May Illumicrate ‘Hidden Talents’ Unboxing

Hi everyone,

Are you ready for an Illumicrate unboxing? I thought you might be. This was the May ‘Hidden Talents’ Box and it was also my first time purchasing through this company so I was SO excited. It’s coming to you a little later than planned because one of the items in the box was late, which means they didn’t get sent out on time [BOO] but they were jam-packed with wonderful items [YAY] so I didn’t mind too much.

If you’d rather watch a video of me talking about all the items, you can do so here.

The first item I saw in the box was this awesome lunch box by Alice Oseman for her brilliant books. This is one of my favourite items in the box because I haven’t got one of them already and it was just so cute. The illustrations are really quirky and I can’t wait to use this very practical item next time I need to prepare lunch on the go.

Next were my absolute favourite items in the box- three tarot style cards for the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare, created by the talented artist Taratjah. These are just so perfect and precious and they totally stole my breath away when I first saw them. They’re going up on my bookshelf as soon as I’m finished posting this.

Then came four metallic bookmarks from Another Studio, which each feature one of the four elements from Avatar. There’s one shaped like a gust of wind, one shaped like a mountain, one like a burning ember and one like the waves. They’re really sweet and I am going to enjoy using them on the book this month.

Next was a little enamel pin from the brilliant Fable and Black. This one was inspired by the Percy Jackson series and was a little Pegasus horse on a Greek style background. This will go really well with my other enamel pin by Fairyloot with the same character on 😀

The big item of this month was a Black Panther themed booksleeve designed exclusively for Illumicrate by the talented Risarodil. I really love this design and although I don’t use booksleeves all that often, I want to try and start using them as I’m travelling so much at the moment and they seem like a practical way to keep books protected from all the rubbish in my bag.

One of the cool things about Illumicrate is how they always include a second book, which is an ARC. This one is called Light Years and is a Sci-Fi novel by Kass Morgan, who is the author of the popular series The 100. Not sure how I feel about this one, as it seems as though there’s going to be a lot of different POVs and I don’t often like when books do that. But this one won’t be released until October, so I might as well give it a go.

There were also plenty f bookish swag from various publishers including a badge and postcard of Alice Oseman’s I Was Born For This, postcards for A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir and From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon, bookmarks for the main book in the box, and a sampler of Holly Bourne’s new novel, How Do You Like Me Now? 

The main book for this box was the YA contemporary novel A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews AKA Paper Fury. It sounds like such an awesome read and I was so impressed by all her funny and witty tweets about writing and book fans, so I’m really looking forward to reading her debut novel. Eek.

So what did everyone think of the box? Did anyone else get it, or wish they had? What were your favourite items? Let me know in the comment section and join the discussion 😀