Reviewing Kindle Unlimited

I don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m a super bookworm. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved curling up with a good book and speeding through it like a thirsty man gulping down a glass of water. When I would go on vacation, my suitcase and carry-on would be weighed down with a half dozen books and I’d always have that fear of running out of reading material gnawing at the back of my mind.

When I got my first Kindle a few years ago, it CHANGED MY LIFE. I remember going on my first trip with it and how amazing it was to just download a few books and NOT fill up my entire suitcase with paper. When I upgraded to the Kindle Fire, it was even better… not only could I read a zillion books, I also could use Netflix to binge watch TV shows and movies!

My only problem with reading on my Kindle is that the cost of books added up really quickly. Since I never really paid with ‘real’ money and it just got instantly charged to my credit card, I never really knew how much I was spending. I would try to keep my costs down by downloading a ton of the books in the free section, but as soon as I read one book I’d discover that there were 3 more to finish the series and cha-ching, cha-ching I’d have to read them all. Of course. I also looked in to library borrowing options for my Kindle, but had a hard time finding books I actually wanted to read (that I didn’t have to wait for).

A few months ago I heard about Kindle Unlimited – a service through Amazon where you pay a $9.99 monthly fee (you can cancel any time) and you can read as much as you want, choosing from over 700,000 titles. Here’s a quick FAQ page on the program if you are interested in checking it out. Since I don’t always have a ton of time to read nowadays, I wasn’t sure if I’d get my money’s worth of the service. They offer one month free though, so I decided to try it out and keep track of every book I read and how much I would have spent.

I signed up for the service on April 9th and here is what I read in my first 30 days:

Kindle unlimited image

I read The PMS Club, 11 books in the A Shade of Vampire Series, Fake it Til You Make it, 3 books in the Lacy Luzzi Mystery series, and Sunbaked. Oh, and don’t judge my appetite for chick lit and vampire books — this momma needs her escape!

The total cost of everything if I had not been using Kindle Unlimited would have been: $58.83. If I had paid the $9.99 monthly fee, I would have saved $48.84!

Do I think Kindle Unlimited will work for everyone?
Nope.

If you are picky about your books and/or only want to read brand-new best sellers, this probably isn’t the best fit for you. However, if you’re like me and you’re open to reading a little bit of everything, you might want to try it out for your free month and see if it makes sense. I LOVED being able to read whatever I wanted without worrying about my book budget getting totally out of control and I will definitely be keeping my Kindle Unlimited subscription, at least through the summer.

If you are interested in the free trial, you can find it here: Sign up for a Kindle Unlimited Free Trial.

Have you tried Kindle Unlimited? Do you feel like you got your money’s worth? What is your genre weakness when it comes to books?

 

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. I tried out Amazon Unlimited on my own and will be paying the $9.99 monthly fee myself. I do have an Amazon link in this post though, so I must include this: Pocketful of Joules is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

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3 thoughts on “Reviewing Kindle Unlimited”

  1. I just can’t let go of actual BOOKS. The kind you hold in your hands or balance somewhere, ones that you have to physically turn pages. I also like the way books smell. I’m not ready to Kindle yet.

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