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Reading only short stories (perhaps you meant "excerpt"?) from a novel does not constitute a review of a book - in my opinion. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but I would want to see a review of the entire work, rather than a pat-on-the-back for a perceived portion of the work.
As Speakingtohe mentions, a review constitutes a considered critical examination of the work in question, one that probes into content, aesthetics, language, theoretical stance, and audience in order to examine the weaknesses and strengths of a story, and to tell the potential reader what works and does not work for the reviewer.
A review of only a short story - if packaged as only one story (and there are a number of these now on Amazon) - would be most useful to the author and reader, as long as the review digs into areas which will shed understanding upon the story.
As well, a reviewer brings his or her own sensibility to a work being critiqued, along with the requisite tools to accomplish this critical evaluation of a text.
Don
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