As I’ve become more of a tech user in books and less of a television watcher in my illness, I’ve subscribed to many different audible and reader applications.... when you found this app available, I nearly immediately turned off and cancelled every other subscription and app for books and audiobooks. This selection of not only gospel and spiritual books and audiobooks is remarkable. It would take endless time to read everything available on that subject alone plus all the new books that become available over the months. It also has a hugely exciting and endless supply of fiction, nonfiction autobiographical books, and children’s books and historical fictional books like “ the work and the glory” type series. And historically accurate books to read and listen to. I love having this available to read or to play while painting, driving, cleaning, cooking or anything else I might be doing during the day. Thank you Deseret Book and I HIGHLY recommend this over any other book reading, audiobook app! Some things could be more streamlined but the selection and diverse availability of how one can take advantage of it by listening and or read! 5stars A’s an overall review😀

1 year ago, Snap2crackers

Great thing for a mom who wants to keep learning!

It’s been tough the last few years with babies; I just can’t read like I used to. That’s why I’ve loved my DB subscription! I get to listen in the car, as I clean, and as I go for walks to the most uplifting books. The audiobook library is pretty large and updated with the best recent published works by members of the Church on spiritual topics. Biggest complaint: the preview menu (like what you see on Lock Screen as it plays) has skip forward and backward instead of forward and backward 15 or 30 seconds (like as is norm for podcast and other audiobook apps). It’s so frustrating! If I just missed a minute, I have to log in and reopen the app to change it. I’ve never wanted to skip a whole chapter on an audiobook. Please change it!

4 years ago, stewdaven28

App needs improvement

The content is great, but the app needs major improvements. When listening with headphones and using audio controls on Apple Watch or on my headphones, or even radio controls in the car the app lets you pause just fine, but then you have to open the app on your phone to play it again. This is not just sloppy programming, but downright dangerous when listening in the car. It says that you can download audiobooks to your device, but any attempt I made to do so failed, forcing me to use my data plan to stream it, or to stay only where I have WiFi access. The interface doesn’t let you see audio controls with cover art, and instead gives you these controls with a list of all chapters, making it very easy to accidentally skip to another chapter. On a positive note, I do like that it displays how much time is left in each chapter, and that I have the option to download an mp3 copy of the book when I purchase it. Other than that, I feel that this app leaves much to be desired. The Audible and Apple Books apps are much more like the interface that should be provided instead of this mess. Again, the content is great, and very uplifting, but this app makes it quite difficult to enjoy the content when it needs so much work to make it worth listening to.

2 years ago, Vomby

Was a 5 star...

Was a 5 star if they would put the related content back and make it easier to search audiobooks on the website it would go back to a 5 star. I have loved this app with the Plus since I first heard about it in 2017, but.....it seems that every time they make an “improvement” to both the app and the website it’s worse. The website used to separate out the audiobooks from the ebooks so it was easy to find now you have to click on every book they have for the Plus to see if it is audio or just ebook or you could go to “related” books in the app or scroll down to the bottom of the page in the app and see related books. They just recently “updated and improved” and that is all gone. Nothing in the “related” section in the app and on the website it just comes up with their highlighted content that they want you to look at nothing at all to do with other books in the series or by the author. Very very disappointed!! Put it back the way it used to be and separate out the ebooks from the audiobooks for easier search-ability on the website!!!

10 months ago, Mkrichins

More massive improvements needed

First off, the fact that it is cloud based is good. But the following are bad: 1. The app is terrible. It pulls up the book, even let’s you select a chapter and then…blank. Nothing. But the book is downloaded so why won’t it load? 2. Due to cloud base it is terribly slow, too slow for that matter. 3. The copy feature only copies a link to your bookshelf not the actual quote itself. This makes it terribly frustrating when you are trying to copy a quote, etc. into the LDS library app. And please, please figure out a way for the two applications to talk!!! I would love for them to merge or talk so that my bookshelf books can be accessed through the Gospel library app. 4. Please stop the nonsensical advertisements for other books on the main page when we log in. Make the “discover” something the user can TURN OFF. I don't go to my bookshelf at home and sort through ads before I pull a book down to read. If this truly is a bookshelf then let it be one that is personal and without solicitation from you. We get enough emails as it is!!!! 5. Fix your web-based access. When I log online because the app doesn’t work, it’s even worse and slower. Seriously.

1 year ago, anjmands

A little laggy

I like everything on this app except listening to audiobooks which is what I use if for the very most. Whenever I need to pause it, I always have to push play twice for it to start again because the first time I push it, it plays for like half a second and then stops again and then I have to push play a second time. Then if my phone alarm goes off while listening, it confuses it and sometimes kicks me out of the app altogether. Also, the 30 second rewind is way too long. Please please please app developers can you change it to 15 seconds like the Libby app? Sometimes I just missed the last word or two and going back an entire 30 seconds is agonizing. Also it does not let me control it from my Apple Watch or from my phones Lock Screen (the way audible or Libby lets you) so if I want to go back a few seconds I have to find my phone and log in. Not that big of a deal but when I’m so used to just quickly pushing the go back button on my watch when using the Libby app it’s frustrating and makes me not want to use this app.

5 years ago, Kat.Swen

I use it everyday.

I am only giving the app 3 stars because although it has great content, there are a couple of small things that if they fixed as far as function it would be nearly perfect. First, they need a “report a problem” option for each book. I mostly use the audio option and many, many times have had problems with chapters being out of order or completely missing. Also, sound will go missing in sections. The worst is when the audio is stuck at double speed making it nearly impossible to understand what the reader is saying. If I could report the problem for the specific book I’m listening to for the app, it would be helpful to all that are using the app. Secondly, the search option in the app is dismally inadequate. I would love to be able to search the complete plus audio library for the specific genres I’m looking for. Not an option. I have to weed through dozens of titles to find one I haven’t heard or am interested in. I do love the service, and like I said, I use it everyday. With these two minor fixes, it would be 5 star for sure.

2 weeks ago, chelleml

Love the app - wish it had a few more features

I love this app and enjoy using it daily. It’s become my number one source for gospel study as well as clean fiction reading. As I was reading a book, I realized it was also available as an audio book. I thought it would be amazing if there was a way to read a book while listening to it at the same time. Then the message would really sink in. Could the app managers create an option where we could read text and listen to a book at the same time? I also wish choosing a book was more intuitive. Some of the books don’t have the listen or download button. You have to actually click on the picture of the book to open it. Because of this, a new user has no idea how to actually access some of the titles. Example- Now is your time by Russell M. Nelson. I’m so happy to be able to access all of the books from my phone. Thanks for continuing to update the app.

5 years ago, forever_4

What I Like and Don’t Like...

I like access to so many book options and the ability to change the background and text colors. (I prefer a black background with white text because it’s not so bright while reading.) I don’t like the number of typos/grammatical errors I have found in the short time I’ve been using the app. Not sure if these errors are in the printed versions, but they take away from the story and reduce credibility. It might be helpful to DB if the reader could somehow highlight and submit errors for correction as they are found. Otherwise, I’m not sure how DB would know where they are or that they exist. I don’t like how the search option seems incomplete. When I search for an author, I may see a few books by that author, but not all. Then the list starts showing me books by other people. If there were an option in the search like “must contain” or “only this author” it might help get a better result. This would be good for the website as well. The bookmark feature is a bit clunky. I set a bookmark at the beginning of each chapter when I reach it in case I have to stop reading for a bit. So, I remove the old and create the new. When I create the new there is a delay because it has a box for typing text (I guess for naming my bookmarks). It would be nice if I could just add a quick bookmark and move on. Maybe hold my finger on a word for 3 seconds and a bookmark option pops up that I click. Then it knows exactly where I left off.

2 years ago, Gpopsgirl2

Updates!?

I have had this app for several years and though I love reading my books anywhere at any time, I haven’t seen an update to the app in a year at least. The search feature is awful. My husband recently died, so I’m going through all our physical books to see what I have in my digital library (so that I can pass the hard copies to family, friends, or ward members who would like them), and when I search for thing, the picture of the book (especially ebook bundles) is so tiny I can’t see if my book is part of that bundle, or if the cover of the ebook is just a different version of the hard copy book cover. If I search for an author, it brings up a few books by that author, but then brings up several other authors. For me, the best part of the app is just being able to read my books, but the search and other functions are apparently over my head. I’m pretty tech savvy, tho nowhere near as tech savvy’s as most kids these days, but I do wish the app were a bit more user friendly and uncomplicated.

3 years ago, EmilyRPetersen

Great Library!

I love the variety of books found here! I enjoy the resourceful books to the novels offered here. I’m constantly listening to audiobooks. (I’m an Audible listener too.) I highly recommend this app! Dear Deseret Book App Developers; I do have TWO requests to improve the app. 1. Please make a sorting system for us Users of our books; “All our book Titles in alphabetical order”, “Not Started”, “Started”, “Downloaded”, and most importantly “Finished”. I wish could tell which books I have read and those I have not! With so many books in my library now, I have a hard time distinguishing between them. It would be nice to see the difference at a glance. 2. As an iOS iPhone user, (and the only place I listen/use the app) I would appreciate an improvement on the 30 seconds back and 30 seconds forward button on the Lock Screen. For example, when my book is playing and it goes to lock screen I can see the book title crawling and with the controls underneath. Currently, the arrow buttons mean skip back or forward by chapter! Please adjust the back button to be 30 seconds back and 30 seconds forward; instead of back and forth by chapters. I have rarely wanted to go back in chapters! (It can get me so lost in my book!!) If I do want to go back by chapters, it’s by deliberate choice by going to the table of contents. Thank you SO much for all your hard work on making such a great app for us! We love it!

6 years ago, Jacione

Love DB+, app could use some work

Let me start by saying this is so much better than the Netflix sub I was thinking about buying. Having such a huge library of gospel knowledge to read or listen to is awesome, and I would recommend this app as well as the DB+ subscription to anyone. That said, this is a review of the app, not the service it connects to. Overall it’s not bad, but a few things could be streamlined. Specifically, I’ve noticed that the “back” buttons move around a lot: if you are in one of the sections within the discover tab, and you open a book, the book has to be closed from the top right, but then the category has to be closed from the top left. Also, it would be nice if touching the tab you’re already in took you back to the beginning of that tab. Lastly, I would love to see a “now playing” more easily accessible. Like I said, none of this would stop me from recommending the app to anyone, but there are just a few things that could make using the app feel more natural. Keep up the great work!

3 years ago, Jordan.hunt

Great service, but has a few key bug issues

This is a great app and service, but there’s no way to leave in app feedback, so this will have to work. Right now the app doesn’t work well with headphone use, and occasionally the audio options glitch on the lock screen. Headphone play/pause buttons do not function properly, so pausing the audio without the phone convenient is a near impossible task. I usually just turn the headphones all the way off so the iPhone pauses for me. When unpausing, the button on the headphones must be pushed 2 times for some reason. It will play for half a second, then pause again, then play as normal. I have tried using several headphones and have the issue across various makes and models, and only have this problem with this app. The other frustration is that on the lock screen it only shows skip forward/skip back as options, rather than skip forward/back 15 seconds like it does when the app is open. Both fixes would be wonderful and are much needed.

1 year ago, Goosie maloosie

Good App, Could be Better

Tons of great content available on this app and playback is flawless. However, the font is absurdly small in all areas of the UI. When viewing a list of podcasts in the grid view, all you can see is the artwork. It’s a pointless way to view this type of content as there in no distinguishable difference between the episodes. The list view does include one line of text, but the font is ridiculously small and the title is truncated with ellipses at the end of the line, making the episode titles difficult to read. The app does struggle to receive podcast updates and forcing a sync does not help. Deleting older files seems to help, but that can only be done one-by-one. Just a few thought out changes to the UI layout and text presentation would make this app much more user friendly. The sync issue may be harder to solve, but would be greatly appreciated.

3 years ago, nicoleellens

What is this app?

I think this app turned me from a 33-year-old into an 88-year old. I can not figure out how to use this app. I was told if I got this I could sign up for the bookshelf plus 30 day trial and see if I like consuming books this way. So, I thought cool, I’ll probably love it, I have audible and chirp and kindle and iBooks, this is right up my ally. Nope. I can’t seem to access anything. When I see a book I want, there’s a button that says Free with Plus+. One might assume you could click the button and get it through that. Nope. That just creates a completely pointless pop up telling me it’s free with Plus+— obviously. Then there’s a learn more button, which takes you completely out of the app to the DB website. WHY? What is this app for???? Do I have to buy everything on the website first? If so, why have all the pointless buttons that take you nowhere? Why would this not allow for in-app purchases? Why is this so absurd? Why do I feel like I need my grandchildren to explain this to me? They’re not even born yet! Oh man, this could take awhile.

3 years ago, MusicalMaestro_21

Fantastic App

I really love this app! Having access to a huge selection from the Deseret Book library, across a broad scope of genres, makes it an invaluable resource. Particularly, to me, because of the audiobooks. I’m a busy mom with four young children and rarely have the time to sit and read a book. This app makes reading so much easier for me! Most especially the books of religious nature, as those are rarely available via audio at my local library. To me, this app is well worth the subscription price. The main issue I’ve ever had with the app is that when my screen is locked, if I pause a book (remember: kids), in order to play it again, I have to play, pause, play. But it’s a trivial bother. I still use the app nearly daily.

3 years ago, Ann's Husband, Glen

Unclear, Functionality Lacks

I want to like this app. I don't like posting negative reviews. But what other way can we give input? Deseret Book is unresponsive to customer feedback. The interface is cluttered, lacks logic and clarity. Unable to move books around to arrange the order of books. Interface alludes to ability to favorite books on your shelf, but unable to do it—or maybe I am just a ditz. Unable to completely delete a book; it stays on the interface in the 'cloud,’ (what if you downloaded a book you end up not liking?) Including audio books in the same app without the ability to separate them to another list adds further clutter and vagueness. Suggest maybe have a separate app for audio books. Suggest if Deseret is going to do a book app, just do it right. Do some looking at AppleBooks app to see how they succeeded in making a beautiful, sensible interface, and then at least emulate it. App needs re-doing. If unable to make this app good, then suggest make all of Deseret's ebooks available on AppleBooks.

3 years ago, witchywoman98

Great content, dreadful audio bugs

It has so much content and I love that... I can’t handle how annoying it is to listen to an audiobook, which is basically all I use it for so my frustration is strong . Sometimes it will just pause at random, or I have to click the play button once , wait for it to register my request and then it pauses again.. so I have to press play again.. i have to have the app open for it to register my Bluetooth a request to play. the way that the books are set up as individual chapters would make sense if you’re reading an ebook but not audio. I don’t want to download it chapter by chapter. I want the book. Especially when I go back to a previous chapter and then the book leaps around to where it think I am. It’s a wonder that I’m continuing to use this considering the glitches of this app, but I like what I have access to... just not the vehicle it’s coming in.

6 years ago, DarthRicktor

Great app with minor flaws

Overall I really like this app, it makes it easy to keep my large library of gospel-related books always on hand and easily accessible. The selection of available books is great and reasonably priced. My only complaint is that most of the books I have read (mostly from my iPhone or IPad) contain grammatical errors, miss-spellings and very poor hyphenation. It’s like an editor never looked at the e-editions. While this is annoying, it’s not the fault of the app rather with the publisher of the e-books. The app lets one save several study sessions so you can switch between different books. You can highlight text passages easily, look up word definitions, and create bookmarks easily. I also like how each book cover is nicely displayed on the home page. I highly recommend this app,

5 months ago, love2readandlisson

Clean! No adds! One small problem.

These book are fun! From murder mystery to kidnappings. From fantasy to 1800s novels. There’s something for everyone! And I’ve never encountered anything naughty! You only needed one account but can login on any device and lesson to the same story’s at the same time! The have audio books and ebooks for those who read with there eyes. :D they even have talks by John Bytheway, Hank Smith, Troy Dunn and so many others! I’ve occasionally had problems with downloading/opening a book but I’m pretty sure that was on my end since my family had no problems on other devices. Anyway this app is awesome and I would totally recommend it! There aren’t even adds!

4 years ago, N Lungren

Books are great but the controls are poor.

I can’t play or pause the audiobook with my Bluetooth headset controls. I have had a Jabra Elite 25e and Skullcandy Ink’d + Active Bluetooth headset and neither of them worked well with controlling the play and pause functions. I always have to pull my phone from my pocket to push pause or play. The downloading of audiobooks is terrible. I select the “download all” option and it never works. It will download the first chapter then some other random file and after the first audio file is played it would jump to the next downloaded file, which could be many chapters later. I have listened to nearly 70 audiobooks via audible, overdrive, and Apple Books apps and all work flawlessly with my Bluetooth headsets. I’m grateful for what this app provides but I hope you can fix these issues so I can enjoy using it.

4 years ago, KnightPont

Overall great. Needs some work though. Developers please read

Amazing app. Love being able to easily listen to and read great LDS books. I use it almost every day. The main issue is with downloading content to listen to later when offline. When I click and download an entire book it never works when I go to listen to it offline on the plane etc. It downloads, but then says it is buffering and wants me to download it again later on. Please fix this and then you will have a near perfect app. Overall though, 5 stars and great work. Can’t wait to see it get even better and I hope they offer more audio versions of books on the book shelf plus monthly plans.

4 years ago, Moringa4thehealthofit

A Treasure Chest of Spiritual Nourishment

Blessed with a Black Friday invitation to subscribe to DB for $3.99 a month until March, I jumped at the opportunity...and I’m sad to confess that I fully intended to cancel before paying $9.99 afterwards. I will cancel my other subscriptions before I ever let this one go. I have been richly blessed on a daily basis to spend my days being fed by the Spirit through a greater understanding of The Atonement, Forgiveness, Personal Revelation, and so much more by hearing vs. reading. (And I LOVE to read!) The app works great, the content is exceptional, and this subscriber has no intention of canceling her subscription! Download it, and then let the Spirit impress upon you as to which book you would benefit to listen to at this moment of your day! Go and Do!

4 years ago, Evanayrb

2 star app with 5 star content

This app has a long way to go. The immediately glaring lack is any way to view content by genre. The app has about a dozen categories in which it shows 25-ish available titles. Beyond that you better know exactly what you want because search is the only option. How long is the audiobook? No indication. It might be book length. It might be a talk. (In fairness, this essential information is missing from the Deseret website too. Unacceptable.) Is it abridged or not? Again this is not indicated in the description. I only found out when the opening told me the audiobook I had chosen was abridged. What I want doesn’t show up in the “chosen” categories so I want to just browse the collection for something that looks interesting. Sorry. Not available. I am in the 30 day trial. The poor app may be the decision maker in whether I continue into a paid subscription.

4 years ago, CarefulMomma

BOOKSHELF PLUS - FAVORITE SOURCE FOR AUDIO BOOKS

We are a retired couple, and Bookshelf Plus meets our needs in so many ways. Listening to audio books helps me feel informed and entertained. My husband enjoys listening while working in the orchard or riding his bike. We are able to keep up with new publications from favorite church speakers and authors; I also like knowing that any work of fiction will be clean and non-offensive. The book list is long and readers are (for the most part) excellent and easy to listen to. The app has all the functions we need, and a year’s subscription has been a killer deal...we’ve listened to dozens of books for the price of three hard copies. We highly recommend.

7 months ago, Sara AO

Love the Content, search feature awful!

The content of this app is fabulous and life changing. I have listened to so many beautiful books, that have transformed me. But the search feature is awful! There is no way to filter audio books on the search results. The interface is confusing and hard to read (and I’m not old!). Searching for an author is not intuitive and the result are all jumbled with stuff they have contributed too and their books aren’t at the top. Please fix the search feature! I hate it! It always takes way too long to find a book I’m looking for and I have used so many subscription services before, it’s not just user error.

2 years ago, Deffense

Bogus marketing to take advantage of users.

Bogus marketing to take advantage of users, beware. First, you cannot purchase ebooks in the app, you have to login to the web browser… what’s the point of the app at that point. Second, they have deceptive marketing advertising “listen to this ebook for “FREE” with bookshelf plus… then you find out bookshelf plus is a PAID subscription, so not “FREE” then, when you try to sign up for “bookshelf plus” they tell you it’s actually $9.99 a month and not $6.99 a month. If you want the $6.99 price you have to be a magnum elite super charged hyperactive plus but they don’t explain at all what that means… and you won’t know what that means until you sign up for the trial and then at the end of the trial they will “send you an email explaining how to become a super duper stupider Eliete magnum plus max S+ squared member… the whole things smells like a Utah scam… beware…

1 year ago, miggysue2

Perfect

I really love this app! It is amazing to be able to see a book and read it, without worrying about if it is inappropriate. I have been really upset with other apps and libraries because I will start a book that looks tame, and it ends up being awful. It came to a point where I couldn’t read new books for fear of that happening again. I love reading, but I had not read a fresh book in months until I got this app. This is the perfect app for me and I am so grateful I downloaded it. I do kind of wish for a slightly bigger selection of free books but there is still plenty to choose from.

4 years ago, Hildi B

Love this app

I have been using Deseret Bookshelf for over a year now. I love it! I have been able to listen to and read so many more books than I normally would. I love that I don’t have to go to the library or try to find room to store more books. I can get lost in a book while I clean house or drive in the car which makes the day so much more up lifting. The audible books are really special. I love it when the authors give voice to their own book as I can feel the sincerity of their story and words of wisdom. Best of all, this app makes my love of reading more affordable! I have recommended this app to all of my friends and family!!

3 years ago, owkhs

Overall a good app, but have had some frustrating issues

I’ve been a subscriber and user of the app pretty much since it first became available. Overall I really enjoy the app and love all of the access to content that I have. However, the app has randomly signed me out and made me sign back in numerous times, forgotten or not recognized that I’m a subscriber to Bookshelf Plus and as a result deleted from my library anything that I hadn’t purchased, completely crashed and/or frozen several times. I wish the app were more stable and dependable in performance. As another reviewer mentioned it is a bit of an inconvenience that if you pause your book, you have to either double tap play or unlock your phone to get the app to start playing your title again.

3 weeks ago, Good teaching source

Love it!

I love deseret Bookshelf plus, all the books I need at my fingertips. I stick with audio versions and have more than I can ever get through. Plus they’re adding more all the time. *A feature that I would love to see added is a reading history. Sometimes I am looking for a book I’ve read before and want to listen again or am trying to find the name to recommend to a friend. I don’t leave all the books I’ve listened to in my library or I can’t ever find anything. Or maybe a “read before” mark on a books About Me page.

2 years ago, BJ_VL

Highly functional…would love tab sync

I’ve been impressed with the app. Things seem to function mostly well. I have found two issues that I would love solved. First, I do a lot of highlighting and marking of the books that I am reading. Many times, as I’m selecting text with an Apple Pencil the app starts to “freak out” and select everything and scroll on the page. To stop it, I have to select the gear icon and then change from scroll mode to page mode and back. Then things correct for a time. Second, I really wish there was a tab sync across devices. I flip from my iPhone to iPad and back. It would be great if I could keep things in sync.

4 years ago, MnJPS

Love the program,but...

On more than a couple times now I have purchased books, ebooks or audio, and they NEVER show up in my app no matter how many times I reboot app, logout and back in or reboot my iPad. When I call customer service I’m told “Delete app and reload” - I have 232 Books, many are audio, so I not only have to reload ebbs, but I must reload ALL AUDIO CHAPTERS - large files and many of them. My internet is only 10MB/s. Can’t they fix the software? As I said, I love the access to the materials and having so many books in my hand, But I think twice now about buying ANY additional books. I also usually write NO review before I write a negative one. I don’t want to have to think twice when I want a new book. The price of reloading is getting too high to risk.

3 years ago, Substitute 8

It is getting better , still has issues at times

I’ve had this app since it came out and it has gotten better over the years. I have Plus also and enjoy that except I would like to see the ebooks put onto Plus a lot sooner than most of them do. The audio for books come out sooner than the ebooks in most cases. I do listen to fiction when I walk because I need to concentrate and I can’t when I’m listening to doctrinal books. I wish that they would fix little bugs they’ve had for a long time. I’ve had this app since the beginning and in many ways it has improved, but I can’t get bugs fixed. It does take quite a bit of time to get bugs fixed.

5 years ago, Bec654

Great App-Room for improvement

I really like the App. I like that I can search for audio books right from the app. I like how easy it is to choose new items to add. I wish there were a way to show me which books I have read/listened to and which I have not. Over time it will get easy to forget. I like how Audible, for example, says finished next to the books I’ve listened to. It keeps it organized as well as gives a nice feeling of accomplishment. Also, several times while listening, the audio would jump back several chapters. It doesn’t have a very user friendly ‘bookmark’ and I found myself searching for where I was. I’ve been mostly happy with the app but would love to see improvements in the coming updates.

3 years ago, TuckerHans

Deseret Bookshelf

I love this app! I find I am either listening or reading all the time. I love the selection of books available, and the quality of the books. I love that we have access to the new and best sellers as well. As much as I enjoy this app, I am also frustrated by it. It has taken me a long time- more than 6 months to understand how to use it. It could be a lot more user friendly. Most frustrating is when I accidentally touch the screen wrong while reading a book and loose my place- often I end up at the end of the book. There are no page numbers to aid in the recovery either. It can take a very long time to figure out where you were.

6 years ago, I'll get there this time

Awesome app! Some improvement is needed for Bluetooth headphones

I love the book selection and their availability in audiobooks. Thank you so much! The biggest improvement I would suggest is aligning the app’s functions with Bluetooth headphone controls. I use an LG Bluetooth headset, and it works well with other audiobook apps. But with this, instead of skipping forward or backward 30 seconds when I hit the fast forward or rewind buttons, it skips to the next or the previous chapter. I end up having to use the controls on my phone, which partially defeats the purpose is the headphones and makes the app much less usable while I’m driving. That’s when I chose to listen to something else.

4 years ago, Millimama

Like it a lot but logging in too frequently

This app is very user friendly...one you’re in. I got this so I could listen to more books while I’m on the run as a busy mom with 5 kids which I really appreciate. I do, however, feel like I am logging in every day or every other day which is tedious. Once I was on a plane with no WiFi and I hadn’t logged in inside the airport and I wasn’t able to listen to my book on a very long flight. The app also doesn’t save your info on your own personal device like other apps so I have to enter it all in every time. This could definitely be improved. Otherwise I’m so grateful to be able to listen to so many great books!

3 years ago, potchergirl

Would be great if it worked

I find it hard to pay a subscription price for an app that really doesn’t work, customer service is not able to solve issues. It’s a shame that most of these books are not available anywhere else. I feel like my money got taken. Updating because I foolishly tried again—seriously I don’t know how to get Deseret Books attention because they know their customer base is not going to sue them for their terrible subscription-based model combined with content that is inaccessible, and not available anywhere else. DB you are being paid for a service that you do not provide, or at best, provide extremely poorly simply because you are able to have a monopoly on this market. Shame on you. 1) Allow service that does not auto renew or provides a notification before an auto renewal (this is regular old honesty). 2) Please create an app that actually allows users to access the content they paid for, that does not require re-logins (can’t listen to a book while driving) or crash constantly, or tell you users they have a plus membership (which indeed they paid for, if only because they weren’t fast enough to cancel in time) but not allow access to content.

4 years ago, Julie 2937

Plus user

I’m a Plus user, and after a few months of using the app, I like it for the most part. But one major complaint is there’s no way to listen to a book and only have open the particular chapter I’m on. The way it is currently, with all the chapters always displayed, makes it too easy to accidentally hit another chapter (even when just turning off my phone’s screen, for example) and get taken to a different part of the book. Maybe I’m clumsy, but this happens to me way too often. Also, I would love to be able to see details of audiobooks such as the length of the book and the narrator (I listen to a lot of books and this is important to me) without having to go to the DB website.

2 years ago, StillJustShellie

Not intuitive

The app is fine. It does what it should do. But it’s not super user-friendly. I’ve noticed it doesn’t automatically start where I left off after a long pause. Like a day or two. I have to end to the end of a chapter then I pause it. But it doesn’t go on the next chapter when I start again, it starts at the beginning of the chapter I just finished. If I forget to move in manually to the next and realize I’m repeating a chapter it then marks that chapter as unread. Very primitive in my opinion. But I’m listening to church books at least, I don’t have many other options do I deal with it.

4 years ago, Jkh21

Love it, needs work

I love having the Deseret bookshelf app where I can read church books and novels. I also LOVE that the app will let me copy a paragraph so I can put it in my notes in Gospel Library and that it automatically puts the source with it. I love that you can also listen to audio books here too. The one thing that needs work is the chapters. The play button doesn’t react sometimes. It will continue to play where it was even if you push a different chapter. Sometimes the go back 30 seconds doesn’t work either. In both cases, it just continues to play from the previous place even after closing and reopening the app. This is the only problem I have, but it a big one. Needs a fix!

4 years ago, Reddengreen

Confusing interface

Granted, I’ve only been using this app for a few hours but it isn’t as intuitive as I hoped. I subscribed to the Bookshelf Plus and thought all the books in this app would be free. That’s not the case. Only books with a yellow flag are free, and only a few of those show up on the browsing (Discover) page. When I go to the Deseret website, and search fiction, there’s a yellow “plus” sign beneath each book. I thought this might mean it’s available with my subscription but it doesn’t seem to be. I’m still not sure what the “plus” symbol is for. It doesn’t seem to mean anything. “Discover” (in the app) only shows about 20 books in each category. When I looked up an author’s name, one of her books appeared that wasn’t showing in the “Discover” section. If I hadn’t see her in a Seagull Book ad, I would never have “searched” her name and found her book because it wasn’t listed on the home page. Deseret Book claims there are over 2000 free books available. How am I supposed to find them they don’t show up in the “Discover” page? I haven’t actually tried reading a book on the app yet. I hope it’s a smoother experience.

3 months ago, CutieShauna

Best LDS app for reading/listening to books!!

I love and use this app more than any other besides the gospel library app. I commute a lot and I’ve been listening to the incredibly vast number of FREE audiobooks this app offers. It has DRASTICALLY increased my gospel knowledge and the Spirit in my life. We are talking about life-changing. And if you want ebooks, we’ll they have those too. The sheer number of books offered is mind-boggling and more come up every month. Really good books both nonfiction and fiction. There are also a podcast channel or two. You NEED this app in your life!!

3 years ago, stu vite

Stuck in the COVID void

I’m retired and excited for the opportunity to do, try, and see new things. Then COVID shuts the world down. So I decide I better try to get in shape rather than watch re-runs of Seinfeld so I start walking several times per week. Soon the scenery becomes common, my music boring, etc. then I found Bookshelf and listen to the stories of people and events that absolutely are making me a different, hopefully, better person. I got so focused on the “roots of faith” and “rescue” episodes that I missed the street I normally turn on and had to walk an extra mile. Keep these podcasts coming. Jeff.

3 years ago, Brother S. Call

Deseret Bookshelf + for the Win!

I’ve loved having Deseret bookshelf plus. I am not a strong reader by any means, but I’ve fallen in love with learning about the gospel via audiobooks. There have been some amazing and life changing stories and principles taught from the books I’ve listened to. It’s helped me be more productive with my downtime. I’ll listen to books while doing dishes, mowing the lawn, resting in bed, when otherwise the time would’ve been wasted. Very useful. Very encouraging. Highly recommended! The only other feedback I’d leave is that I hope they get more gospel-related audiobooks on here soon!

3 years ago, BDymock

Super Glitchy

The idea behind this is great because you get access to so many books for so little per month. But it’s really glitchy. The app struggles to play continuously. Causing you to have to open your phone, go into the app, and hit play every few minutes. As soon as the you phone locks, instead of playing from your lock screen, it’s just gone and to stop or restart you have to reopen the app. This is extremely FRUSTRATING when other similar apps will let you play as long as you’re listening and if you want to pause or stop you can control that without having to unlock your phone and reenter the app. If this doesn’t get fixed we will cancel after the trial.

1 week ago, Chefs can

Needs work!

Browsing audio books in the app needs some serious work. I listened to almost every doctrinal book I could find on the app(about 6). Then I decided to browse on the website and found tons of wonderful audio books which then required me to search for them on the app to find them. I almost cancelled my subscription because I thought there was just a serious lack in content. That’s not the case at all but finding it on the app through browsing is impossible. I have a really hard time concentrating when reading and audio books are a key to my learning. Please fix the browse function on the app!

4 years ago, 122443353

Love it, but....

Love this app but it randomly makes me re-log in. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. I’ll be listening to an audiobook in the car, stop, go into the store, and when I come back out I have to login to listen again. This is especially an issue because my son also uses this app and we can’t give him the password because it’s the password we use for several other things as well. Can we just log in and stay logged in?? Also, I just can’t listen to the book Jacob T Marley. It kicks me out every time I try to click on it. Does it on my husband’s phone as well. Not for any other book. So strange!

3 years ago, BlueMoosen

Terribly Developed

My first ever experience with this app. It wouldn’t give me any options to buy anything, it kept talking about this “plus” plan but never offered me to sign up, all it would do is pop up a little window with a vague explanation about it. I got this app expecting to be able to have a vast library of uplifting content and I ended up not being able to access anything without it constantly sending me back out of the reader to the book’s landing window (because it was just a sample, I would assume, but it does it from the title page, so it’s not much of a sample) This app is either poorly designed or extremely difficult to use. I just want to buy a book and read it on my phone. I also don’t understand how an ebook can be sold out... The star button also doesn’t work.

Description

Search, study, and listen to the entire Deseret Book library with this powerful app. Deseret Bookshelf has been completely redesigned, making it the most comprehensive LDS audiobook player and eBook reader available. Start with 8 free eBooks and access to over 200 other free titles. Then you can either purchase individual ebooks, talks and audiobooks OR subscribe to Bookshelf PLUS and access the entire audiobook library and over 1500 ebooks and talks. Discover ● Get recommendations on audiobooks and eBooks. ● Find plenty of free titles, ready for you to enjoy. ● Download an audiobook or eBook with a single tap. ● Add titles to your digital wishlist ● View the items you last opened on any of your synced devices. Audiobook player ● Listen to over 700 audiobooks and talks. ● Navigate between chapters and fast-forward or rewind by 30 seconds. Better reading ● Select Normal, Night, or Sepia reading modes. ● Customize fonts, font size, and line spacing. ● Switch between Page-view and scroll-view options. Enhanced study ● Switch between several open eBooks with tabbed reading. ● Save and restore study sessions with several items open at once. ● Access and back-up your notes, highlights, and bookmarks across devices. Universal Search ● Search the entire Deseret Book digital library (over 6,000,000 pages) in seconds. ● Narrow your search through your personal library, the standard works, a conference session, or a single book. ● Find exact phrases, any, or all search terms. ● Easily switch between your library and search results Quote Vault ● Access thousands of quotes in our quote vault which you can find by author, topic, or source. ● Get a spiritual thought or to help you begin your day right. ● Mark favorite quotes and add them to the vault. ● Find the source of favorite quotes, and explore the content more deeply. ● Receive daily inspiration with a new quote delivered to your device. Set a reminder on a daily or weekly basis. Social sharing ● Easily share favorite passages with anyone through email, Facebook, and Twitter with image quotes. ● Tell your networks what books and authors you’re reading Download the app and create an account to receive 8 free classic LDS titles, plus a free audiobook: 1) Increase in Learning - David A. Bednar 2) Power of Everyday Missionaries - Clayton M. Christensen 3) Beginning of Better Days - Sheri Dew, Virginia Pearce 4) Be Your Best Self - Thomas S. Monson 5) Jesus the Christ - James E. Talmage 6) Lectures on Faith - Joseph Smith 7) Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith 8) Gospel Doctrine - Joseph F. Smith Plus the entire Standard Works, LDS lesson manuals, and General Conference talks. LDS scripture references within eBooks are linked to the entire standard works, allowing you to easily explore scriptural connections within your library. PLUS your choice of the following audio: ● Recovering Charles ● Joseph Smith, The Early Years ● Jesus of Nazareth, Volume 1 Shop our eBook store for over 3,000 LDS eBook titles and other world classics from your favorite authors. Shop our audio store for over 500 titles. Download many official Church publications for free, including curriculum materials and reference books. Bookshelf PLUS includes access to every single Deseret Audiobook and over 1500 ebooks and talks. Need more help? Email us at [email protected]