Book of the Month
reviews and complaints

I never leave reviews for anything, but I had to write a review for BOTM! I love this subscription service so much, and the ease of being able to get a monthly book and take months off with no questions asked is amazing. Every book I have gotten so far has been incredible!

They also have incredible customer service! I have now had 2 monthly books in the 6 months I’ve been a member not be delivered (got lost in the mail, issues with moving addresses, etc) and both times they have gotten back to me and sent a replacement in an incredibly timely fashion! I can’t recommend this service enough, and can’t wait to see next months books :)

What a terrible product. I tried to order this as a gift for a parent, not only was the gift “lost in the mail”, but after I got a digital code via email to activate the ordered book was over a week late! What a let-down. The app itself and login is so fragile and buggy that unless you are tech savvy, it is difficult to navigate.

I thought this would be a nice gift for a parent who loves reading, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Order for yourself if you can stomach the poor experience, but I highly recommend NOT getting this as a gift, particularly if the person you are gifting it to does not have 2 phones, a laptop and the patience of contacting their lack-luster support.

BOTM is my favorite thing! I absolutely love being a member. I love staying up to date with what books are coming out every month. I love that I can get brand new titles at such good prices. I also really love their set up - the app makes browsing and shopping so easy! I also appreciate that their selections are often from all different genres. I often end up selecting books I never would have paid attention to if BOTM didn’t introduce me to them. Now, many of my top ten reads of the year come from BOTM. If you are not a member, I highly recommend checking them out! Who doesn’t want monthly happy mail filled with books (and fun book marks)! Five stars, all the thumbs up, infinity happy faces.

A friend recommended BOTM and offered her referral code and I continue to thank her every month. I used to be a huge reader but fell out as life got busier and books were replaced with bills. BOTM offers an amazing selection each month, always at least one book I’m super excited about and it’s so affordable compared to other book buying options - especially for hard cover and occasional early release! There’s no penalty if you miss a month, and you can always add on extra books for low cost! Haven’t found any “gotcha” gimmicks, this service is straight forward and exactly what’s advertised.

Also - their customer service is amazing. I moved and didn’t remember to update my address for my BOTM. Explained the situation and they sent out a new book the next day at no cost - and included a gift!

I love that BOTM has 5 different types of genres to pick from each month. This has really opened up my mind to picking different types of books I normally would not have selected. When you walk into a bookstore there are so many books to choose from it can be overwhelming, BOTM has definitely taken away that factor for me. Honestly, you can’t bet the price of BOTM, buying a book from the bookstore I usually spend $24.00 and up. That gets pricey every month. It’s puts me at ease that I have one flat rate every month. Signing up for BOTM club was the best decision I have made. Not to mention
Customer Service is wonderful. Anytime I have contacted them with a problem they have gotten back to me within hours. They are respectful and kind to customers. I have never had a bad experience.
I absolutely love BOTM club.

There was an incident where my cancellation didn’t go through on my subscription (after my first book) and I didn’t realize it for nine months! But I have had such a fun time using those nine credits to receive books from all sorts of different months, not just the 5-7 options. It’s been such a joy! I’m really glad there was an issue with the cancellation. And that’s coming from someone who is so stingy I won’t pay for ANY subscriptions…like Spotify, Prime, Netflix, art boxes, or things like Wifi… (that’s what family and cafes and library’s are for) so I mean it when I say this is my ONLY subscription and I LOVE IT!

But there is something I wish were different.

When you don’t like a book, you are stuck with it. Ahh I hate this so much! It feels like a waste to gamble $10-17 a month on a book you don’t even know you will like. I started to check out all the books I was interested in buying from the library and read a chapter or two before deciding if it should be added to my box or not. There are two books I did not do that on and I didn’t like them. One I can’t even finish! I wish there was some way readers would be able to give back the books they did not like and trade it in for someone else’s book. Everyone has different tastes in books so some books I do not like that others have really loved! And I love books others did not like. I don’t appreciate how we buy a book to learn we don’t actually like it. For the one book I can’t even finish, I wish there was something I could do. The price is great for a new hard cover book, but the gamble of knowing if you’ll like it or not is hard. Especially when it turns out you hate it so much you can’t even finish.

If there was a way around this, I would give the app and subscription five stars!

My box arrived completely destroyed with the book damaged and dust jacket missing, but their return policy is no refunds for damaged books (they’ll only send a replacement). The book is readable, so why do I need a replacement? I don’t want two of the same book lying around. They also don’t insure their packages so I couldn’t even file a damage claim with USPS.

BOTM is a great idea in principle but they way they do it leaves a lot to be desired.
First: not enough choices each month. This would be fine if I could use my credit to choose an old book, but you can only choose old books as an add-on when choosing a BOTM.
Second: unless you’re a far-left liberal, you will dislike/hate most of the book selections. Hey BOTM- not everyone is a liberal. Maybe put some choices up for the other HALF of America?

I have been a BOTM member for over five years and until recently had no problems. I had my credit card stolen and once I got a new one and tried to update my billing information, the app informed me I had lost all of my benefits (called being a BOTM BFF). When I reached out to ask if the technicality could be fixed, they told me I would have to show another year of loyalty before being restored. Apparently, five years isn’t enough “loyalty” to obtain base level customer service.

They are a very difficult company to deal with.I received a gift subtraction in 2019 and another in 2020. When I finished with the gift subscription of 2019, I chose a bookAnd was told I didn’t have a subscription.I wrote them and gave them my subscription number that I’ve been sent to the person who gave me the gift. I wrote then three times. They denied my subscription.After two or three months, They wrote and acknowledged my subscription. No apologies no nothing. I am very upset with this company.

I’m convinced BOTM uses pigeon’s to deliver their books. It should be called Book of the NEXT month because that’s when you finally receive your books. Slowest delivery and you are almost guaranteed to get books close to the end of the month even when you order on the 1st. The books all have their logo which ruins it for me AND they pick really boring books. Same style every single time. Where’s the variety? Where’s the excitement? And unless you’re a Booktube sponsored person, don’t expect to be reading anytime soon. Not worth the hype or money.

I’ve had to delete and reinstall multiple times. Sometimes it works but mostly it doesn’t.

I wish discussion and bookshelf (rating) was on the app - as it stands now, it’s not super useful

There needs to be a way to ONLY receive notifications related to your subscription. Continual ad notices will drive me to leave.

BOTM is okay, but they need to update bc the notification to write a review - when clicked, still keeps the red 1 there. It’s so annoying. Please update

Very hard to follow BOTM. Sorry. I’m just not following the steps

I did receive 3 book but am confused as to how! Many thanks for your help

Arlene

This app is terrible. It is constantly telling me to update (even though it is) and then it just directs me to the website. The website is so much easier to use.

This is definitely geared toward female readers. There’s nothing wrong with that, but my interests are not represented by their choices. This is probably a good business model if you look at demographics of fiction readers.

If you received BOTM as a gift, like I did, when you download the app it charges you $16 for a membership, even though I still have credits left! I wish I hadn’t downloaded and was just still using through my online account. Very sneaky.

I paid for the annual subscription which lasts me through November this year. I went to preemptively cancel before I forgot and was told that BOTM would take away all my remaining credits and benefits today if I did, despite having months left on my plan.

I’ve never written a review for an app before, but I am so frustrated with this one, I just had to... So far I’ve had this app for about 2 months and it’s prompted me to update at least 7 times or log in via the web browser. The latter has now just become easier. The website has much better functionality than the app, so I’m not even going to bother with it anymore.

This company has been taking my money for years and manipulating me into staying by not letting me use all of my credits and not alerting me when it’s time to choose. So absolutely shady. NOT ONLY THAT but when I go to cancel (which will mean me throwing $300 in the trash) or remove my payment method I get an error message. I just want my money back and to STOP GETTING CHARGED. ALL THESE BOOKS ARE AT YOUR LOCAL GOODWILL.