovers of that particular genre will enjoy it.i know what you mean about school and rounding up, though and I still round up when putting my progress for audiobooks on Goodreads. 😀
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I can go on about this for hours in my head. Sometimes a book just really isn’t a 5 stars but also not 4 🤣
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🤣
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I love your wrap up posts. They always make me smile.
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Aw, this makes me smile too! Thank you! xx
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I use stars on Goodreads and Amazon because those forums are driven by them. To not do it confuses the members and it’s really not an issue for me. When I began blogging, I was including a star rating but noticed so many bloggers weren’t so I opened a discussion about it similar to this one. Many provided compelling reasons for not including them, enough that I stopped providing them, too. The blogosphere is a different environment, each blog site offering a unique experience. It’s not one, monolithic approach, requiring the visitors to take in what the site owner offers. Star ratings are very much secondary, IMHO. I really want the readers to focus on what I’m saying about the book. I haven’t regretted my decision at all.
About rounding…that’s completely personal to your rating attitude. I’ve rounded up and down on books I’ve rated 4.5. What drives me to round up is my consideration of whether I think audiences who only look at ratings would be misled or helped by it. And, sometimes I just don’t want to award the 5 stars. Again, it’s highly subjective…my own. Do what feels right for you.
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Yes, and yes! Fantastic comment, Jonetta! I’d really rather not use the star ratings at all but well.
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I knew it was up to you that Winter is here now! It’s sooo cold, I hope you’ll be thinking a lot about spring to make that appear sooner now! Hihi, now you have to work your way up.. I have already showed both hands and my upper body. Never my face though, I’m sure a lot of people still hope every time but it’s never going to happen :-). I hate to think what I’m going to do if I ever meet an author though, I’ll want a picture of the both of us then but can’t show anyone :-).
Ah about the stars-issue.. I have rounded up and down. Same as Jonetta, if I really want people to read it, I give it 5 stars. There are already so many 4 stars in the world so they would otherwise miss it among the novels that really deserve 4 stars.
Oh and what did you and Janel get? I don’t know who’s behind the other names but I sure recognised her 🙂
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Hm, I don’t know. I’ve shown my left hand and my right hand and I think I’ve reached my limit of showing body parts 😂
I’ll be showing the books the annoying one got me in my next wrap up. They arrived yesterday!
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I go up. Reason is that half point is for some minor things that bothered me but it might not be issue for other or could easily get unnoticed. That’s why I’ll round it up. But as I noticed/ felt it I would give it 4.5.
This rounding up and down is really painful. If you go down it feels unfair (why to cut that another half star without reason!!).
Honestly there should be some way to add that half star on Goodreads and Amazon or wherever we have to rate book.
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I absolutely agree with you!
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Love this post! I think it’s the weather, when it’s so cold it automatically puts some people in a bad mood! I think we’ve discussed star ratings at length 😂 and round down, this isn’t school 🤣.
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Could be because my mood hasn’t exactly improved! 🤣
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Ahhh hope you’re feeling a bit better, I’m the same I’ve been super stressed recently however a recent trip away to see a starling murmuration worked wonders! Re: the stars. I DO give half stars and it’s usually when I can’t decide between a 3 or a 4. It’s not quite a 4 but better than a 3 if that makes any sense? 😕😂
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I saw that! Fantastic picture too!
And I totally understand what you mean about the half stars. But Goodreads, Amazon and Netgalley don’t allow you to use them. They so should!
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I always round up because rounding down seems mean. But I always say as the last line of my review that I’ve rounded up, so if anyone reads all the way to the bottom they’ll know. And if they don’t, well, serves them right if they get misled… 😉
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I put it at the top of my review on sites like Goodreads for all those lazy people who don’t read everything 😉
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You always have such great novels on your blog. I don’t like the star ratings either. I think it should be something like, I loved it because…., I didn’t care for it because…., if you like …… you might like this novel. Make a person read the review for what the novel is, not because it has so many stars.
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Thank you! Now if only I had the time to actually read them all, that’d be a great help! 😄
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Great post, Eva. On star ratings, i only give full ones. I guess the half ones don’t make much sense to me because you can’t really use them on goodreads. However, I wish they had that option because some books are great, 4.5 great but not 5 stars because of probably 1 or 2 things.
Have a fab week.
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I agree. They should most definitely have that as an option! Especially because I kind of feel that the Goodreads people aren’t the ones who necessarily read an entire review and focus a lot more on the ratings?
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