The Willoughby Book Club Reviews 

I bought a year's subscription for my partner's 40th birthday as he is notoriously difficult to buy for. I was slightly apprehensive as although he loves reading (and gets through a lot of books!!) he can be quite fussy when it comes to genre. I can happily say that every single book that Willoughby chose were utterly spot on - he has read every one of them with relish, despite some not being ones he would have chosen himself. Each book was completely different and ones he'd not already read (which can be a challenge in itself) and he honestly looked forward to receiving a new one each month. I would 100% recommend Willoughby to both seasoned readers and more reluctant ones - there is definitely something for everybody.

My son bought me a year's subscription and it was the best present! It has been such a pleasure to receive a book through the letterbox every month for the last year. It has been a gift every few weeks that's brought great pleasure.
I received one book that I had already read and when I contacted the team to let them know, they immediately sent me a replacement. I let them know the other books I had on my shelf so I got no more duplicates. That gave them an idea of my taste and they used it to help choose great books. The Willoughby selectors have been outstanding, choosing a range of books of great quality and variety. I've been so excited each month to see what they have chosen for me, based on what I like to read. They have introduced me to a variety of authors, genres and styles. It has been a great experience. I would really recommend it. My last book has just arrived.

I was gifted a 12 month subscription for my 50th birthday. I was excited to see what my monthly book delivery would be and I was never disappointed. Not going to lie, I haven’t quite made my way through them all yet, I was a bit of a spender during lockdown and have an awful lot of books “to be read”. But they all look a good read.
I was given the option to choose the genre I received which is also a good idea, my friend didn’t want to choose for me
Highly recommended and excellent service.

I was bought a subscription as a birthday present and I must say it was one of the best I've had. The books I've received have all been really good with writers I didn't know. I found this very interesting and the books have all been really good. It's nice to read different authors. I would definitely recommend a subscription either for yourself or as a present.

I found Willoughby Book Club by accident while looking for a suitable present for my partner on Google. The subscription I purchased for them has been a total success, in my partner's words "the best present I could have given" - consequently I've renewed for a further year. Well done and thank you Willoughby for coming up with such a great idea and providing a wonderful service.

excellent service. all books sent matched my 'likes' 3 were 5 star, 6, 4 star and 3, 2 star. I think this is very good bearing mind how different peoples tastes are. The subscription made a great present

I’ve bought subscriptions for my grandsons for a number of years now - they all love the books and the whole business of them arriving every month! Thanks for a great service .

This was a perfect gift to myself. I've been a subscriber for a year now and I've found some great authors and books that I probably would not have discovered myself. Two books were just ok, but there have been many that have become favourites.
I've had such a mix of genres & characters including a fun South Korean assassin, a very realistic post WWIII dystopian racial novel, a haunting colonial sci-fi spy, classic crime thrillers, curious circus people & mermaids and a Victorian-style gothic mystery. My MIL has also enjoyed many of these.
For those who have said that this is not a curated service or that the selections are poor, I can only assume that you did not provide enough information as to your reading preferences or have very specific reading tastes.
I've just renewed for another 6 months.

I’ve loved reading every book that has been sent during this last year. I’ve discovered new authors , and bought other books by several of them.
Every month has brought a new treat.
I couldn’t have made better choices myself.

Loved my first book , and its quite exciting received the next book , even though I'm 76 !! It was a really good read too , now excited for the third one !

He ABSOLUTELY LOVED this present and has devoured these books. He did actually say after his last book that this was his best present ever and can you get it for him next year too 😂

I felt as if I was dealing with friends, yet the service was totally professional. The choice of books was thoughtful and appropriate.
Would have given 5 stars, but could not make the black blob go away from the 5 th

What a waste of time - Some random company sends random books to you - probably ones they've had sitting around a warehouse for years. As about as curated as emptying a bag of rubbish my desk.

I received my subscription as a gift, and it was probably the best gift I have ever received. It was such a pleasure to receive a well chosen book ever month. Each book arrived beautifully presented. It was good to be introduced to some new authors and I will definitely be looking for more of their works in future.

The books were well chosen to fit with the profile I gave and enjoyable to read. None however inspired me to want to read more that the author had written

I helped my mum set up 4 children/toddler subscriptions, two for her niece and nephew and 2 for her foster children and each book that has arrived have been an amazing and well loved surprise for each of the kids! The books have been perfectly selected to reflect each kid and their interests and have been happily read aloud to any friends and family the will sit still long enough. This gift is especially cherished now as one of her foster kids is moving on and this will greatly help the transition as they will still be receiving this monthly gift for us! Overall my mum has had a fantastic experience and would highly recommend The Willoughby Book Club!

I bought a 3 month toddler subscription and a 3 month baby subscription for a friends children. They both absolutely loved the book selected for them each month based on their interests. They even waited for the postman when they knew their books were arriving! Beautifully presented in a colourful wrap. Perfect gift that keeps on giving, would highly recommend to anyone who loves reading. Excellent service.

My partner gave me a six month/six book subscription, of which I have received five books so far. Waste of money. I would agree with some other reviews I see here that the whole experience "doesn't feel very curated" -- not at all curated, I would say. When I activated my subscription I was asked a couple of questions. Perhaps I am at fault for not engaging very well, but the first question struck me as nonsense (I admit I cannot recall what it was). I sought to compensate by filling into another question a list of some books I have recently read and enjoyed, but there was no space. I gave up. And what I have received since then are five books written by middle-aged male authors, at least three of which feature dysfunctional, alchoholic middle-aged male protragonists. I mean, just because I was a bit grumpy in regard to Willoughby's questions -- grumpy because they were dumb -- doesn't mean you have to send me books only about grumpy men. As for the books themselves, I would review them as (1) surprisingly terrible (given the author's rep) and really couldn't finish, (2) has potential but overall, mediocre and overlong (esp for a satire), (3) mediocre and cliched southern gothic with patches of atmospheric writing, (4) I certainly did not want one of Joel Dicker's worse books given I thought the Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair was overblown in execution and reputation [the sort of thing real curatorial questions might have figured out], and (5) looks slightly more promising, but given the record so far, have no motivation to read. (Actually, my overall feeling is "books put on a table in a regional Waterstones to create some fake buzz because they were half-fashionable about three years ago, but now we need to get them out of stock".) Now, maybe I could have been in contact to improve this, but from the opening seconds with the pointless questions, no follow up contact to try and understand my "non-standard" answers, and then the lack of any notes or anything included with the books to encourage me to make contact, I could simply not be bothered. I expect my curators to more actively curated. Maybe I should look at the flip side: I actually have quite catholic taste, so to so consistently badly select books is almost an achievement. There is also talk of beautifully wrapped books, but all I have ever got are books mailed in standard cardboard (fair enough) with no other wrapping other than the exact same dull obi/belly-band around it each time. Even some sort of note to the effect of "how did you like the last book, let us know" might have helped with the "curatorship" feel, but no. It all really seemed cheap, an attempt to fake human involvement through some sort of algorithmic trick perhaps, and actually just slowed me down reading books I wanted to read. The arrival of my Willoughby books just made me downhearted each month. Would not recommend.

Update, given Willoughby reply: Further professionalism, eh?, posting my answers to their questions up on Trustpilot (I think everyone who reads my review sees the Willoughby response, right?) - showing zero respect for customer data privacy. It's not that much is revealed, but when Willoughby asked those questions I never expected to see my answers posted on a public forum. But, given my answers, we see that (a) I reacted grumpily, but (b) if Willoughby is indeed a small team of (not stupid) humans, then someone should have noted how my answers amount to "I find your queries about my reading interests short and simplistic; if you are worth your subscription fee, reach out and ask me more" (I literally said that I attempted to answer the "favourite book" question in a way that made some sense to me but found the response form had not enough space to to so: an actual "curator" would have contacted me to ask more, to get past the limitations of the computer form). That is, in response to my reactions, act both like a human with a little cop on (smarter than a dumb web form), and like a curator with an actual skill set in discovering and expanding someone's interests, even - especially - a grumpy someone. That didn't happen. Instead, I am now told that with the first book I got (why onIy the first?) I was given Willoughby's email. Weak sauce at best, or even blaming me for not pursuing Willoughby actively enough. Why not then use my own curatorial skill to skip Willoughby's premium price? Exactly! Hence, a 1-star review: I recommend a bookshop instead. Talk to a bookseller, get likely better advice for free. Or hell, Amazon's algorithm is also better. Other Trustpilot reviews suggest many very happy people, some very unhappy. My guess is that plenty of people are happy to just get some books, but anyone who expects the curation to be more than a facade is disappointed.

This is the best present I have ever gotten! Every month I really look forward to my next book - the bespoke subscription meant each book was really well tailored to my preferences, and they found books which are now some of my favourite reads ever. And in the rare occasion I got a book I hadn't read they were able to send me out a different book. Customer service was absolutely amazing, so helpful and friendly. Can't recommend any further!

Was bought this by my husband for Christmas as I love to read- I feel a little disappointed by the service. Thee survey to fill out to give your preferences is very short, and I've been send 3 books now that I haven't really enjoyed and which are all the same genre. I don't feel much curating really goes into the selection and it would be nice if they asked for feedback on the books they sent so you could steer them throughout the subscription.