The reviews from Heartland are not like those found in other book review sources. Each book is evaluated according to standards laid out in scientifically developed rubrics or evaluation guidelines. Essentially they are given a grade through a quantitative scoring process which examines multiple areas of consideration, i.e., plot, pacing, characterization, emotional content, symbolism, and several others. These scores are added together for an overall numerical score. This drives how many hearts we award the work, which range from one to five hearts. A book must attain three hearts to be included in our newsletter so we don't embarrass publishers or waste your time.
A reviewed title goes through several filters:
* Second, the book is visually inspected upon arrival. If it's what it was purported to be (and some aren't), we read it.
* Finally, it's critiqued.
Many titles drop by the wayside. The ones that score high enough to get into our newsletter are the cream of the crop.
The review narrative focuses on the strongest areas while the heart score indicates how well the book was written overall.
This copywritten process was developed by our chief reviewer, Bob Spear, who spent almost nine years of his twenty-five year career with the military testing and evaluating highly complex military systems and concepts. Many of these tests required him to develop numerically scored evaluations of subjective aspects, such as: "How did the soldiers like working with the new system?" and "How well did the new operational concept work?" He uses this approach in developing his book critiquing guidelines or rubrics. You can read our reviews with the confidence that the reader has truly dug into the book and considered all its aspects.
Because we publish our reviews on the Internet, we try to keep them succinct, generally no more than three hundred words. A brief storyline is mentioned and the balance of the review discusses what is important, unique, and best written by the author. Reading one of our evaluations gives a subscriber a good idea of whether it is worthwhile to read or buy the work. Many bookstore owners, buyers, and acquisition librarians have stated they don't have enough time. These reviews were designed specifically for them in mind.
