I’m still trying to work out how to drive this bloody wordpress. I’ve created a new page at the top for ‘Reviews’ and I want to have pages linked off that, for each review I write. Not so easy it seems but I shall prevail. Somehow.
The last couple of days I’ve read two blog posts that I thought were pertinent to the question I am wrangling with in my long, s-l-o-w lead-up to actually posting a review here: do you write a bad review? (Or more to the point, do you write an honest review?) Kristen Lamb tackles this question quite well, and it is helpful to read and consider the issues she has with writing a negative review.
The first post was called The Three NEVERs of Social Media looking at some dos and don’ts. Then it seemed that post sparked a follow-up piece entitled Should Authors Write Bad Book Reviews?
I think the key word here is ‘authors’, and Kristen acknowledges this. Some people say if they can’t give 5 stars then they won’t review a book. I don’t agree with this. Even with a book I adore, from a masterful, much-admired author, I might have something to say that’s a bit critique-y. Nothing is perfect, right?
One way of avoiding strife might be to only review books from overseas authors, but then that completely cuts out local writers, not a good look, not good for the industry here and not good for a person who writes themselves and who in the future would be hoping for reviews on their books.
Oh what a tangled web.
JENNY ACKLAND AUTHOR 
And Part 3 from Kristen Lamb here: http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/is-it-fair-for-authors-to-review-other-authors-do-we-ruin-the-magic/
I avoid writing reviews – only because I’m really not good at them. I think you either have that skill or you don’t 😉