# Back to the Story — Read, Listen, Track Every Book

> Read, Listen, Track Every Book (iPhone/iPad app by Thad Judkins.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/back-to-the-story/id6811297859 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Thad Judkins](https://appshunter.io/developer/6804347101)
- Category: Books, Productivity
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 18.0 · 219 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-10-27
- Data updated: 2026-11-06

## What is Back to the Story?

Some chapters are for reading. Some are for listening. Back to the Story is built for people who do both, and who like to remember what they read.

Read your ebook over coffee, then switch to the audiobook when you head out the door. Back to the Story carries your place between the page and the recording automatically, so you always pick up right where you left off. When you finish, give the book a rating and a few notes, and it joins your reading journal for good.

READ AND LISTEN IN ONE APP
• A comfortable ebook reader and a full-featured audiobook player, side by side
• Pair an ebook with its audiobook and switch between them whenever you like
• Your position follows you: stop reading mid-chapter, start listening at the same sentence

TRACK EVERY BOOK YOU READ
• Rate books with one to five stars and keep private notes on each one
• Mark books read or reread, and see your progress on every cover
• Reviews keeps a permanent record of every book you've had, even after you delete its files to free up space
• Sort your shelf by rating, author, recently read or read status, and search your notes
• Set a yearly reading goal with the Pizza-Based Book Tracker: earn a gold star for every book you finish and watch the pizza fill in
• Export your library and reviews, and import them again on a new phone

NO AUDIOBOOK? NO PROBLEM
• Private on-device Text to Speech reads any ebook aloud
• Start from any word: tap it and choose "Read to me from here"
• Three voice models, so it sounds good on older and newer iPhones alike:
  – Most Expressive Model: the most natural delivery, for newer iPhones
  – Balanced Model: the default, quality and speed in step
  – Best Performance Model: light enough for every supported iPhone
• Create your own voice from a short recording or audio clip, made and kept on your iPhone
• Compare models and voices side by side before you choose
• It tracks your place just like a recording, so you can switch back to reading
• Voices run entirely on your iPhone: no account, no internet needed to listen

LISTEN ANYWHERE
• Keep listening with the screen locked
• Skip, speed and sleep-timer controls
• Works fully offline once your books are on your phone: reading, listening and Text to Speech

YOUR LIBRARY, YOUR WAY
• List, grid and shelf views, plus five color themes from warm paper to bright lagoon
• Group books into collections
• Add books from the Files app, including iCloud Drive
• Ebooks: EPUB, PDF, unencrypted MOBI, TXT, Markdown, HTML, RTF and FictionBook
• Audiobooks: M4B, or MP3 files in a folder or ZIP
• Bookmarks, find in book, dictionary look-up and pronunciation fixes built in
• No account, no sign-up, no tracking

TRY PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS
Reading and your reading journal are always free. Audiobook playback and Text to Speech come with a 30-day free trial. After that, unlock them forever with Back to the Story Pro, a single one-time purchase. No subscription.

Back to the Story works with DRM-free files. Books bought through stores that lock their files to their own apps can't be opened.

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Back to the Story Pro | $9.99 | one-time |


## Is Back to the Story safe?

Not enough ratings yet to assess Back to the Story.

## Is Back to the Story legit?

Back to the Story has limited verification signals. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Back to the Story is 58 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.


## Version history (last 4 releases)

### 1.2.1 — 2026-11-03

• Your place in the book stays put. Jumping to a chapter, bookmark or search result just shows you that page; only listening moves your place.
• Find in Book bolds the words you searched, highlights the result you pick, and remembers your search for a minute.
• The quick scroller beside the page no longer changes your place, and takes up less of the screen.
• The voice models are now named for what they do: Most Expressive, Balanced and Best Performance.
• Text to Speech pronounces accented words (café, résumé), past tenses and possessives more naturally.
• Playback recovers more reliably after a phone call, and a paused book stays paused when your car's audio changes.
• Pressing play from the library shows when the voice is getting ready.

### 1.2 — 2026-10-31

A new name: Back to the Story. Same app, same library, same place in every book.

• Shelf view binds each spine in leather or patterned cloth, and long titles wrap onto two lines.
• If playback ever stops on its own, the lock screen and Dynamic Island now switch to Play instead of looking stuck on Pause.
• Help has an Email Support button, and Share Diagnostics sends the playback log and crash reports if something goes wrong.
• Small fixes and polish.

### 1.1 — 2026-10-29

Book?Book! 1.1 is a reading tracker as well as a reader.

• Reviews: rate every book, keep notes, mark reads and rereads. Your journal keeps every book you've had, even after you delete its files.
• Pizza-Based Book Tracker: a yearly reading goal with a gold star for every book you finish.
• Three on-device voice models, numbered from most expressive to fastest, so Text to Speech sounds good on older iPhones too.
• Create a Voice: make your own Text to Speech voice from a short recording or audio clip.
• Compare models and voices: hear samples side by side before you choose.
• Five color themes, plus grid and shelf views for your library.
• Export and import your library and reviews.
• The free trial is now 30 days.
• Smoother narration, smarter reading of dates, times and Roman numerals, and many fixes.

### 1.0 — 2026-10-27

No release notes.

## More apps by Thad Judkins

- [Locus – Genome Viewer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/locus-genome-viewer/id6804515827)

All apps by Thad Judkins: https://appshunter.io/developer/6804347101

## Related topics

[read and listen to books offline](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/read-and-listen-to-books-offline) · [backstory](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/backstory)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-11-06.*