What I like in a review:
- Information about the perspective (first person, third person) - I have trouble with first-person shifting perspective, no matter how well it's written, so it's nice to avoid it when possible. It's hard to get that info from a sample if the sample ends before the perspective shifts to another person.
- Information about structure - Is the story told in a non-linear fashion, etc.
What I don't like in a review:
- When someone can't objectively review a book in a genre they already know they don't like. I may have worded that badly, because obviously reviews are opinions, but I think most people know what I mean. It's fine to express distaste of the subject matter, but when someone goes on and on about how awful a book was because of it, with no regard for the actual writing, I really wonder why they even read it. It's one thing if they had no reason to expect a sex extravaganza in the middle of a sci-fi thriller, but if the title is Alien Orgy 3, well, sorry but they knew going in that this probably would not be a book they'd enjoy.
- A 3-star or less review that starts with "*****SPOILER WARNING****" Seriously? This just happened to me on Amazon. I was looking at reviews of a book. It had all 4- and 5-star reviews except one 2-star review. I wanted to see the reason, but it started with a spoiler warning. So not helpful to me at all unless I want to ruin things for myself by reading it.