How We Rate Our Books!

Royal Reviews employs a uniformed rating system to ensure all books are reviewed fairly regardless of genre or format. Our intention is that the top three ratings will all but guarantee you a fantastic read!

aka A Royal Read

This rating is only allocated to novels that all three reviewers have read and awarded a Four and a Half Crowns rating. These are our desert-island, bury-me-with-this-book, don't-sleep-until-its-finished, all-time-favourite reads.

This is the highest rating that can be awarded to a book by an individual reviewer. This book must be considered a top read and can't have any plot problems, slow parts or editing errors. It must also be a book that the reviewer thinks they might read again or wants to keep on their bookshelf forever. The characters of these books take up residence in your mind...and stay there long after you've read the final page!



This rating is awarded to books with very minor editing errors or plot problems. This book must still be a great read that the reviewer enjoys telling others about and doesn't want to put down.

This rating is awarded to books that are great reads that may contain small editing errors and may have one or two sluggish points in the book. This will be the kind of book you look forward to reading but found yourself able to put down when life becomes too busy.




This is for books that were well-written enough to entertain the reviewer but were lacking in either plot, character development or substance. These are possibly the kind of books that are good for a lazy Sunday afternoon but perhaps not the kind that you would be able to recall the plot of months down the track.




This rating is for books that the reviewer felt were very average. They contained major flaws in the narrative that irritated the reader and prevented her from suspending belief and being immersed in the story. Novels awarded this rating would be recommended only to die-hard fans of the author.



These are books that we finished only by sheer determination. A rare rating but the kind of book that makes you wonder what on EARTH the publisher was thinking when they signed the author!



These ares the for DNF's (Did Not Finish). For a reason not necessarily the fault of the author, the reviewer couldn't establish a connection with the story. Books will only be awarded this rating if the reviewer has attempted to read the book on three separate occasions.