In case you aren’t familiar with it, Kindle Unlimited is a monthly subscription service through Amazon.
They just increased the monthly fee from $9.99 to $11.99 a month. For that price you get access to their KU library which contains over 4 million titles.
There’s no limit on how many books you can read a month. You are only allowed 20 checkouts at one time though. Once you’ve hit that you’re simply prompted to return a book if you’d like to borrow another.
You don’t need to own a kindle reading device to use this service. There’s a free kindle app that allows you to read on your phone or tablet.
A one month free trial option is usually available if you’d like to try this subscription out yourself!
My Past with KU
Two years ago I wrote a post, Is Kindle Unlimited Right for Your Reading Life?
At that time a regular subscription wasn’t right for my reading life. There weren’t enough books that truly interested me and I had a difficult time finding recommendations for what to read.
At the time I also wasn’t really reading any indie authors. There were plenty of traditionally published books filling my tbr. I found myself not using the subscription enough to get my money’s worth, giving library books with their due dates priority instead.
KU is something I’ve still dabbled with in the past two years. Usually when there have been great deals on the subscription – like 3 months for 99 cents a month.
I most recently signed up again last December when there were several holiday books I was interested in featured in the catalog (like Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison and A Cross-Country Christmas by Courtney Walsh).
And again after my holiday reading, it pretty much sat there unused.
Until I decided to use it or lose it in the last month of my subscription. I added a KU section to my summer tbr to make it happen. The results were pretty awesome!
The Start of My Love Affair with Kindle Unlimited
In the past couple of months my reading tastes have change and I’ve found myself mostly wanting to read romance.
After my IAD obsession in April, I turned to Booktube – where I’ve gotten reading recommendations before – but this time I discovered the amazing world of romance book tube channels!
Many of whom read voraciously on Kindle Unlimited every month and have videos exclusively devoted to recommending KU books, authors, and series.
I have since realized just how many new-to-me authors are on Kindle Unlimited. Many of them indie or self-published authors writing all sorts of romance subgenres and tropes that I’ve never tried reading before.
The romance book tube recommendations seem endless and all encompassing from sports to M/M to dark serial killer romance to alien to sapphic to romantic suspense to small town cowboy romances!
That’s just to name a few. There are romance tropes I didn’t even know existed.
When you know where to begin, KU is an amazing way to try new authors and series!
My Favorite Romance Booktubers for KU Reading Recommendations:
In case you’re facing a similar issue with where to begin reading in KU, here’s a list of my favorite romance book tubers.
The Book Refuge
Jenn regularly shares recs for tropes I never knew existed and had to google – carefully 😂 She doesn’t shy away from dark or taboo subgenres. She has dedicated KU videos. I linked a couple recent ones below but there are a lot of KU books scattered throughout her weekly wrap ups and trope specific videos!
PeaceLoveBooksxo
I love Jessica’s positivity and how much she gravitates toward small town romance too! She talks fast keeping her videos short and sweet. She has a ton of recommendation videos – sometimes KU specific – and shares a mid month and end of the month review wrap up.
- Underrated Romances on Kindle Unlimited
- Romances to Read on Kindle Unlimited
- I’m Obsessed with these Romances on Kindle Unlimited
Ava’s Romance Books
Ava shares all kinds of romance reviews and recommendations but so far I especially love her alien romance videos – many of which are available on KU! She has a couple guides to Ruby Dixon (author of Ice Planet Barbarians) as well.
Lacey Book Lovers
I particularly love Lacey’s videos where she recommends Kindle Unlimited romances with the read and listen for free option!
Chandler Ainsley
This is one of the more critical romance review channels but sometimes I’m in the mood for a little snark, which Chandler delivers. She occasionally does KU reading vlogs where she reads certain books for the week. She also has tier ranking videos for the Kindle Unlimited books she reads each year.
- Tier Ranking 66 Romance I Read this Year | Kindle Unlimited
- 6 Underrated Kindle Unlimited Romance Recommendations
- I Can’t Believe I Found 2 New 5 Star Favorites | Kindle Unlimited
Honorable Mentions if You’re Looking For More Amazing KU Romance Sources!
- Crystal @ Crystal’s Bookish Life (especially for historical)
- Cheyenne @ That Tall Book Girl
- Madison @ Madison Fox (she’s hilarious!)
- Sam @ Sam Reads a Little
- Tori @ Novel Life
KU Reading Plans
As you can see I won’t be running out of KU recommendations to check out any time soon.
Even more importantly they are proving spot on. Some are stealing my heart – I’m looking at you, Elsie Silver!
So I went ahead and treated myself to a 2 year subscription!
Two years because Amazon had just announced that price increase for the monthly subscription rate (from $9.99 to $11.99) but they gave an option to pay ahead locking in at the lower rate. There was a slight savings for purchasing the 2 year subscription at once so I went with that.
I know my reading each month will fluctuate but my goal is to average at least 3 kindle unlimited books a month. Some months I might read 10 while another I might not read any because I’m focusing on library books.
That’s totally ok with me. I just don’t want to lose momentum and then forget about the books sitting there for too long. I’d like it to even out over the long run.
Plus this will bring a lot more self-published authors onto my radar and into my reading choices!
To keep track of this, I dedicated a list in my reading journal. I’m hoping to share a post about that journal soon. Now I just have to decide how I’ll count my hybrid reads.
Kindle Unlimited Blog Content
Another way I’d like to stay on top of using this subscription is sharing my reading journey here.
Since I’m someone who has struggled to find Kindle Unlimited recommendations in the past, I’m excited to highlight what I’m reading on there.
In addition to sharing book reviews of what I’m currently reading, I’m planning to do a regular post featuring what’s in my KU library.
If I’m reading a ton, this might be a monthly feature, but I think every other month is more likely.
I’m hoping that will help me stay fresh with my selections. Either reading them or swapping them out for something new to discover!
A Quick Audiobook Tip!
This is for my fellow audiobook lovers out there.
When you check a book out on KU it counts the ebook as owned. This often gives you a discounted price for purchasing the audiobook – usually around $7.49.
I still prefer to use the library whenever possible for my audiobook pairings but that’s a pretty nice feature for avid audible listeners.
Do you have Kindle Unlimited? Who are some of your favorite authors in the catalog?
2 responses to “The Start of My Love Affair with Kindle Unlimited”
It was definitely hard for me when I started on KU because yeah you’ve never heard of any of the indie authors and there are tons I DNF, but as you start finding authors you like I feel like it definitely gives better and better recommendations. Also I used to only read modern traditional romance, but now I’ve branched out and I’m down the rabbit hole 🤣
I can see that! I’m thrilled to finally be joining you in that rabbit hole! 😂