I try to be balanced in my reviews and hold off on ranting negatively about books, but I do struggle with how to introduce criticism in my writing. I’ve adopted “at times” as a phrase to introduce criticism in my writing. Does it lighten the affect of the 3* or 2* review? I have used it countless times. At times the pacing, the characters, the descriptions, the execution…
Some of my reviews are done at lists, and for those, I use “Things I loved” and “Things That Were Ok” as my headings. I have also used the phrase, “My criticism lies in…”
Paul's Picks 
Humm, interesting. I’m not sure I have a phrase that I use to delve into negatives, but now I’m curious and I want to go back and read some reviews to see!
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I searched the phrase… oh, boy. More times than I can count. I need to mix it up a bit.
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I often introduce them with “However… but…” and often found it redundant but can’t help it hahah
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Ha! We all seem to get in patterns, but it certainly makes it easier for me to write.
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I tend to be posititve, balancing good with not so good, but I won’t sugar coiat something if it really bugs me. Also, since when were three star reviews bad?
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I’m stuck in teacher mode where a 5 is an A and a 4 is a B. Ha!
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I still measure my words carefully when introducing criticism, but probably not as much as before, lol! If a negative aspect isn’t a big deal and only affects a small part of the book, then I think “at times” is perfectly fine though. But for books that really frustrate me, I don’t hold back 😛
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Ha!!
I’m becoming a bit more lax with my words also. Especially if I’m in a bad mood, ha!
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Personally, I hate discouraging anyone from reading anything, so I try to be as objective as possible so, when I wasn’t a fan of something, I prefer to use a compliment sandwich where I couch what I didn’t like between what I thought was done well or at least satisfactorily. I also do a brief wrap up paragraph where I try to focus more on the good stuff. I like to think it softens the blow, especially when I read a book at the author’s request, but authors are often sensitive souls, so it’s not easy.
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I agree. My last line (kinda a wrap up) is always positive. Just to focus on the good parts.
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Interesting question! I like how you often make us think about our blogging habits… 🙂
Thinking about it, I believe my more often used word is “sadly”, probably as a result of disappointment.
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Thanks!
‘Sadly’ is a good way of introducing it.
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I tend to say ‘however’… but when I have criticism I don’t hold back! I just try to be respectful at the same time 😉
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I try too. To stay away from the big rant is something I’ve tried to do even if something really bugs me.
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