The Ultimate Guide to Writing Engaging Book Reviews

Last updated on 19 April 2023

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So you’re a book blogger? Or you’re a lifestyle blogger wanting to add reviews to your posting schedule? Amazing! As a big bookworm myself, this is exciting news. But there is a knack for writing engaging book reviews. And this is what we’re going to look at in this post.

💡 Psst: You’ll wanna hang around because I have a surprise for you at the end!

What is a book review?

It may seem silly to be asking this question in a post that is about book reviews, to someone who already knows what a book review is (I assume). But here’s the thing: to do anything well, we need to know what it is we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Right? Right.

So humour me for a moment.

A book review (in our case, one in blog post form) is an evaluation of sorts, of a book. It’s written by someone who has read the book and is now providing some overview of what the book is about, and comments on things such as style, themes, characters, settings, plot and more.

Book reviews often (perhaps always) contain some personal opinions, as well as more professional and well-thought-out sections that are generally taken to be common knowledge (we’ll get into this soon, but as a quick example: spelling and grammar fall into the latter category, while my preference for first-person narration falls into the former).

What is a book review NOT?

A reader-turned-writer simply vomiting up their thoughts in a haphazard way, not taking into account anything more than their own opinions. This might be a harsh call to make, but I do believe that every book has its pros and cons, and every reader comes to that book in a different space, from a different place, and with a unique perspective.

This means when it comes to writing engaging book reviews, we can share our personal opinion, absolutely, but spitting tax about a book without offering up any reason why or providing any thought behind it is not a book review. That’s an opinion piece, at best.

And we’re not talking about those today.

Why do people read book reviews?

I don’t know about you, and I know that I can’t speak for all people when I write this, but I like to read book reviews for several reasons:

1. To gauge what kind of book this is
2. To figure out if it might be something that I would pick up or buy
3. To hear different perspectives from other readers
4. To learn from those who are perhaps closer to the topic than I am

And I’m sure you can list some more reasons, or you have completely different ones.

When I’m reading a book review I want to know a few things:

• Is this book in a genre that I usually pick up?
• Is the author one I have read before?
• Are the themes in the book ones that I am okay reading about?
• What triggers are there in the book that I should be aware of?
• Is this like any other books that I have read in the past?
• Does this writer or blogger recommend the book, or do they have some worries about it?

None of these things on their own is going to sway my decision to read the book in question, but they are all contributing factors to whether I pick up a novel or not. This means when it comes to writing my own book reviews, they’re really helpful questions and topics and themes to have in mind.

Parts of a Book Review

You could just launch straight into your book review for your blog, but it’s a really good idea to have some sort of structure and to have an idea of what sections you should include.

Of course, every book review is going to be a bit different, and you may not need to comment on lots of these, but here’s a list of the sections that I try to write about when I write my own book reviews.

• Details of the book, including a brief synopsis
• Introduction to your book review
• The review itself
  • Plot of the story
  • Setting of the story
  • Characters – main and minor
  • Themes of the story
  • Tropes
  • Writing style of the author
  • Your thoughts on the book (if not mentioned in the previous sections)
• Other works from the author
• Where to find the author and/or the book online

In order to write an engaging book review that people are going to stick around for, you need to talk about a good range of these bookish aspects, if not all. Not every book will call for comments on all these things, but a lot of them will.

Quick fire tips for writing engaging book reviews

1. Remember who you’re writing for
2. Include as many details as you can
3. Offer up your opinion in a way that is helpful and not just spitting out random stuff

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Engaging Book Reviews

I’ve been writing book reviews since 2010, and working with publishing companies reviewing books for them since 2015. Safe to say, I’ve written a LOT of book reviews in my time. Just take a gander at some on the blog!

I decided to take all the things that I’ve learnt over the years and create this guide for book bloggers on how to write a captivating book review so that you can grow your blog, have your readers coming back for your next book review, and inspire others to pick up the books you love.

In this 77-page guide, you’ll learn

• The basics of writing a really good fiction book review
• All those elements we looked at and how to write them
• How to write a controversial opinion without slamming the author
• How to write for children’s fiction
• The additional things you should think about when it comes to writing book reviews
• and more!

There are even three BONUSES in this guide

• 2 x example book reviews with annotations
• a book review outline that you can follow to write your own book reviews
• a list of epic tools that I recommend checking out

Are you ready to write engaging book reviews and grow your blog? This is an instant download in PDF form, which means when you grab it, you’ll get immediate access to the guide. This means you can start writing your epic book reviews, straight away! 🥳

NOTE: This guide has been designed for FICTION book reviews, however, you can apply some of what is in the guide for non-fiction books. Just bear that in mind: it’s designed for fiction books and stories.

Get started writing engaging book reviews today!

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Disclaimer: You’ll find part of this blog post within the guide (it’s like a sneak peek!) as a bit of an introduction before we dive into the nitty gritty. This means you’ll definitely wanna get your hands on it! 😉