A writing desk at night: an open journal and a pen, a lit candle, a glass of red wine, two clothbound books and a brass vase of dark flowers.

Slowburn

For the books
that stay with you.

A private reading journal for romance readers.
Your journal stays on your phone. No account required.
Keep the feeling. Read with your people. Shape what comes next.

Get Slowburn Explore the world

Some stories don’t just entertain you. They rearrange you.

The Journal

Romance

The Psychology of the Slow Burn

Why the longest wait in romance is also the most addictive one. What a slow burn does to a reader, chapter by chapter, and why we keep coming back for the ache.

Read the feature

Reading Life

How to Start a Reading Journal

A reading journal is the difference between books you read and books you remember. What to write, what to skip, and how to keep one going past the third week.

Slowburn

How Slowburn’s Burn Rating Works

The Burn is a five-flame dial you tap while you read, not a star rating you give at the end. How it captures the shape of a book, what the five heats mean, and what happens when you finish.

Romantasy

Books Like Fourth Wing

Finished Fourth Wing and need the next dragon, the next war college, the next enemies-to-lovers with a body count? Nine romantasy reads that scratch the same itch, and what each one does differently.

All stories

Your reading life all in one place.

My shelf

The Slowburn shelf: rows of book spines with coloured ribbons marking progress.

View shelf → Your Reading Identity

A Reading Identity card: The Held Breath, with heat, pace and what you fall for.

See yours → The Burn

The Burn dial: five flames, the fifth lit, and the curve of five nights with one book.

Watch it → Monthly Post-Mortem

The Monthly Post-Mortem: a proper month, eight books, the month's numbers.

See full recap →

Watch the burnHow badly does the book have you, right now?A rating tells you how it ended. The Burn remembers how it felt getting there.

Keep the feelingWrite the book down while it’s still in you.Rating, spice, tropes, moods, the line you kept, the note nobody reads.

Discover your reading identityWhat kind of reader you are, with receipts.Ten insights, each with its receipts: how many books, and what it still needs.

Starting

You don’t have to start over.

Bring the reading history that already exists. Slowburn reads your Goodreads or StoryGraph export on your phone, keeps what your old shelf knew, and leaves its own fields blank rather than guessing at them. Your export file never leaves your phone.

Import from GoodreadsThe library export, read on your phone.
Import from StoryGraphQuarter stars converted, the original kept.
Add a few recent readsThe last handful you finished, in a minute or two.
Start with the book in your handsEverything else can wait.

A long table after a book club: leather chairs pushed back, open books at every place, wine, petals, a sealed envelope and one candle still burning.

Community

Read alone.
Belong somewhere.

A reader community around taste, not popularity. It starts close: people you chose, a book read together, a say in what gets built.

Explore community

CircleA few people you invited, one at a time.

Buddy ReadsRead together. Suffer, in a good way, together.

A Buddy Read: two readers' positions on the same page bar, with a sealed note waiting.

SharingA book, a verdict, a month, a burn. On your terms.

Shape Slowburn

You’re early. That’s the point.

Vote on ideas. See what’s next. Help build what you wish existed.

In development

The Slowburn Library 0

Under consideration

Rearrange books in the shelf 0
Back up my shelf 0
Series tracking 0
Reread history 0
My limits 0
Book clubs 0
Hear when an idea you voted for moves 0

Shipped

The Burn ✓
Reading Identity ✓
Monthly Post-Mortem ✓
Circle ✓
Buddy Reads ✓
Home-screen widgets ✓
Import from Goodreads and StoryGraph ✓
Export your journal ✓

See the whole board

Explore by obsession

For reader voices

Your voice.
Our future.

Reviews, takes, stories and a reader page that is yours are the next chapter, not this one. Reader profiles, pen names and public reading identities are being built now, in the open, and the creators who apply today help decide how they work.

Apply for early creator access