A few weeks ago, I shared a crazy good deal on Kindle Unlimited (free for a 2 month subscription!) and so many of you signed up and then asked . . . “what books on Kindle Unlimited are worth reading?”
Well, here you go!
You don’t need a Kindle to use Kindle Unlimited – the Kindle app is free to download and you can use it on your phone or tablet. For the record, though, I LOVE my Kindle, and if you’re on the fence, I highly recommend getting one!
(Psst. . . I’ll do a more complete post in a few weeks with details about how Kindle Unlimited works, but for now, basically Kindle Unlimited is like a Netflix subscription – you pay a monthly fee and have access to everything in the Kindle Unlimited library, but once you cancel your subscription, you don’t keep any of the books. If you have questions, let me know in the comments so I can answer them all in my post!)
My favorite Kindle Unlimited Books for Adults
- Beauty by Robin McKinley. I ADORE this magical retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I read it multiple times as a child and then re-read it to my girls a few months ago. If you haven’t read it, fix that immediately!
- Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J. B. West and Mary Lynn Kotz. I was SO HAPPY to find this book included in Kindle Unlimited! This was such a fun read for me a few years ago and I recommend it all the time. For every U.S. History buff or someone who loves a little behind-the-scenes. (Full review here)
- More Than Enough: How One Family Cultivated A More Abundant Life Through A Year Of Practical Minimalism by Miranda Anderson. I LOVED this book so much – it was funny, practical and a delight to read. I included it on my summer reading guide here!
- I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel. I’m not usually a fan of essay collections but this one? I couldn’t stop reading it – I loved it so so much. Any one who loves reading is going to love this one.
- Stretched Too Thin: How Working Moms Can Lose the Guilt, Work Smarter, and Thrive by Jessica N. Turner. After re-reading 168 Hours for the Everyday Reading Book Club this month, this seems like the obvious next book and since I’ve loved her previous books, I’m diving right in!
- Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. This Newbery winner is SO delightful – I haven’t read it in more than a decade and I can’t wait to revisit it. (Full review here)
- The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) by Hal Elrod. This was the first book I downloaded when I joined Kindle Unlimited, after hearing about it from so many people over the years!
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I mean, is there anyone who hasn’t read these books yet? But if you need a revisit or if you somehow missed it, here you go!
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey. My parents gave me the teen version when I was 12 or 13 and I’ve been a fan ever since. Seriously, it’s just so good.
- Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I’m reading this aloud to my girls right now and just dying at how wonderful it is to be back at Green Gables. If you’ve never read it, now is the moment. Rilla of Ingleside, which is about Anne’s daughter during WWI, is also included and it’s TREMENDOUSLY good. I probably read it 3 or 4 times when I was young.
- Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. This one won the National Book Award a few years ago and is told in verse. It’s about a girl who leaves her home in Vietnam during the war and comes to America with her family.
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Another classic that you can get your hands on right away. It’s just so good!
- Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. This Newbery winner is a classic and you can read it super quick – it’s less than 100 pages long!
- Just One Wish by Janette Rallison. I recommend Janette Rallison all the time when people ask for clean book recommendations. She’s so funny and her books are just 100% delightful, plus there are a TON of her books on Kindle Unlimited. Just One Wish is a great YA one, and I also loved A Longtime (and at one point Illegal) Crush and How I Met Your Brother last year. (Full Review Here)
- Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers. If your children love the movie, it’s fun to introduce them to the character who inspired the beloved films.
- The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. I read this one years ago when I was a school librarian and it was SO popular.
- Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling. Of course, if you’re like me, you could happily re-read these books every few years, so it’s nice to have them all at your fingertips with Kindle Unlimited.
- Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. I haven’t read this one in years, but I read it multiple times as a child. The idea of being left alone to fend for yourself never gets old as a child.
- Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. I don’t necessarily gravitate toward poetry, but this book is SO SO good and made me love poetry like I never had before.
- The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett and Jory John, illustrated by Kevin Cornell. This series is HILARIOUS – Ella has read and loved them all. I included this one on my Summer Reading Guide in 2018!
- Love from Paddington by Michael Bond. This is the newest Paddington book (I didn’t even know they were still being released!) so whether you’re new to the world of Paddington Bear or an old fan, this is a great one to pick up.
- Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry, illustrated by Middy Thomas. I love Lois Lowry and this series of early chapter books is totally delightful (and most of them are included on Kindle Unlimited!). Ella has read them all and couldn’t get enough fo them.
I also asked for recommendations, so these are books I haven’t read but that many of you recommended and that have great reviews!
Kindle Unlimited Books You Guys Recommended:
- A Quiet Life in the Country by T E Kinsey. There are six books in this series and all of them are on Kindle Unlimited with nearly 3000 five star reviews. It follows Lady Emily Hardcastle – an eccentric widow who moves to the English countryside in 1908 with her maid who is, naturally, a martial arts expert. But when a dead body appears in the woods, all hopes for a quiet life disappear.
- The Dressmaker’s Gift by Fiona Valpy. This book is a #1 bestseller on Amazon right now about three women in Paris during the Nazi occupation, plus a granddaughter in the present trying to make sense of her grandmother’s history. (P.S. This one has the Audible version included as part of Kindle Unlimited).
- The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America’s Greatest Female Spy by Judith L. Pearson. I stumbled on this one myself while I was looking for books on Kindle Unlimited and this one has crazy good reviews and how could I not want to know more about a woman who helped capture 500 German soldiers and kill more than 150 Nazis during WWII?
- Timebound by Rysa Walker. This is another one with narration included, and it won the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. YA time travel murder mystery? Okay. Count me in. (There are a bunch of books in this series, all on Kindle Unlimited).
- The Body Reader by Anne Fraiser. I won’t lie, this one sounds a little too intense for me, but it has great reviews and won a bunch of awards when it came out. And the whole series is on Kindle Unlimited.
- The Beantown Girls by Jane Healey. Fiona has her whole life planned out but it’s all turned upside down when her fiance is reported missing during WWII. She and her two best friends volunteer to go overseas to see if they can discover what happen to him.
- The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani. This one is a huge bestseller about Jaya, a New York journalist, who starts uncovering her grandparents’ past when her own life starts falling apart.
- Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah. This has won a zillion awards and I’ve never heard of it. Typical. The audio is included in Kindle Unlimited.
- What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon. Time travel romance? OBVIOUSLY I’m in.
- The Saturday Evening Girls Club by Jane Healey. Four Immigrant young women in Boston’s North End at the turn of the 20th century? Yes please. It’s available as audio too!
- Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. This one is being made into a movie AND it’s available on audio through Kindle Unlimited. Pino Lella is a normal Italian teenager until the Nazis start taking power and he joins an underground railroad helping Jews flee to safety. And is there a love story? Of course there is.
- The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms. I definitely have meant to read this for ages and now I have no excuse not to finally dig into this book about a single mom who has the whole summer to herself when her husband who left years earlier offers to take their children for the summer.
And one last thing about Kindle Unlimited Books. Some of them have narration and you can find the whole list of those books here!
Any other suggestions for Kindle Unlimited books? I’d love you to make this post even more useful with your favorites!
I keep an Amazon list of the books I want to read through Kindle Unlimited, so adding a ton of these now! I LOVE that they have so many that have narration so I can switch between formats depending on what I’m doing!
If you are a Melina Marchetta fan, her newest book The Place on Dalhousie, is on KU!! It’s so good! Classic Marchetta
Oh, I LOVE her. Downloading that one immediately.
Oh, man, there are so many good books on Kindle Unlimited. These are just some of the recent ones I’ve enjoyed.
The Snow Gypsy by Lindsay Jayne Alford
The Bette Davis Club by Jane Lotter
Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms
The Daughters of Palatine Hill by Phyllis T. Smith
The Dirty Parts of the Bible by Sam Torode
A Pledge of Silence by Flora J. Solomon
The Glassblower Trilogy by Petra Durst-Benning
The Memory of Us by Camille Di Maio
The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford
The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
There are great romance novels on KU. For a long slow burn with not much open door action, check out Marianna Zapata. The books are long but so, so worth it.
I’m in it for the books with narration since most of my reading time is audio in the car. Thanks for including the link to that list.