In the past six months, my sister and my fiance—both voracious readers—got iPhones and rapidly became devoted to their devices with a fervor rarely matched. Not since my sister took up knitting or my fiance read his first historical analysis of World War II have these two intelligent people been so consumed.

Obviously, as soon as Shortcovers came out, I sent both of them a link thinking it was a perfect fit. Imagine my surprise when both of them came back to me with a solid ‘meh’ after trying it out. Here’s why these dedicated bibliophiles were decidedly underwhelmed.