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Ok, I got on there (using their website), read a book, and have some thoughts.
First off, there's been no attempt to merge separate author records. Roberta A. Macavoy and R. A. Macavoy are listed as separate authors, each of whom have written about half her corpus. This happens for other authors where the names are identical (Gillian Bradshaw and Gillian Bradshaw-- listed as separate authors each with different books, although the books are all by the same author). And, even more confusing, search on the Author "Dave Duncan" and you'll see a list of his books, all for purchase and not covered by the subscriptio. But browse the Fantasy shelves and there are a ton of Dave Duncan books (many of them the same titles as the "purchase" books) available for borrowing. And Duncan is far from the only author with this issue. There is a related issue, where an author may have different editions of the same book, one available for borrowing and the other not, as well.
Searching and browsing shows only book covers. This makes it impossible to use the browser to search for a specific title or author on the page. I have also seen what appear to be the wrong covers for books (you can mouseover the cover to get more info; in these cases the mouseover shows a completely different book than the cover).
Different language is used for adding a book to your library, depending on what UI screen you're on. Confusing.
This all combines to make searching for books fairly tedious and slow. You have to hit the database several ways to make sure you've got everything they have by a specific author. I put a number of hours in, though, and have a few hundred books to read in my library.
The collection: it's kind of spotty and tends to have a lot of backlist, small publishers, and self-pubs, but on the other hand, there are TONS of works by some loved authors, and there are really strong collections in some niche genres that I like, so it will be worth the three months.
The app: I found the web-based app easy to use, enough options to get it readable without getting distracted by features. I like the 2-page view. It'll probably be better on a tablet when I get one, so I can take the book more places. But I read an entire book last night--I agree with Blossom that the Sepia theme is easy on the eyes.
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