About Love at First Pages
Love at First Pages is built on a simple belief: every book deserves a chance to hook you before its cover, title, or author shapes your opinion.
Readers swipe through anonymous first pages. Swipe right, and the book is revealed, along with where to get it. Writers learn how real readers responded: who passed, who kept reading, and who got hooked.
Why I built it
Books have never been trendier, yet we're reading less than ever. A 2025 study found that the share of Americans reading for pleasure on an average day fell from nearly a third in 2004 to about one in six in 2023. The researchers called it a sustained, steady decline of about 3% per year.
That matters, because reading novels is good for us. Research links fiction reading to a stronger ability to understand what other people think and feel. And in a Yale study that followed thousands of adults for 12 years, people who read books more than 3.5 hours a week had a 23% lower risk of dying than non-readers.
As a writer and a lifelong reader, the decline scared the bejeezus out of me. So I built Love at First Pages: a playful, game-like way to rediscover the pure joy of reading.
I wanted to make it easier to find books and emerging writers you'll genuinely love, without the hype of marketing campaigns or celebrity book club picks. Just a first page, your gut reaction, and the thrill of finding out what you fell for.
My mom inspired the rest. She borrows Kindle books from her local library in Florida, one at a time, and often waits for the next one. But hundreds of beloved classics from past centuries are free to download and keep forever. On Love at First Pages, she can discover the ones she loves, fill her Kindle for free, and always have something great to read. And so can you.
I'm Jess Barron. For more than 25 years, I've led content and editorial teams at places like Yahoo! News, LIVESTRONG, and Headspace, studying what makes people stop scrolling and start reading. My writing has appeared in Wired, Fortune, Entrepreneur, Yahoo!, and LIVESTRONG, and I've spoken at SXSW, BinderCon, and Create & Cultivate.
I'm also a fiction writer. I recently finished my first novel, How to Un-Murder Your Life, and I have two more in progress, so I know how much rides on a first page. My personal essay "The Money Tree" appears in (HER)OICS: Women's Lived Experiences during the Coronavirus Pandemic (Pact Press/Regal House), which was named one of “18 new small-press books you won't want to put down.”
Meet the words before the cover.
Read your first anonymous opening or put your own first page to the test.