The Willoughby Book Club Reviews 

I'm not often one for leaving reviews. However, in this instance I feel compelled. It's long, so here's the point: The Willoughby Book Club's "literary experts" sent a book not worth the paper it's printed on for our 0-12 month daughter. Likely because no curation is put into the 0-12 month catalog.

Here's the long version:

My wife and I were gifted a 12 month subscription to The Willoughby Book Club after our daughter was born. We're currently in month two and received our second book. The first book is cute and someone spent time putting it together and illustrating it and that's great. I've enjoyed reading it to my daughter.

However, this month's book is a joke. The Willoughby Book Club claims that each month we will be sent a "book that's been handpicked to match their individual tastes by our team of literary experts." Obviously our baby's individual tastes are pretty basic. This book, "My First Colour" published by Chiltern Publishing should be immediately removed from the Willoughby Book Club's list of eligible books. The mere notion that any literary expert has ever even glanced at this book is laughable as anyone would be able to see that the amount of time and effort that went into "My First Colours" is non-existent.

Why? First and foremost, there is no author. Some person behind a PC slapped it together in 10 minutes. Even calling this thing a book is generous. The premise of the book is that each page highlights a colour and shows objects that are of the same colour. The images are collated together on a page and, if you take more than one second to look at the images you'll see that they were likely pulled straight from a Google image search. No effort was put into going into Photoshop and making the background of each image uniform. You can clearly see where images are edited and the off-white background in the original photo was left as is. Blue spoon, yellow lemon, purple balloon, and black/white puppies are the worst offenders, but many other images have a white background but with shadows cast underneath the image in question. No effort, care, or quality review went into this book by Chiltern Publishers.

Why does this matter? Isn't your issue with the book and not the Willoughby Book Club? Well, yes, my issue is that this book is garbage. It's not worth the paper is printed on and it makes me feel bad because some tree somewhere was cut down to make it. I expect there to be horrendous books in the world. That doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is that the Willoughby Book Club claim that their "literary experts" "handpick" the books that are sent to recipients each month. Perhaps the Willoughby Book Club's "literary experts" perform better with books that have plot and characters and tell a story. Perhaps baby books are held a lower standard by the Willoughby Book Club because they are baby books. I'm writing this review because clearly no-one at the Willoughby Book Club has taken more than one second to see that this book is trash. Why? Because it took me two.

I feel bad for the very kind person who gifted us this 12 month subscription to the baby book club by Willoughby Book Club. On their website, currently, a 12 months subscription is 94.99 GBP. That comes out to about 8 pound a month. "My First Colours" sells at retail at 6.99 GBP. So this poor, kind person entrusted these "literary experts" to send us quality books for our child. They paid more than this book is worth at a retail shop because the idea would be that a "literary expert" would pick a quality book. Turns out The Willoughby Book Club is holding books in their stock that are such garbage that I feel compelled to write this review. It's laughable that The Willoughby Book Club claims to have "literary experts" who curate the books within their stock. It's a shame that someone paid The Willoughby Book Club around 8 pound for a 7 pound book that's not even worth a pound.

Hopefully this will spur the Willoughby Book Club to review their catalog of 0-12 month books. We've got 10 months more of books to be received for our daughter and I feel that, if "My First Colours" by Chiltern Publishing is the type of quality book that we can expect to receive, then I want to write an apology letter to the kind person who gifted us this subscription as it appears they've completely wasted their money.

If you've got a baby or know someone who does and want to get them some books. Just take the time to go out to a local shop and buy something yourself. You're just as likely as a "literary expert" to pick something for a baby that's worthwhile.

I bought a membership for my teen as part of their Christmas present & they have been thoroughly delighted with the books. When the books arrive each month, its a nice surprise in the post and they say it has been great discovering new authors that they would not necessarily have chosen themselves. The second book wasn't quite to their liking, but one email to WBC and this was rectified, all other books have been really enjoyed. We have recently extended their subscription as they are loving the books so much. A great idea for keen readers.

I have subscribed my two children (6 and 8), and subsequently my god-daughter (10) to the Willoughby Book Club and can hand on heart say it is a wonderful thing. The team ask you to fill in a small questionnaire to fill out some detail for the receiver, then at the beginning of each month they receive a very simply packaged parcel with their name on the outside (a big deal to a small child) with their personally selected book inside.

The books lean towards ones my two have not had or heard of before. I have seen some since in my local bookshop but I like that they are not 'bestsellers' so it leans them into books they may not pick up themselves, thereby broadening their reading.

I like the support of an independent source of reading, getting away from the the tedium of Amazon etc.

I follow WBC on Instagram and like seeing what they are up to and what readers have posted. I am thinking of setting up a subscription myself but I have quite a substantial reading pile at home to work through first.

Highly recommend.

I bought a subscription for my grandson aged 2 and was really pleased with the fact that the Book Club checked with me each month to make sure he hadn't already got the book they planned to send him. All the choices have been excellent and good quality and he looks forward to opening his book package each month.

I got a bespoke book subscription for my husband and The Willoughby Book Club was fantastic. They checked with me each and every book to see if my husband had read it and if I didn't think he would like it. Each book has come beautifully wrapped and he has liked then all!

I bought this subscription for my mother-in-law’s birthday and she absolutely loves it. She said she looks forward to the next book arriving each month and asked me to continue the subscription in lieu of all future birthday and Christmas presents. Thank you Willoughby book club!

Mostly great!

I bought a six month subscription for my friend for her birthday and gave a few books that she liked. She liked the books received, but... of the 6, 2 were dystopic zombie/end of the world based. Which, just, seems like a high number for a six month span. She liked them, but I think she was wondering how she came to have that many, and what i had put in to generate that. Maybe if there was an option to change the picks, if the recipient could get a check in half way through a subscription to change or maintain the books being chosen, that would be helpful. She liked the surprise each month, and receiving mail that wasn't a bill, just the end of the world content was a bit higher than expected.

I've bought gift subscriptions for my daughter and my step-mother, and they have both gone down really well. My bookworm daughter was so excited when the package came every month! I subscribed to the spoiler service and Lindsey emailed me each month to say which books she'd chosen for my daughter - they were all new to us and covered a wide range of genres. She introduced her to a few new series, and she has since read follow-ups to some of the books she was sent as part of her subscription. A great service and a great gift, which I'd thoroughly recommend.

These guys are great. I messed up my initial order and purchased the wrong subscription but they fixed it really quickly with no hassle or issues. They followed through with my specific request on book selection (nothing too girly!) and we were really impressed with the range of books we received; they were all beautiful and interesting and my niece loved them.

Excellent choice of books and a brilliant way of finding new and interesting reads that you may not have previously considered. Great for both a present for a loved one or a little treat for yourself!
Would highly recommend.
Also, the customer service is excellent. Prompt replies and simple instructions.

Fantastic book subscription service with great customer service. If you already have a book they send you they will send you a new one for free. The titles they’ve sent me have all been spot on! Hands down the best book subscription I’ve ever tried.

I received a book subscription from Willougby as a present. The service from all the team has been great to enabling me to change the original subscription and to change half way through the year to get a different genre.

The service has been great - as a book lover I have an apartment filled with books but Willoughby has been a great way to introduce me to a whole host of new authors - some Ive taken to heart and others have been good to be introduced to but I wouldnt necessarily look for other books - however it has been good to get me outside the general authors I follow and whose books I buy.

Its been good to share feedback with the team when I read and discuss my likes (and dislikes) with other book lovers.

I also purchased a subscription as a present for my 7 year old god-daughter - again she was introduced to new authors and a couple of them I know she is now out looking for all the books they have written - so success on that front too

I love this service! My husband is an avid reader of fantasy and science fiction and I thought he’d probably read nearly everything available in the genre, and so found it hard to find him a book as a present he liked. I heard about the book club and was delighted! The fact that we could send a book back if he’d already read it inspired me to give it a go,. And it’s been a total hit! It’s probably his favorite present I’ve ever got him (and we are together 25 years!), he just loves his surprise package every month , and after an Initial 6 months for christmas I’ve renewed it for a further three for Father’s Day and will most likely extend it again for his birthday . I love his face lighting up when it comes in and he’s loved all the books so far!

This was a fantastic Christmas present for a book lover! Each month he enjoyed waiting for his book to come in the post. Each time it was a book he really enjoyed and would recommend to others to read. While booking I was asked for a description of the type of books that were liked/disliked, each book followed the descriptions. A lot of new authors have now been found. I would recommend as a good present to book lovers and have suggested the Willoughby book club to others. I'm sure we'll use them again.

A fantastic present

I bought a six-month classic subscription for my mum's birthday - and she couldn't stop talking about how good it was. She hadn't come across any of the authors before (which amazed me - because she inhales books) and she said she genuinely enjoyed all of them. A couple were so outstanding that she's refused to lend them out, as she wants to read them again. Many thanks for your talented curatorship: you had a very satisfied customer.

My brother tells me he got a fantastic selection of books. I don’t think I gave you an easy brief either! (Engaging non fiction).

It was a wonderful 30th present.

Really lovely idea, fantastic books tailored to my son’s tastes. I’d recommend this, makes a fab gift and much better than the normal plastic birthday tat!

I gave this subscription as a gift and got a really positive response. It's great you get the opportunity to surprise someone but at the same time get experts to Hand-Pick books for you with the bespoke package. The Team was very easy to reach after placing my order when I wanted to make some changes. They were very attentive and flexible. I especially appreciated the vintage packaging and the reliability of the company. I would fully recommend this experience!

Fantastic service, beautifully presented and selection of books are spot on.

Great way to find new authors. Have had three subscriptions and only once a book O had read before. A delight to read every month!