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Unpacking the Book Box Club’s Purely Books subscription

Book Box Club: Purely Books subscription

Book Subscription boxes : Do you hate them, love them, love them but hate you can’t afford ’em all? Let me know your thoughts!

I, however, fall in the third category. I love Book boxes with special edition books and merches but looking at shipping costs gives me a headache. If I really really love a book, then I just ignore the sorry state of my bank account and order the box right away.

Today, I am going to show and tell you why you should subscribe to the Book Box Club! I’ve been recently selected to be a part of the Book Box Club‘s Blogger’s Army along with fifteen other amazing bloggers.

Book Box Club: Purely Books subscription

Book Box Club is a book subscription box, founded by Libby and Kate, who met selling books in a cosy independent bookshop back in 2010. They became inseparable bookish buddies who spent their evenings talking books, baking bad cookies, swimming blindly side-by-side (no contact lenses in the pool!) and singing pop ballads together.

Book Box Club actually came about after a late night biscuit-fuelled conversation, that went something like this:

Kate: I feel as though I’d like to do something huge, something life changing.
Libby: I know what you mean. We need to shake things up.
Kate: I feel as though I’d like to sail around the world, you know? Really achieve something big.
Libby: Let’s do it!
Book Box Club: Purely Books subscription

Book Box Club sends their bookish parcels to everywhere around the world and their parcels are so aesthetically pleasing that you’ll want to take a dozen photos before unpacking them. Book Box Club is not a book subscription service but is also a secret society for all book lovers. They offer two different subscriptions(and yes, they come with an invitation to the secret society so ssshhh…):

Book Box Club Subscription – each month you’ll receive a gift-wrapped, brand new, YA read, an invitation to their exclusive online book club and a curated selection of unique themed goodies.

Purely Books Subscription – each month you’ll receive a featured read and an invitation to their online book group.

All postage to the UK is free, but they send their parcels all around the world (postage costs apply). All subscriptions automatically renew, but you can cancel or change your subscription at any time. 

Posting date for Purely Books subscriptions is the same as for Book Box Club subscribers, so your parcel gets shipped around the 15th of the month.


Since I’m a rep for the Purely Books Subscription, I’ll show you the packaging and the book I received in my April parcel.

What is a Purely Books Subscription?

 

 

Book Box Club: Purely Books subscription

The Purely Books subscription is perfect for those of us who don’t like collecting bookish merches. The book you’ll receive will be the same book that is featured in the Book Box Club Subscription so we can all join in on the fun! Along with the book, you’ll receive an exclusive invitation to join the online book club to speak to others about the book.

If you like the sound of any of these two options then you can sign up HERE. You can also use the code BLOGARMY5 to get 5% off your first subscription to both the Purely Books and the monthly Book Box Subscription (5% off a three month Purely Books Subscription or month-to-month Book Box Club Subscription).


Book Box Club: Purely Books subscription

SYNOPSIS

Zhilan was assigned female at birth. Despite a gift for illusions, they know they are destined to live out their life within the confines of the women’s quarter. But when civil war sets the empire aflame, Zhilan is determined save their disabled father from the battlefield.

By taking his place. Surviving brutal army training as a boy – Zhi – is only the first challenge. In the glittering court of the Land of Dragons, love and betrayal are two sides of the same smile, and soon the fate of a nation rests on Zhi’s shoulders. But to win, they must decide where their heart truly belongs…

This is the book I received and I love the cover so much. There was also a note welcoming me to the Book Box Club Blogger’s Army! Below is a picture of the invitation card to the “secret” society where readers can interact with the author.

Book Box Club: Purely Books subscription

Overall, I’m extremely happy with my experience with the Book Box Club and look forward to writing more posts about my expereinces. My next post will be about the exclusive club( yes, the secret society) where I get to ask the author questions and speak to others who’ve also received the invite to the Club!

Book Box Club: Purely Books subscription
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It’s Cover Reveal time! Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz

It's Cover Reveal time! Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz



Hi everyone! Today I’m excited to participate in the cover reveal for SICK KIDS IN LOVE by Hannah Moskowitz! This is a YA Contemporary novel coming out on November 15th, 2019 from Entangled Teen! Check below the beautiful cover (art by Elizabeth Turner Stokes) and make sure to add this book to your TBR!

Cover Reveal: Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz

About the Book:
Title:
Sick Kids In Love Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Publisher: Entangled Teen Publishing Date: November 5, 2019
Genres: YA Contemporary
Goodreads Preorder: Entangled Teen | Amazon | B&N

 

 

SYNOPSIS

Isabel has one rule: no dating.
It’s easier—
It’s safer—
It’s better—
—for the other person.
She’s got issues. She’s got secrets. She’s got rheumatoid arthritis.
But then she meets another sick kid.
He’s got a chronic illness Isabel’s never heard of, something she can’t even pronounce. He understands what it means to be sick. He understands her more than her healthy friends. He understands her more than her own father who’s a doctor.
He’s gorgeous, fun, and foul-mouthed. And totally into her.
Isabel has one rule: no dating.
It’s complicated—
It’s dangerous—
It’s never felt better—
—to consider breaking that rule for him.


Author’s Note:

My favorite part of the cover is the tagline; I joked when the book first sold that I wanted to have that on the front, but I never thought it would be a reality. I love that people are going to instantly know that this isn’t a tragic love story, that this isn’t a story about dying, or even about being sick. It’s a classic sort of love story that everyone deserves, and I loved writing that for the kinds of characters who rarely are allowed to have it.

The cover artist is Elizabeth Turner Stokes (https://www.estokescreative.com/)

Exclusive #MTMC19 Twitter chat with Hannah Moskowitz!

Want to ask Hannah Moskowitz all your burning questions about Sick Kids in Love? Join the #MTMC19 twitter chat tomorrow at 8pm EST and/or leave your questions below and @MTMCtours will ask them for you!

Make sure you are following @hannahmosk on Twitter and @noodlesmahgee on Instagram!

About Hannah Moskowitz:

Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz

Hannah Moskowitz wrote her first story, about a kitten named Lilly on the run from cat hunters, for a contest when she was seven years old. It was disqualified for violence. Her first book, BREAK, was on the ALA’s 2010 list of Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, and in 2013, GONE, GONE, GONE received a Stonewall Honor. 2015’s NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED was named the YA Bisexual Book of the Year. She’s also the co-author of GENA/FINN with Kat Helgeson and has contributed to several anthologies. She lives in Maryland with several cats, none of whom are violent.

Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram

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It's Cover Reveal time! Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz

A sweet and sexy romance you need to read this Summer | Review: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

A sweet and sexy romance you need to read this Summer | Review: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

LINKS

A sweet and sexy romance you need to read this Summer | Review: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
cover(Goodreads)

 BOOK DEPOSITORY ADD ON GOODREADS WORDERY

SYNOPSIS

Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.

As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. Esme’s lessons in love seem to be working…but only on herself. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.

With Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along. And there’s more than one way to love.

Should You read The Bride Test by Helen Hoang?

He was ignoring everyone, including her, at this expensive wedding. So he could read a novel about alien demon things.

A sweet and sexy romance you need to read this Summer | Review: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

The Bride Test is Helen Hoang’s second novel after her very popular and successful debut The Kiss Quotient. The Bride Test is, in a nutshell, a heartwarming and sexy romance novel with a neurodiverse rep and an outlook into immigration in the US. Let me tell you a bit about the story.

The protagonists are Khai Diep and Esme Tran who meet under the most unusual of circumstances but ultimately fall in love. Khai is vietnamese, autistic and if you’ve read The Kiss Quotient, is unlike Stella. Khai is also Michael’s(from the Kiss Quotient) cousin and works as a tax consultant. We learn of Khai’s autism from the prologue when he tries to bring himself to cry at his friend’s funeral but he can’t. One of his relatives even accuses him of not crying. This is also where Khai mentions that nobody in his family understands what “autism” really is and this is so true.

Then, we meet Esme Tran who’s a single mother and working as a hotel maid. It is in this hotel she’s made a proposition that could change her family’s life. The proposition is made by none other than Khai’s mother who worries for her son and is trying to look for a Vietnamese daughter-in-law. After many failures, it seems that she has finally found her ideal daughter-in-law in Esme. Khai’s mother promises her a summer in California, where Esme can see if she can make Khai fall in love with her and marry her, but if not, she will return back to her family.

Sounds Crazy? Mail order bride anyone? I thought that too but read on...

Esme thought it was crazy too! Who’s this crazy woman who’s offering her to seduce and marry her son and in exchange she will get financial security for her family? Will Khai even go through with it even after he finds out Esme is a mother? However, all of her doubts go away when she stares at her daughter’s face and she agrees to seduce and if possible, marry Khai.

I loved how diverse the book was. You can see how different Khai’s character is from Stella. Helen shows us how wide the autism spectrum can be. Not everyone with autism behaves the same way. Then, there’s the Viet rep and it’s also mentioned in the author’s note that Esme’s character is loosely based on Helen’s mother..Through Esme, we not only get a glimpse at how difficult immigration can be. Esme’s a single mother and I think the reason she didn’t tell Khai about her daughter because she was afraid of the consequences. She left her job back in Vietnam for the promise of a more fulfilling life for her family in the United States. Sure, the US is not a dreamboat of a place to live now but to Esme it was a place she could start anew..learn English properly, finish her high school education and perhaps even go to college.

A sweet and sexy romance you need to read this Summer | Review: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
Instagram: @book_rambler

Please, don’t let me make you cry,” he whispered in her ear. “If something is wrong, tell me so I can fix it. Please.

Also, consent plays such a major role in Hoang’s novels along with all the other representation. This is why the sex scenes are so steamy that you’ll feel like you’re reading/ watching soft porn..which is totally okay(more than okay :-D). There’s a scene when Khai is unsure of what he did after having sex and his brother and cousin(Michael) explain aftercare to him..and I just loved it so much. I don’t know if guys/girls actually explain foreplay and after care to anyone in need but it is so very important!

My heart works in a different way, but it’s yours.

excuse my rambling

Speaking of brother, *holy wow* I need Quan’s book like right now!!!!!!

Overall, I highly recommend this book if you loved The Kiss Quotient, love reading diverse books, love reading stories about loving ourselves and taking the time to do it..gah..It was such a beautiful novel and I am utterly in love with it.. if it wasn’t already clear.

Thanks to the publisher for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

VERDICT: 


Author: Connect with Author Helen Hoang here.

  • Publisher: Corvus
  • Publication Date(UK): 6th June , 2019
  • Paperback: 296 Pages
The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

What do you think? Will you read the Bride Test? If you have read it already, then let me know if you liked it or not. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Blog Tour | Review: The Whisper Man by Alex North


LINKS

Buffy is the last Slayer or is she? | ARC Review: Slayer by Kiersten White
cover(Goodreads)

 BOOK DEPOSITORY ADD ON GOODREADS WORDERY



SYNOPSIS

If you leave a door half-open, soon you’ll hear the whispers spoken…

Still devastated after the loss of his wife, Tom Kennedy and his young son Jake move to the sleepy village of Featherbank, looking for a fresh start.
But Featherbank has a dark past. Fifteen years ago a twisted serial killer abducted and murdered five young boys. Until he was finally caught, the killer was known as ‘The Whisper Man’.
Of course, an old crime need not trouble Tom and Jake as they try to settle in to their new home. Except that now another boy has gone missing. And then Jake begins acting strangely.

He says he hears a whispering at his window…


Should You read The Whisper Man by Alex North?

If you leave a door half-open, soon you’ll hear the whispers spoken.

If you’re lonely, sad and blue, the Whisper Man will come for you.

I want to thank the publisher for including me in this blog tour. I’m the fourth stop in this tour and I’ll leave the tour banner for you down below so that you can check out the rest of the stops. I’m also including some trigger warnings; should someone need it.

CW: struggling alcoholic, child abduction

The Whisper Man by Alex North is a brilliantly written thriller that’ll demand your attention until you finish reading it. Is it worth your time, though? Let’s find out.

The book starts with an unnamed father confessing a lie to his son Jake. He says that he lied when he said that there was no such thing as monsters. In the upcoming chapters, we’ll see exactly who those monsters are and how they hide in plain sight waiting for the moment to whisper in your child’s ears.

The story is divided into five parts and in part one, we come to learn of a boy called Neil Spencer who is being stalked by someone and later, kidnapped. That’ll be the last we see of the boy. Then, we get a glimpse of DI Pete Willis who’s searching for Neil and remembers an old child abduction case. The quote, “The first forty-eight hours following a disapperance are the most crucial.” appears twice in this book, which heightens the feeling of emergency.

Next, we meet the Jake and his father, Tom Kennedy and this is way before he wrote the aforementioned words to his son. Tom is a widower, who’s trying his best to care for his son Jake while coming to terms with his life without his beloved wife. Tom is a writer and hasn’t written a book in a long time but despite of the state of his finances, he knows that Jake and he need a fresh start. It turns out their fresh start comes with more surprises than they can handle.

On one hand, you have two DI’s- DI Pete and DI Amanda- trying to search for the abducted boy Neil. Pete is called to help in on the investigation because their Chief thinks it might have something to do with a case years ago…when The Whisper Man abducted and killed four children before Pete caught him. Pete, however never caught his “accomplise”, if there was anyone..or is there a copycat now? There’s no time to waste as the killer already has Neil and may soon have yet another child.

DI Pete Willis suffers from alcoholism and you could feel his emotions as if they were leaping off of the pages. The author does sugarcoat anything and I loved the openness of the characters especially someone who’s described as fit and lean for his age struggling with depression, alcoholism and probably PTSD as well. It shows us that if someone looks good on the outside, it doesn’t neccessarily mean that they’re feeling good on the inside. This realness to characters continue with Tom and his son Jake and as well as DI Amanda and the killer. In Tom’s case, you can feel his frustration with Jake and his struggle with playing with or even taking care of Jake. I loved the pace of the story; it took me a day and a half to finish but I loved the anticipation. There’re quite a number of shady characters and you keep wondering if this was the killer or that one. I didn’t expect the killer at all and theme that time was of the essence basically amped up the thrill of finding The New Whisper Man.

Overall, I highly recommend this book if you love reading thrillers that are carefully plotted and has an amazing cast of characters. This’ll make a perfect rainy day read, in my opinion. The gloomy weather is a perfect setting to this dark and creepy novel.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

VERDICT: 


Author: Connect with Author Alex North here.

  • Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph
  • Publication Date: 13th June , 2019
  • Paperback(ARC): 389 Pages
Slayer by Kiersten White

What do you think? Will you read The Whisper Man? If you have read it already, then let me know if you liked it or not. Did you know that this book is going to be adapted into a movie soon? Do you like reading or watching thrillers? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

A romantic contemporary that’ll steal your heart | Review: Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett

A romantic contemporary that'll steal your heart | Review: Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett

LINKS

Buffy is the last Slayer or is she? | ARC Review: Slayer by Kiersten White
cover(Goodreads)

  BOOK DEPOSITORY ADD ON GOODREADS WORDERY



SYNOPSIS

Raised in isolation and home-schooled by her strict grandparents, the only experience Birdie has had of the outside world is through her favourite crime books.

But everything changes when she takes a summer job working the night shift at a historic Seattle hotel. There she meets Daniel Aoki, the hotel’s charismatic driver, and together they stumble upon a real-life mystery: a famous reclusive writer—never before seen in public—is secretly meeting someone at the hotel.

To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell, and in doing so, realize that the most confounding mystery of all may just be her growing feelings for Daniel.


Should You read Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett?

Missing people is hard. Letting new people inside is harder. But the reward for making that effort was greater than I could have imagined.

Wow! Umm, have you read a book recently that left a smile on your face? That was sweet and wholesome. Well, Serious Moonlight did just that for me.

Eighteen year old Birdie was raised and homeschooled by her grandparents and the only way she could experience life outside home was through her books especially though mystery novels. The story starts with Birdie recalling her disaster of a first-time sex to her aunt and confidant Mona. Birdie also remembers her late grandmother who would have a heart attack if she heard Birdie swear and talk about sex. There’s a reason why Birdie was so sheltered by her grandparents and it was because of her mother.

Medical conditions: bookworm disease (incurable).

We come to know from Mona -who was Birdie’s mother’s best friend- that Birdie was conceived due to unprotected sex and that the identity of the father is unknown. This was the reason why her grandmother blamed herself and did everything she could to keep Birdie sheltered from the outside world. However, Birdie is an adult now and she has to deal with her mistakes on her own. Like, meeting the disaster of a “one-night stand” date again at her new job.

So, Birdie meets Daniel again at a professional setting while trying not to scream or faint. You see Birdie has inherited the narcolepsy gene ..where a person can accidentally fall asleep whenever, wherever. ..any extreme emotion like happiness or sadness can make the muscles stop working which will make the person seem like they have lost consciousness.

However, Daniel is cool about the whole incident, allegedly, and wants to help fuel Birdie’s mystery obsession because he knows that an author with a puzzling identity is a frequent visitor of the hotel they’re currently working in. Soon, Birdie starts uncovering the identity of the mysterious author but it’s at the cost of unraveling other secrets as well.

I loved every single character that made an appearance in the book. They’re so relatable specially Birdie. I loved Daniel too because he was unlike most male characters I read of in romance novels. He perfectly complements Birdie, respects her boundaries and makes her laugh too. I’ve never read a character with narcolepsy and it’s an incurable disease but can be managed with proper treatment. I loved the relationship between Birdie and her grandfather, with Mona and Daniel’s with his mom.

Overall, I highly recommend this book if you love romantic contemporaries, boys who love performing magic and will use it to “misdirect” you into kissing, girls who wear flowers their hair and loves reading and solving mysteries. I’d also – obviously – recommend Serious Moonlight to those of you who love Jenn Bennett’s books.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

VERDICT: 


Author: Connect with Author Jenn Bennett here.

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
  • Publication Date: 16th May, 2019
  • Paperback: 432 Pages
A romantic contemporary that'll steal your heart | Review: Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett

Will you read Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett? If you have read it, then let me know if you liked it or not. If you’ve read other books by the author, then let me know your favourite!