I love happy mail. Getting surprises in the mail along with the bills and election promises and grocery coupons is just a fun part of life, lately. Back in late December, I stumbled upon the Icelandic tradition of spending Christmas Eve reading books. For some reason, that led me to a vow to spend 2018 participating in a Goodreads book challenge and feature a book roundup on this blog. All of this inspired me to look into book subscriptions.
I haven’t been a part of a book subscription since I was a kid and my mother bought Sweet Pickles books through a subscription. I’m still using these in my kindergarten classroom. Thanks to ebay, I was able to collect most of the series. I vividly remember when a book would come in the mail. We had the post-office system and when Mom would walk out of the doors, my eyes were watching for that familiar brown package.
A few years later, the only thing that has changed is the color of the boxes.
The first subscription I bought for 2018 is Romance Reveal from Cratejoy. My grandmother would be proud. She taught me to read using Sesame Street and trashy dime-store novels. Then she bought a used bookstore and I had all the romance books I could read at the ripe old age of 14.
Danielle Steele taught me a lot about how to do life in a man’s world and do it being a classy lady in streets but we all know the rest of that phrase…
Times have changed and romance books are still one of the leading book genres. Romance Reveal is the perfect subscription for those who love a good love story. Each box comes with 2, 4, 6, or 8 books, most of them personally signed by the author, and extras like candles, candy, book marks, totes, author cards, coloring cards (such a calming activity. I love these), etc. I especially like the upcoming books reviews so I can file those away for publication dates or advanced copies.
Here is January’s box. I started with the 2 box option.
Both of these were light sweet stories. Since I do read a lot of true crime, mysteries, and thrillers, I love these lighter stories of the good guys/girls getting their Happily Ever Afters.
Here are March and April’s boxes. I switched to the 4 book option after March and it was a great decision. I have found new authors to add to my “must read” list. A couple of these are part of a series and were so good, I found the rest of the series and added to my kindle.
My next subscription is Book of the Month. I love this one because I get to pick my books. I get 1 book credit a month and I can add extra books for $10. These are hardcover newly released or soon-to-be released advanced copies. I can check information on Amazon and Goodreads before I purchase and I can skip a month if nothing suits my current reading mood. So far, the choices have been excellent. I usually go for the ARC books first and add books that I’ve seen buzzing on social media or Goodreads.
These books ship quickly. The titles are released on the first day of the month and they are packed and shipped within the next 24-48 hours. My other subscription box is shipped in the middle of the month so that means I have happy mail every couple of weeks and I can’t complain about that!
