Writing an honest book review

Any new writer, and very likely their readers, knows that a new book lives or dies on the strength of its readers' reviews on sites such as GoodReads, Smashwords, Kobo and Amazon. It's a fierce market out there, with every woman and her werewolf vying to find their audience.

But for said readers, it can be tough deciding what to write - especially if you're not used to writing reviews.

A good review isn't just a star rating, although that's pretty damn important. It's about telling readers WHY you liked (or didn't like) it. So here are three things you can include in your review to help other readers figure out if the book you're reviewing would appeal to them.

1) A sentence on what the book is about. This could be as simple as 'Werewolves in New Zealand, who's ever heard of such a thing?' (well, it would have been slightly more original if it hadn't been for that pesky Taika Waititi getting in first, but never mind that. When the first draft was written in 2001 it was pretty damned original).

2) Whether or not the book lived up to your expectations. It might go something like, 'As far as werewolf books go, this one was all about werewolves, and that totally lived up to my expectation that it would be about werewolves.'. Probably not that, but like that.

3) Conclude with whether or not you'd recommend it, and for who. For instance, 'I would recommend this book for anyone who loves werewolf books and New Zealand, since there's a lot of both in this book'. Again, probably not that. But like that. But not that.

Thanks again for choosing to place a review - your support means everything to me, and to every new and established writer out there.

Kaia.