Writing a Review

Cookbooker has two separate review systems: cookbook reviews and recipe reviews. They work independently and appear in different places.

Cookbook reviews

A cookbook review is your overall assessment of a book — not a specific recipe. It includes a star rating (1–5) and a written comment.

1. Go to the cookbook's page.
2. Click Write a review (you must be logged in and have the book on your shelf).
3. Choose a star rating and write your review.
4. Submit — your review will appear on the cookbook page publicly.

You can edit or delete your review at any time from the cookbook page or your bookshelf.

Recipe reviews

A recipe review is attached to a specific recipe within a cookbook. It includes a rating, notes, and optionally a photo. See Adding a recipe for the full process.

Ratings and reviews — what's the difference?

Your bookshelf stores a shelf rating for each cookbook — a simple 1–5 score. This is separate from your written cookbook review, although the two are kept in sync: when you write or update a review, your shelf rating updates to match.

This means you can rate a cookbook on your shelf without writing a full review, and the rating will be there waiting as a pre-filled default when you do decide to write one.

Are my reviews public?

Yes — cookbook and recipe reviews are public by default and visible to other members. Reviews imported from LibraryThing or Goodreads are only added to the site if you explicitly consent during the import process.