June Book Box Club: Schoolroom Scandals

June’s Book Box Club box was the first one I was a little unsure of, since I’d only just started to get into contemporary YA fiction again. I’m definitely more of a fantasy and sci-fi gal, and I’m pretty picky when it comes to contemporary fiction. But, just before they hinted at the book for June, I started reading Geekerella, and I really got into it, so I decided I would trust in Book Box Club to pick an excellent book. I sort of figured it would be One of Us is Lying before the box was sent out; just as well, since I almost almost bought this when it hit the Waterstones shelves earlier in the month. Thankfully, I held out and waited, and sure enough I was rewarded by the book I wanted.

So yes, the first item was a gift-wrapped copy of One of Us is Lying, by Karen M. McManus. It was pitched as being a bit like The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, so I was fairly intrigued. As always, it came with a signed bookplate, a Q and A with the author, and an invitation to the book box club book group chat, which is always the highlight of my bookish month. Alas, since the date for this one was the night before YALC weekend, I didn’t manage to make it online, since I was travelling to a friend’s house in London, but I did check out the chat later, and I also met the wonderful author in person on the Friday, so that was a pretty good deal.

My favourite item in the box was the Meraki Candles ‘Bayview Bad Boy’ candle, created exclusively for this box. It had notes of black lily, rum and cedarwood and it smelled PHENOMENAL. Meraki candles is my go to company for bookish candles [they are UK based, so they’re much kinder on my bank balance than US based shops] and they have a very wide range of amazing candles. I’ve bought an alarming amount of them over the past year [practically a dragon’s hoard] but I still can’t pick a favourite because they all smell so good. And this one definitely fit with Nate, who is the awesome bad boy character in OOUIL. 

Alongside the candle was a tiny reader’s ring by The Locket Library. It’s a little pair of glasses. Annoyingly, my fingers are kinda chubby, so there’s not really anywhere I can comfortably wear this, except on my pinkie finger. It’s still cute though, so I’m more than pleased to wear it once in a while. I also got a jar of jelly beans with my name on it from the book box club girls, which made for an excellent snack while reading. The box also included some stylish sticky notes by Paper Pipit. I liked these because they have watercolour marks on them, so they’re very minimalist, and I’m sure they’ll come in handy for future bookstagram pics. The box also had a Fault in Our Stars pencil case in it, made again by Book Box Club. I’m not the biggest John Green fan, but this is really sweet and I loved the quote: ‘If people were rain, I was a drizzle and she was a hurricane.’ [This is from AFIOS right?]. I haven’t used the pencil case as of yet, but I’m sure it will come in handy somewhere down the line.

The last item I received was a mystery bonus book, which turned out to be a second contemporary YA book [wow, my collection has grown so much this year]. This was Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index by Julie Israel. I’ll admit, the synopsis didn’t really intrigue me [one of the reasons I shy away from contemporary fiction is the amount of books dealing with grief, death, and mental illness. I know these things happen, and I’m glad there are books out there for people going through these things, but I personally prefer fluffy contemporary reads that don’t make me ugly cry for weeks.] I did read this in the end though, and I gave it a five star rating even though it made me ugly cry, so there’s that, I suppose.

You can check out Book Box Club here, or even subscribe if you want to join in all these bookish adventures 😀