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Y’all have heard about Kobo Plus, I am presuming, but in case not: Kobo Plus is nifty.
Kobo Plus is a subscription service that allows you unlimited access to ebooks, audiobooks, or, depending on the plan, ebooks and audiobooks.
I’ll be honest – I didn’t know about the separate Kobo Plus Listen option until recently and I’m really happy with it.
If the graphic isn’t legible for you, Kobo Plus Listen is $7.99US per month, and there are over 150,000 audiobooks in their catalog.
Kobo Plus Read is also $7.99US per month, and has over 1.5 million ebooks in their catalog, including some exclusives, and entire series bundles, too.
And Kobo Plus Read & Listen is $9.99 per month – both listening and ebooks, for $10. That’s a really good deal.
Plus, if you’re a new subscriber, you can try Kobo Plus for 30 days for free, and cancel any time.
I love a cancel any time – and if you’re someone who worries that you won’t remember to, here’s a tip. When you sign up for a free trial, set a reminder or calendar appointment for just under the free trial length, with a link to where you can unsubscribe. So if it’s a 14 day free trial, sign up, and IMMEDIATELY afterward, set a reminder or calendar item for 12 or 13 days from now that your trial is about to end, and do you want to renew? Helps me out immensely.
But back to unlimited ebooks and audiobooks because this catalog is pretty hefty. There are series bundles of ebooks including the Magic After Midlife series by Deborah Wilde, and, if you have younger readers who love this series the way my kids did, Diary of A Wimpy Kid is in the Kobo Plus catalog, too. Penny Reid’s Knitting in the City? It’s in there. I’ve also bookmarked the Manners and Monsters collection by Tilly Wallace.
The romance reads cover a lot of genres and authors, the Sci Fi and Fantasy collection has a number of books I’ve favorited, and of course there’s Mysteries and Thrillers. The entire Verity Kent series by Anna Lee Huber is available in ebook. (Such a good series.)
Over in audio, some items in my listening queue: the Agatha Raisin Mysteries by MC Beaton are available, as are all the Penric & Desdemona books by Lois McMaster Bujold. Plus there are a bunch of historical romances from Erica Ridley, Jess Michaels, Darcy Burke, and more.
And if you like manga, graphic novels, and comics, there’s so much to look at. I had a lovely trip down nostalgia boulevard thinking of all the Archie comic digests I used to read on the beach as a kid. The entire Goldie Vance series by Hope Larson is available, and if Harlequin manga is your jam, there’s plenty to choose from.
Most importantly: you’ve got options in your subscription services. If you’re an insatiable reader and listener (hi) an unlimited subscription plan can keep you happily engrossed and save you some money, too.
Do you like book and audio subscription services?
And if you’re a Kobo Plus subscriber, what titles do you recommend?
Ooh, in perfect timing, I can also recommend this Kobo Plus romantasy collection!
(It does include some of my books, but also many, MANY more.)
I had been considering it, especially for audiobooks, so thanks for the rundown!
For the longest time, I didn’t put my books there because, Amazon would price match, but KOBO figured a way around it and lots of authors have signed up. I haven’t put my books there yet, but it’s on the schedule!
There is a ton of stuff in Kobo plus! I read all of Ashley Gardner’s (aka Jennifer Ashley) mysteries there. I also discovered some new to me authors there that I might not have purchased- Annick Trent, Kali Decker, and Olney James come to mind.
A lot of authors that publish independently have at least some books on Kobo Plus- T Kingfisher, Ilona Andrews, Jackie Lau, KJ Charles, Zoe York, etc.
I cancel periodically when I find I’m not using it as much, but then I join again a few months later.
The nice thing about Kobo Plus is it’s truly unlimited. Not the 20 book limit like KU. There are some good box sets. Jackie Lau has all her indie books there often grouped in box sets. There’s the Sullivan series by Belle Andre. Shopping for a Billionaire series by Julia Kent. There’s some KJ Charles on there. I am definitely eager to hear about more books there as sometimes it’s hard to surface stuff.
I don’t use Kobo Plus but now you have me wondering how you do use it. Is a specific reader required?
I looked in the catalog and can recommend these favorite books: SK Dunstall’s Linesman series; The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison; the Touchstone series by Andrea K Host; the Book of Firsts by Karan K. Anders; the Others series by Anne Bishop; also Murder in Thrall by Anne Cleeland and the next two in the series (the remainder are self published and not in the catalog).
I signed up for Kobo Plus as soon as they offered it in the US. I’ve enjoyed a lot of the authors mentioned here. I found a lot of Avon historical backlist titles and Harlequin Historical backlist titles, which I haven’t seen mentioned before.
An aside to SB Sarah, I’ve listened to the audiobooks of Tilly Wallace’s Manners and Monsters, as well as the prequel series Tournament of Shadows and spinoff Highland Wolves, all on Kobo Plus. They are read by one of my favorite narrators, Marian Hussey, and are very good as well as a lot of fun.
Absolutely love Kobo Plus. For anyone looking for a light mystery romance, I would suggest CJ Archer. I love Marian Hussey as the audiobook narrator.
@Kareni I have a Kobo reader but there’s also a Kobo app for smartphones and tablets, so you can read on or listen to books on an iPad like how you can do that for Kindle or Barnes and Noble books.
Is there only one Kobo reader, or are there many options? And do the screens resemble paper (i.e., they’re not shiny)?
I finally started reading ebooks with a friend’s hand-me-down Kindle, and was surprised how well it worked for me. Lately I’ve been thinking of switching to Kobo, to avoid Amazon a little better, and I wondered if the Kobo reader will have the same matte look. I was never able to enjoy reading ebooks on my phone or computer. I mostly read before bed and don’t want to look at a screen, but the Kindle screen feels different. Any recs welcome.
There are several Kobo e-readers, and they have eInk, so matte surfaces. They also have some colour screens, and some that allow markup. There’s also a refurbished option for $90!
Just want to mention this collection of romances by Asian authors in Kobo Plus! You can also see short descriptions for all of these books on my website. There are both audiobooks and ebooks. This is a promo I organized with Kobo for May, which is Asian Heritage Month in Canada and AAPI Heritage Month in the US.
I keep meaning to try out Kobo Plus, I really will get round to doing the trial soon… I know there are some cozy fantasy/romances on there that I’d like to re-read – T Kingfisher, Alexandra Rowland (can’t remember if I’ve seen her Yield Under Great Persuasion mentioned here or not, but I loved it!), Lois McMaster Bujold, etc
@Jane – I just switched from kindle to kobo last year (and am really happy I did), and the screens are just the same. All e-ink screens are basically the same technology, albeit with slight variations for colour etc, and shouldn’t cause eye strain like phones/computers.
There are a bunch of different models depending on what size screen you want, whether you prefer colour or black&white, etc etc. The Clara BW is probably the obvious one to suggest as a first e-reader imho, especially if you’re not looking to spend a fortune.
Ooh, I didn’t know about Kobo Plus! I really want to cut ties with Amazon and have been looking at options from Kobo and also from Boox.
Question for Kobo users who switched from Kindle – did you try to download all of your kindle books to a computer first, and remove the DRM ? Was that a crazy cumbersome process? I have almost 500 books in my kindle library and I hate the idea of them just disappearing back into the Amazon-verse if I switch.
Hence why I’m considering something more like a Boox tablet so I don’t lose those books I’ve already purchased, but can start getting everything new from Kobo.
@Emily C – I was able to backup all my books to transfer to kobo. Calibre is a great tool for ebook management, and it was pretty straightforward.
However, that was before Amazon heavily ramped up their efforts this year to keep everything completely locked down. So I’m not sure how easy it is currently… you should be able to find guides online, but make sure you’re looking at those that are current for 2025 or they won’t be applicable any longer.
@LittyN ~ many thanks for your explanation.
All my historical romances and women’s fiction are now available on KOBO Plus. My new historical mystery series begins 5/20 and will be there, too!
Jackie Lau, T. Kingfisher, Celia Lake, Victoria Goddard, R.J. Blaine, Sarina Bowen- It’s Celia Lake’s fault I have a Kobo Plus subscription, but dang do I get my money’s worth!
The Kobo platform is vastly more library friendly as well. I’ve been thrilled with my switch off of Kindle, it’s much more aligned with how I read.
@Emily C . Just keep your Amazon account. Just buy from elsewhere. I wouldn’t suggest cancelling the account as you’ll lose everything. Books, music, photos in the cloud etc. Do you really want to lose access to the books you’ve paid good money for? Or paid a licence to read more like!
Gill
I have been a Kobo Plus subscriber for years!!! They have a really good program for authors, and never require the author to be exclusive (like Amazon does).
As a reader, if I download the book from Kobo Plus, I own it, I don’t have to “return” it like for KU.
There are so many great authors on Kobo Plus! And more being added each month. A lot of authors are tossing their indie backlist onto K+ as well! Check out all the K J Charles titles, including Will Darling.