# Novelwave: An Audiobook Player — user reviews > 53 indexed App Store user reviews of Novelwave by Mihai Petrenco, rated 4.70/5 from 55 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/novelwave-an-audiobook-player/id6720100886/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/novelwave-an-audiobook-player/id6720100886.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 49 · 4★ 2 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 2 ## Newest reviews (13 of 53) ### 5/5 — Rare find *2026-06-02* It is so rare these days to find a simple app that does what you want. I rarely rate apps, but Novelwave was such a breeze that I had to rate it and send a thanks to the devs! ### 5/5 — Simple and great audiobook player *2026-05-30* Plays all my audiobooks without a problem. Simple, no nonsense app. The dev keeps adding new features. Love it! ### 5/5 — Cant be beat! *2026-05-29* The best dev around, fixes every issue I encounter and still the app is fluid and smooth and just so GOOD. Carplay CHECK Organization CHECK Sleep timer CHECK **Developer response:** Hey there! Version 2.0 should fix all playback tracking issues, and CarPlay is indeed planned as a feature. Stay tuned :) ### 5/5 — Just awesome *2026-05-28, version 2.4.2* Indie dev, zero data collection and telemetry, responsive to feedback. Really happy with this app and grateful for developers like this. ### 5/5 — Works great nice app *2026-05-26* Really nice minimalist app works great simple easy to use. Thanks so much for making it available for everyone, very kind of you. ### 5/5 — Exceptional *2026-05-16, version 2.4.2* Literally everything I wanted in an audiobook player. Entirely free, no ads, no servers nonsense, just purely local files being played with a great, minimalistic UI. ### 5/5 — Excellent app *2026-05-16* Smooth app. Easy to use and import files. Great organization tools. I’ve been using it for several weeks and it just works. I tried several other apps and this one is by far the most responsive and reliable. I definitely recommend. ### 5/5 — Simple and clean *2026-05-05* I switched from the default Books app to this one because I did not like how the default Books app has so many other features and a storefront. If you just want a simple audiobook player, this is it. ### 5/5 — The best alternative to iOS books *2026-05-05* I’ve been using this app instead of iOS Books, and honestly it’s been a much better experience. It’s incredibly easy to use, the interface is clean and simple, and everything just works the way it should. What I appreciate most is the freedom it gives users to add their own books without unnecessary restrictions or complicated steps. That alone makes it stand out from other reading apps. It makes organizing and accessing my library effortless. A big thank you to the developers for creating an app that clearly puts users first. You’ve built something practical, reliable, and refreshingly straightforward. It’s rare to find an app this well thought out these days — keep up the excellent work! ### 5/5 — I’ve tried them all- this is THE BEST. *2026-05-05* Truly trying to enjoy this while it’s free because nothing this good stays free forever! I’ve tried tons of audiobook player apps and this one is by far my favorite. ### 5/5 — Top Audiobook Player *2026-04-08* The player is really great. It has everything you could want in an audiobook player. There’s just one thing I’d like to see added: the ability to rename the title and author if you made a typo. **Developer response:** Hi Andy - glad you're enjoying the app! You can swipe left to edit audiobook details, which allows you to change the title, author, audiobook cover artwork, as well as add missing metadata if needed. Drop me an email if you encounter any issues with this. ### 5/5 — Perfect *2026-03-31* Everything you want and need. This should have 5 stars and a 99c price tag at the least. it’s that good ### 5/5 — Great, functional, improvements are easy *2026-03-19* Sometimes my place gets lost or playback stops unexpectedly or fails to stop. Carplay support would be nice. I would pay 5-10$ for these fixes. EDIT: tracking is fixed!!! The best!!! **Developer response:** Hey there! Version 2.0 should fix all playback tracking issues, and CarPlay is indeed planned as a feature. Stay tuned :) ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Forces you to pick artwork *2026-07-29, version 2.5.4* I don’t want to pick a random picture from my photos to use as the audiobook artwork. Just let it be a question mark. ### 1/5 — Latest Update NUKED My Entire Library *2026-04-05* I really liked this app, but, when I ran the latest update it completely nuked my whole library. Hundreds of books, dozens of playlists, bookmarks, and notes all gone. Needless to say, this is unacceptable. Since I cannot trust that it won’t happen again, so I will have to move on…and continue the search for the right audiobook app. Devs please don’t let this happen to other people! UPDATE: 4/5/26 - the developer left a reply to this review, saying that it was a one time thing. He is either incompetent or is not telling the truth. Unfortunately, I took him at his word and rebuilt my library only to have the most recent update again nuke my entire library. There’s simply no way to use this app long-term if you are an audiobook person. Having to rebuild your library again and again makes no sense for someone who listens to more than one audiobook a year. Shame on the developer! **Developer response:** Hi there! First of all, let me say that I'm really sorry this happened. Version 2 required a one-time migration of your old library to a new database, and it seems that there are some edge cases where the migration fails, despite me trying my best to test it multiple times. The good news is that this is a one-time issue, and moving forward there won't be any more changes to the structure of your collection. Nevertheless, I completely understand your frustration and skepticism, and will do my best to be more cautious in the future. Thank you for the feedback and for giving Novelwave a try! ### 1/5 — Latest Update NUKED My Entire Library *2026-03-19* I really liked this app, but, when I ran the latest update it completely nuked my whole library. Hundreds of books, dozens of playlists, bookmarks, and notes all gone. Needless to say, this is unacceptable. Since I cannot trust that it won’t happen again, so I will have to move on…and continue the search for the right audiobook app. Devs please don’t let this happen to other people! **Developer response:** Hi there! First of all, let me say that I'm really sorry this happened. Version 2 required a one-time migration of your old library to a new database, and it seems that there are some edge cases where the migration fails, despite me trying my best to test it multiple times. The good news is that this is a one-time issue, and moving forward there won't be any more changes to the structure of your collection. Nevertheless, I completely understand your frustration and skepticism, and will do my best to be more cautious in the future. Thank you for the feedback and for giving Novelwave a try! ### 2/5 — Keeps pausing playback😮‍💨 *2026-03-24* I love the super simple importing, all the playback and skipping options, bookmarking options and everything else but it stops playing if I move to another app and even when my phone goes back to the Lock Screen. Is there a way to prevent this? **Developer response:** Hi there! Thanks for reaching out about this. Honestly, it's the first time this issue was encountered, so I'm kind of at a loss 😅. I sent you some questions/instructions via email that might help me understand what exactly is happening, and perhaps we can find a solution. Cheers! ### 2/5 — Deleted all my books *2026-01-29, version 1.6.1* I had 130hours + of books on there and they deleted all of them suddenly by itself other than that the app is great ### 4/5 — Almost perfect. *2026-08-16, version 2.6.0* Good app, though the AirPods forward and rewind commands don’t work for some reason. ### 4/5 — Books taking up 30gb *2026-06-03* Will cloud functionality be available soon? ### 4/5 — Works just fine, but missing quality of life features *2026-04-12* This app does exactly what it needs to do (except for that one time when my library broke out of nowhere and I had to reimport it, losing my current locations in the books :c). I LOVE that you can set sleep timers not only by time but by selecting specific chapters. However, I am missing some quality of life features: - Option that fast forward / backwards doesn't extend over chapters - Option that pressing pause also skips back a few seconds - During chapter selection for sleep timer, start at the current chapter not at the beginning, so you don't have to spend ages scolling **Developer response:** Hey! Check out version 2.4.0 when you have some time, as it has some of your suggestions added - mainly skipping across files and rewinding on pause. Some of these options might need to be enabled in Settings first. Cheers! ### 4/5 — Untitled *2025-09-01* It doesn't save reading position when closed from the background. ### 4/5 — Untitled *2025-08-13* It's good except that it forgets playback position when the app is closed from the background. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Awesome Player *2026-08-23* I liked the player and I emailed to see if something was available and the change got pushed through. Absolutely fantastic! My go-to audiobook player. ### 5/5 — A brilliant audiobook player particularly for a blind thed partially cited *2026-08-01, version 2.6.0* I have found this app to be a brilliant audiobook Player. The developer seems very friendly and helpful and has implemented a couple of suggestions that I have made. I would recommend it to blind and partially excited users as the implementation of the VoiceOver is excellent. The amazing thing is that it is free. ### 5/5 — Almost Perfect *2026-07-23* It’s the best audiobook app for listening to your own file collection. I wish it had full CarPlay implementation. You can listen and control playback using CarPlay’s now playing interface after starting a book from the phone. You cannot open novelwave or choose a book directly from the CarPlay screen. ### 5/5 — Love it *2026-07-14, version 2.5.4* I’ve used a couple of similar apps and this works really well for audiobooks. ### 5/5 — And it’s free, too?!!! *2026-06-27* So, the fact that there were so few reviews made me doubt the high rating, and the fact that it was free had me doubting it was any good at all. But, after reading the other reviews, AND seeing the praise for and responses from the developer, I decided to give it a chance. In a word…? SUPURB!!! Interface and controls and pretty intuitive, and I love the prompting for combining files into one book and the details box. Only thing I can see missing is being able to grab that details info from the file meta data. Maybe that a future update? **Developer response:** Hey, thanks for the kind words! If you're referring to audiobook details populating from existing file metadata, that should already be there. I'll double-check just to make sure. Feel free to drop me an email with your suggestion and I'll be sure to take a look. ### 5/5 — Love it *2026-06-25* Didn’t think an app like this would exist. Searched for it nonetheless. Found this. Love it! Simply perfect! ### 5/5 — Top Audiobook Player *2026-06-18* The player is really great. It has everything you could want in an audiobook player. There’s just one thing I’d like to see added: the ability to rename the title and author if you made a typo. **Developer response:** Hi Andy - glad you're enjoying the app! You can swipe left to edit audiobook details, which allows you to change the title, author, audiobook cover artwork, as well as add missing metadata if needed. Drop me an email if you encounter any issues with this. ### 5/5 — Simple Yet Superb *2026-06-16* This is a great example of an app that is well designed and coded to accomplish the single purpose it was created for. I use it to listen to audiobooks that I bought without DRM on my iPad Pro. Just enough customization and features to make the player disappear into the background while enjoying the audiobook. I honestly wish there was a “tip” in-app purchase available. This app is WORTH a contribution in my opinion. The only “wish list” feature I can suggest would be to allow access to audiobook files outside of the app versus importing them. I have many already stored locally on my iPad in the Files app but they have to be copied into Novelwave to be used which uses more storage of course. ### 5/5 — Amazing *2026-06-04* It’s crazy that is app is free and without ads ### 5/5 — Love it *2026-06-03, version 2.5.1* I’ve used a couple of similar apps and this works really well for audiobooks. --- *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 2026-08-27.*