I know that I have mentioned going to Amazon, Netflix, and other web sites to read reviews by people just like you and me. I spend time looking up an author before I start reading his\/her series, and what better place to get peoples’ opinions than those types of sites? Amazon and Netflix reviews help me make decisions on both books and movies. (As well as several blogs which provide reviews that I trust. I also visit the author’s website, and do a general website search for the author before I decide whether or not I want to "invest my time" reading a new author.)<\/p>\n
I get cozy mystery author recommendations from the site’s viewers from time to time, and some of the authors who have been recommended, well, I just can’t believe I missed them! When I started this site, I only included authors who I had read, or authors who came recommended by my cozy mystery reading friends. Now, though, I have been very lucky to have gotten some really great author additions from the site’s viewers. Authors who, after I take a look at, look like authors I will enjoy spending time with…<\/p>\n
But… be FOREWARNED…<\/p>\n
Once you have looked at a lot of reviews, you will possibly find a pattern. By this, I mean, you might see the same reviewers touting almost every book that you look up! I know this sounds impossible…. but, let me assure you, it happens. <\/p>\n
There is one particular reviewer who comes to mind… Someone whose name I won’t reveal, but if I see the name with a review, I just skip right on to the next review. This particular reviewer has, if I am able to do the math right…. well over 14,000 reviews on Amazon. That’s a whole lot of books, and a whole lot of reviews! I’m OK with someone reading that many books… I actually think it’s great! But it seems to me (and a few of my friends) that almost every review this particular person has posted for a book has received a five (out of five) star rating. I say "almost every," since I have a seen a very small percentage of four star ratings…. I consider the four star rating from this particular reviewer to be the kiss of death for that book! <\/strong><\/p>\n The nice thing, of course, is that the reviewer is putting a positive spin on the books, which will help get the book into more people’s hands. (And remember what Thumper’s mom said about saying only positive things!) The bad thing (for me, anyway) is that when I look at reviews, I hope to glean some information that will be useful to me. I don’t want a sugar-coated look at a book… ("Just the facts, ma’am.") I can’t believe that almost every book this reviewer has read deserves a five star rating. And, I can honestly say that I have never seen this reviewer give a three star rating. But possibly, the author of a book garnering a three star review from that reviewer would have the review pulled off of the site immediately… I certainly would! <\/p>\n I realize that everyone has different tastes in their reading likes and dislikes, but I have seen some five star ratings from this reviewer on books I simply couldn’t recommend to anyone! If four stars is the lowest I have seen this reviewer give, then imagine the schlock-of-a-book the three star rating books must be… if there are actually any three star ratings. (Of course, I haven’t seen every review by this person, so I could be wrong… there might just be a three star tucked in every once in a while.<\/p>\n Anyway… <\/p>\n You will continue to hear me talk about "my reviews" that I use, but remember, even after I read the reviews, I use a little common sense in making my decision to either get a book\/movie, or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I know that I have mentioned going to Amazon, Netflix, and other web sites to read reviews by people just like you and me. I spend time looking up an author before I start reading his\/her series, and what better place to get peoples’ opinions than those types of sites? Amazon and Netflix reviews help me make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,9,12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-authors","7":"category-books","8":"category-cozy-mystery-administrators-observations","9":"entry","10":"override"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pI0sr-1Q","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cozy-mystery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}