Rating a book you haven't read

[Kathleen]

What's with people assigning ratings to books that haven't even been released yet...to anyone? Pisses me off to no end. Case in point, Fighting Instinct (L'Ange #2) by Mary Calmes, rated two stars with no review. The book will be release next month, and it doesn't appear that said reviewer magically got her hands on an ARC. /rant

[Gabriella]

I know how you feel. I hate that too and I see it happening more often lately.
It's neither fair to the author nor us other readers. I wish there was a way to prevent rating books before their release dates.

[Marron]

In this case, I'm not sure if the rating was intentional? The user who rated Fighting Instinct seems to be a new member on goodreads and it might have been a mistake.

Still, I agree that rating a book before it's been released is stupid. However, I think that doesn't apply to negative ratings only. I've also seen books getting a 5-star-rating before their release date.

If you haven't read the book, don't rate 'em. Simple as that.

(Exceptions to the whole read-before-the-release-date are, of course, possible. *coughs* lucky beta readers *coughs*)