When good becomes bad

So I recently read a book…it was good. It was not the absolute best book I have ever read in my entire life, but it was good. 3 stars. Now as I began to write my review I got to thinking, and then took that thinking to a few friends. When did 3 stars become a bad thing? Most of the books we read in our lifetime will be 3 stars and there is nothing wrong with that. Now I looked into this phenomenon on google. What I found were people saying to use caution when posting a 3 star review because the author may take it as a bad review and try to enact payback. 
It just amazes me that good has become bad. I guess all those critiques in all of my art classes over the years paid off. I know how to take criticism and how to use it to my advantage. 


Side note: This is pertaining to authors reviewing authors.So even though I thought the book was ok, good, average, I am hesitant to post. I decided that on my blog I will only post a review if I find the book above average (4 stars) or FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC (5 stars.) On goodreads I will star the book no matter what the rating but I will not leave an actual review to cover my own butt. If I know the author and feel my critique might help them grow as a writer than I will contact them.
Also, I think 5 stars are being thrown around like its bread at a duck pond. I've been going back through my goodreads shelf and updating my reviews. Something I noticed I personally am doing is giving a review based on the author not the book. There is a particular vampire series that the 5th book in the series just sucked wild hairy monkey balls. It was not up to par with the rest in the series. Why did I give it a 4 star review?

Side note: I personally will look over a 5 star review for a 4 star one when browsing for books. I've found the 4 star ones are more honest about the book than the glowing 5 star “the author is the absolute best author in the history of literature” reviews. I also don't trust the reviews of a book that don't have any 2 stars or below. Did the author remove them? Are all the reviews from friends of the author? A variety of ratings gives the book a most honest look to it. 
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Published on May 30, 2014 06:49
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