Appworthy
Hard to cancel
Reported by 52 usersHard to cancel: raised by 52 distinct reviewers (about 1 in 37 reviews we read)
Definition
Cancelling the subscription is blocked, hidden, multi-step, or simply does not take effect.
NovRead
Embark on a literary voyage through NovRead, where you'll uncover the spellbi…
HONG KONG LITERARY EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITEDGoogle Play rating4.5★10.7K ratings
PriceFreeIn-app purchases
Age12+Store age rating
CategoryEducation
What we found
Full reportSerious warnings 2 confirmed warnings, and users report 1 more thing. Checked: 1,948 reviews, the store listing and the privacy label.
Money
- Free to download · in-app purchases. Google Play doesn’t publish per-purchase prices.
- Hard to cancelConfirmed · reported by 52 users
- If you subscribe through the store, cancel in Google Play → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions. Deleting the app doesn’t cancel a subscription.
Paywalls and prices
Ads
From our automated analysis, 31 Oct 2026. Every label links to its evidence in the full report below.
This analysis describes version 5.2.0 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-31 .
The store currently lists version 5.2.0, updated 2026-09-15.
Preview
Store screenshots supplied by the developer.
About this app
Embark on a literary voyage through NovRead, where you'll uncover the spellbinding worlds of supernatural romance and intrigue. Our platform is your ticket to the fantastical realms of Werewolves, commanding Alphas, elusive Vampires, influential Business Titans, predestined Soulmates, and heartwarming Maternal Bonds. Each story is a passionate journey, a tender embrace, or a gripping mystery waiting to be unraveled.
NovRead offers an unending stream of fresh chapters, a lifeline against the mundane, ensuring you're never without a new tale to captivate your imagination. Our global network of accomplished authors pens narratives that resonate with readers across the spectrum, positioning NovRead as the pinnacle of digital storytelling for web fiction enthusiasts.
Here's what awaits you on NovRead:
- Lose yourself in the depths of timeless love stories and ethereal web novels.…
From the developer’s store description.
For developers and the curious
The full report
The evidence, sources, measurements and versions behind every label above.
Findings and evidence
Things to watch for 2
Findings that met the published evidence standard.
Open evidence
Aggressive ad load
Reported by 46 usersAggressive ad load: raised by 46 distinct reviewers (about 1 in 42 reviews we read)
Definition
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
How we know
Positives 1
Specific evidence of a useful property, within the stated scope.
Developer says data deletion can be requested
MeasuredThe developer's store data-safety disclosure states that data deletion can be requested; we have not seen a deletion control in the app's own text
Definition
The developer's data-safety disclosure on the store states that users can request deletion of their data, or the app's own text offers a way to delete the account. This restates what the developer declares; it is not a test of whether deletion works. Apple publishes no equivalent disclosure, so on an Apple-only listing only the app's own text can support it.
One source only — shown, not confirmed 1
Open observations that have not cleared the evidence bar.
Paywall blocks the basics
One source onlyPaywall blocks the basics: raised by 10 distinct reviewers (about 1 in 195 reviews we read)
This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.
Definition
The core of the app — not extras — sits behind payment, or previously-free function moved behind a paywall.
How we know
What reviewers report
1,948 reviews read for this analysis. Each observation keeps the sample and store it was based on.
Hard to cancel
Published findingRaised by 52 distinct reviewers — about 1 in 37 reviews we read on this store leg (Google Play).
Subscription is a scam! I regret not reading the reviews before subscribing to this app. As everyone is saying, it is impossible to cancel your subscription. Why subscribe in the first place? The chapters are locked and the only way to…
Expensive as hell, and the free option doesn't allow you to get anywhere with a story. The subscription is proving to be next to impossible to cancel. On top of that, the stories are actually AWFUL - low quality, illiterate, terribly…
PLEASE DO NOT SUBSCRIBE THIS PREDATORY APP BECAUSE YOU CAN'T CANCEL IT. ALSO, MOST STORIES ARE UNFINISHED & LACKLUSTER. MY ADVICE: EITHER FREEZE YOUR CARD OR HAVE IT CHANGED.
Aggressive ad load
Published findingRaised by 46 distinct reviewers — about 1 in 42 reviews we read on this store leg (Google Play).
loads of ads, makes you watch 3 to 4 ads per theri 4/4 add que means you watching 16 ads at most for that 4/4 add requirement and when your done and about to read the chapter you unlocked it gives you a bonus add so like 17 adds before…
Subscription is a scam! I regret not reading the reviews before subscribing to this app. As everyone is saying, it is impossible to cancel your subscription. Why subscribe in the first place? The chapters are locked and the only way to…
It's fine to watch ad to unlock chapters which is common to many apps BUT you need to watch 6 ads to unlock 1 chapter and have 2 changes only to watch 6 ads. The chapter worth 150 coins. In reward you only earn little coins that it would…
Paywall blocks the basics
Shown, not confirmedeverything is behind a paywall even if you watch a ton of ads. either keep it a paid app or let ads unlock chapters. I don't see the point in ads without any rewards.
A sampled review illustrates one person’s experience. It does not establish a finding on its own.
Measurements
“Not assessed” means we could not measure it. It is never a zero and never a pass.
From store data and reviews
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to fewer than 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
The store description doesn’t list prices (most don’t)
Cancelling, in the store description
The store description doesn’t say how to cancel (most don’t)
Themes reported by reviewers
3 or more themes reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
80–89% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.
In the app package we scanned
No package has been scanned for this app, so nothing is published about what it ships. That is an absence of evidence, not a finding.
Sensitive permissions
Not assessed
No package has been scanned for this app
Analytics or tracking SDKs in the scanned package
Not assessed
No package has been scanned for this app
Advertising SDKs in the scanned package
Not assessed
No package has been scanned for this app
How we know
Supporting measurements: not a complete list of possible harms or positives. Measurement vocabulary 1.4 · how these are measured
Versions and dates analysed
This analysis describes version 5.2.0 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-31 .
The store currently lists version 5.2.0, updated 2026-09-15.
Store update history
Each store’s release notes, as the developer wrote them. They are the developer’s words, not ours.
Google Play
Version 5.2.0 · 2026-09-15
No release notes were provided for this version.
Assessment record
- Status
- Automated analysis
- App identifier
novread-google-com-cwtech-novread- Assessment date
- 31 Oct 2026
- Sources used
- 3 independent signals: user reviews, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure
- Reviews read
- 1,948
- Package examined
- No package scan
- Human inspection
- Not completed
Assessed 2026-10-31 from 1,948 user reviews, the store listing and its privacy label. We have not scanned the app's package, so nothing on this page was read from inside the app itself.
How we know
- Measurement vocabulary
- 1.4
How this page was produced
Analyzed 2026-10-31 Version analyzed: 5.2.03 independent signals1,948 reviews scannedConfidence: LowNot human-reviewedVocabulary v1.14Methodology v1.3
Signals run: user reviews, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure. Not yet checked: SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text and the app manifest.
Store facts
What the stores publish. Store ratings are the stores’ numbers, not Appworthy’s, and are never averaged across stores.
Google Play
- Store rating
- 4.52 ★ · 10,714 ratings
- Version
- 5.2.0
- Updated
- 15 Sep 2026
- Price
- Free · In-app purchases
- Age rating
- 12+
- Size
- Not supplied
- Developer
- HONG KONG LITERARY EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED
- Category
- Education
- Listing price
- Free · In-app purchases
Purchases the store lists
What this app sells
Google Play doesn’t publish per-purchase prices.
Method and limits
How the automated analysis works
This assessment is produced automatically. Three independent signals are read — user reviews, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure — and each candidate finding is filed under the sources that support it.
No charge stands on one kind of evidence — with one published exception. A finding is either a measured fact that anyone can reproduce (an ad SDK is in the package; every recurring plan the store lists is named as weekly, the term read from the purchase names, with a list cut off at the store’s 10-item maximum not assessed; the privacy label omits a tracker we can see), or it is an interpretation — and an interpretation needs independent sources to agree before it reaches the catch list. The exception is a harm only users can see: a charge may publish from reviews alone, as “Reported by N users”, once enough reviewers raise it to clear that charge’s own published bar. That agreement rule is what replaced the human reviewer, not a model’s confidence.
There is no overall score, on purpose. A 0–99 number was published here until 2026-09-15. It was withdrawn because it discriminated too weakly to be the instrument — 44.7% of every pair of apps tied — and because a single number is a verdict where a count is an observation. What publishes instead is a row of measurements, each of which says what was counted and, where we could not look, says that instead.
Findings under One source only are real reports we do not stand behind as findings. They are shown because withholding them entirely would hide a genuine complaint, and labelled because publishing them as charges would be an accusation off a single source.
Limits of this report
- A package scan is static. It identifies code and text in one Android build. It does not measure a live ad session, test a deletion request, or count the steps needed to cancel.
- Reviews keep their sample. A review-only charge shows distinct reviewers, the share and the sample size, and is published only once it clears that label’s published threshold. Calibration labels are machine-drafted and not yet confirmed by a person.
- Not assessed is a state. It is never a zero and never a pass.
- A missing label is not a clean bill of health. It means the evidence did not support one, not that the app is problem-free.
Not yet human-reviewed. A hands-on test can confirm or contradict a finding and adds its own measurements; it does not change a measurement row. Hands-on inspections are not yet open.
Request a correction
Write to [email protected], or use the form. Name the finding, the app version and the evidence that needs correcting. Factual corrections are free and never depend on buying anything.