Fans of Interracial Romance discussion

Hi Alexandria, I remember you. Honestly I don't pay that much attention to shelf names by themselves. An excessive amount of comments under the first couple of reviews will attract my attention. Though I might waste time watching an epic Goodreads train wreck. In the end, my personal Goodreads friends and opinions of group member with similar ratings styles sway my decision to check out a book more than anything. I don't care if a book has an average 5 or 1 star rating, if my book buddies love or hate is my deciding factor.

Well, first off I'm glad that you have decided to rejoin us here in the I/R section. :) I guess I'm saying welcome back. :)

I personally look at the 1 or 2 star reviews to see why a person didn't like it, and will discount it if it doesn't say anything pertaining to the book. I like to seperate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. If the plot that they are describing doesn't gel with what I want to read then I won't buy it, but I also weigh the positives versus the negatives.

I usually will read a book that sounds interesting to me regardless of the shelf names/ ratings given by my goodreads friends/ gr community. I do feel that here on goodreads there's a little bit of that "when in Rome" mentality when it comes to ratings and such. So, I prefer to read and rate for myself.

The only time I pay attention to shelf names is when I am unsure about the book or the blurb is not very helpful. Sometimes seeing how people shelve gives a better idea of what is in the book.

If I do see one or more of my GR friends have shelved a book based on author behavior, I'll look into it more. If it is just a personal beef, then I ignore it. If there seems to be a pattern of behavior, though or if the author has exhibited behaviors that I feel are distasteful (racist or homophobic blog posts, harassing readers, getting mad at negative reviews etc.) then I won't read them.

But for the most part, I make up my mind based on actual reviews -- both negative or positive. But I do have to admit, I get very suspicious if I only see positive reviews. There is not a book in the world that everybody likes enough to give only 4 and 5 stars.

Tina wrote: "The only time I pay attention to shelf names is when I am unsure about the book or the blurb is not very helpful. Sometimes seeing how people shelve gives a better idea of what is in the book.

If ..."

You're right Tina. That's why I started looking at the 1or 2 stars to see why it varied from everyone else's if it had 100 4 or 5 star reviews.

✿Michelle✿ wrote: "I usually will read a book that sounds interesting to me regardless of the shelf names/ ratings given by my goodreads friends/ gr community. I do feel that here on goodreads there's a little bit o..."

Michelle, there have been a couple of times a bad review made me HAVE TO read it for myself. I never would have bought and read that horrible dino-erotica book if the reviews weren't so hilarious, descriptive, and snarky. LOL

It's not just my friend's rating for a particular book that sways me. It's the friends that seem to share my thought process, after hitting the "compare books" button. By the way, my friends can talk me into books a lot faster than talking me out of them. See for reference.

Paganalexandria **wicked juices bubbling over** wrote: "✿Michelle✿ wrote: "I usually will read a book that sounds interesting to me regardless of the shelf names/ ratings given by my goodreads friends/ gr community. I do feel that here on goodreads the..."

Nah, I can't do it Pagan! If a book is truly bad, I just can't. Sometimes I may want to, but I particularly don't want to spend the money on the book when I can buy something I truly want to read. I'm too cheap. :)

You're welcome. :)

Paganalexandria **wicked juices bubbling over** wrote: "✿Michelle✿ wrote: "I usually will read a book that sounds interesting to me regardless of the shelf names/ ratings given by my goodreads friends/ gr community. I do feel that here on goodreads the..."

Holy Cow! You read the Dino Erotica book? You are a stronger woman than me!

Hi, I tend to read the 1 and 2 star reviews first to see if there is a pattern. I almost never read the bookshelf names because people can be so unkind. Then I read the sample. If I am hooked by the sample, I'll buy it regardless of negative reviews. If I am still unsure, I'll place it on my wishlist and think about it for a few weeks, check back to see if there are additional reviews added, check the blogs I follow to see if the book has been mentioned. And then sometimes I just take the plunge and buy the book and hope for the best.

I agree- I base my decision on the few reviews, the description of the book and also on the sample. I am generally more willing to buy a book if the sample entices me, even if the reviews are negative.

Alexandria wrote: "Hi everyone,

its been awhile.
Anyway, my question to all the wonderful IR readers out there is this;

if you see a book with bad reviewers will that deter you from buying a book by that author.
..."

Nope, opinions are subjective. If I like the description and the synopsis/sample pulls me in then I'll give it a go. The only thing that will turn me off is if a comment says something to the effect that the book was unedited (or seems to be badly edited) and others concur. I don't have time for horrendous grammar and misspelled words.

Alexandria wrote: "Hi everyone,

its been awhile.
Anyway, my question to all the wonderful IR readers out there is this;

if you see a book with bad reviewers will that deter you from buying a book by that author.
..."



It depends on the proportion of bad to good reviews... As we all know, there are trolls lurking on Amazon (& probably GR as well, LOL!), but as "Lover-of-Good-Books" stated, "opinions are subjective.."
For example with Latrivia Nelson, horrendous editing aside, I love: .. Now some people may not feel the same, but I like those books and could read them over and over again...

Hmm if I see a consistent theme in each review then I will take those opinions into consideration. I recently read a book that had really bad reviews. REALLLYYYY bad lol but I read it anyways. Thank goodness it was just a borrowed book. When I see that there is just very limited bad reviews I go off of other cues to see if I want to read the book or not.

I never allow negative reviews deter my decision whether or not to invest in a book. What other readers think about a story maybe all together different from mine. One of my favorite books that I love to go pull off the book shelf and read over and over received two stars from another author if I would have let that deter my decision to buy that book I would have really missed out on an awesome read.

I always read negative reviews (because I find them funny) and then read about two great reviews like 5 stars and maybe two 4 stars. I've always done this same with Netflix movies. Much like Netflix I ALWAYS end up liking the "negative review" books.

I do not let people opinions about a book determine if I will read or not read a book.

I've decided not to read books based on the reviews of people I trust and historic views about the author. I will never read anything by AYN RAND, but I know more about her life and her views than many of the people who quote her books. I also skipped on the whole 50 Shades series. People kept suggesting it to me, but I'm not into erotica or BDSM stories. I thought about reading it, so I did a little research. Once I learned that the story was essentially copied from a fan-fiction community, I didn't want to support the author at all.