Showing posts with label cruel illusions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cruel illusions. Show all posts

Friday, April 14, 2023

Unboxing: Fairyloot's "Come One, Come All" (December 2022)


Another month, another Fairyloot box to share with you all. This is the last box I have to unbox from 2022 and we ended the year on a good one. Before I get into the unboxing for this month, I'm just incredibly excited to see what 2023 holds for Fairyloot. If the boxes continue being as well put together, it's definitely going to be a good year. 



The first item in this month's box was a face towel designed by @blanca.design and inspired by The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I've not yet read this one but it is on my TBR and I've heard nothing but good things about it. I also think the design is neutral enough to use the towel without needing to have read it first. I'm not sure how practical it is for me, though, as I'm pretty particular about my face towels. It might get used for something else, though. 

The next item was a set of carousel bookends designed by @jezhawk. These are fandom neutral and just themed after circuses and magic and whatnot. It's a gorgeous design and these one currently look like they'll hold up a bit straighter than the previous bookends I got from Fairyloot. I'll definitely find a use for these once we move and I'm looking forward to finding them a home. 

The next item was a book sleeve designed by @kimcarlika_art and inspired by Caraval by Stephanie Garber. This is another great quality book sleeve from Fairyloot and I really enjoy the design. If I'm being honest, I much prefer designs like this where it's more of a pattern than a character fan art. I'll definitely be happy to add this to my book sleeve collection. 

The last item was the next two installments in the collectible foiled mythology bookmarks designed by @gracezhuart. These two feature Aphrodite and Ares from Greek mythology. They're absolutely stunning and I'm so excited to add them to the bookmark set. I've been really enjoying collecting these as they're quite beautiful. Plus, this set of bookmarks are so soft to the touch that it's great to just hold them honestly.

The tarot cards for this month were themed after Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan and designed by @arz28. We have Lei as The Sun card and Wren as The Moon card. Once again, these are absolutely stunning. I've not yet read this series but I do own all the books and plan on (hopefully) binging them this year. We're almost at a year of this new deck as well which is quite exciting. 

The book for this month was Cruel Illusions by Margie Fuston. This edition has an exclusively redesigned cover, digital sprayed edges (that are stunning), artwork on the endpages and foil on the cover designed by @kirisy_art, and is signed by the author. The character art on the back of the author letter was also designed by @kirisy_art. This edition is absolutely stunning and I am pretty excited about another standalone. Part of why I've struggled reading series lately is because of the time commitment so I'm hoping to embrace some more standalones in 2023. Hopefully, I'll soon have a shelf for just beautifully designed standalones. 






Overall, this box was well done. I like all of the items and I think I'll use all except the towel. I'm also quite excited to get into this book (hopefully) this year. Is it my favorite box I've ever gotten? No. But I still think it's a good amount for the money I spent. I'm intrigued by January's announcement so we'll see how that one turns out. I also think I'm enjoying the YA subscription more than the Adult one for now. 



Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Lauren



You can follow my bookstagram here for more bookish content!

To get more awesome posts like this post, click the follow button to the right!

Get free worldwide shipping with Book Depository using my affiliate link



Sunday, February 5, 2023

January 2023 Wrap-Up + Haul


January was a wild month and start to the new year. I didn't get much reading done, but so much changed in the span of this month from December. It honestly feels like Christmas was light years ago. In January, we continued our flat hunt, found a new flat, and moved in all in the span of just a couple weeks. I got my next VISA to stay here. I transitioned to full time work at my job. And I graduated with my Master's degree, which my mom came to see and we made a long weekend out of it. All in, January was a busy month and I still don't feel particularly caught up on life. 

I read four books in January. I expected to read more but with the stress of moving and the exhaustion of working 10-hour shifts multiple days in a row on my feet just made it so when I was home it was for sleeping and eating but not much else. I enjoyed all of the books I read this month as well, even if there weren't many. Mostly, though, I'm looking forward to February being a month of getting settled in our new place and reading a lot more books. 


1. 
Title: Forced Bonds 
Author: J. Bree
Rating: 4 // 5 stars

2. 
Title: Tragic Bonds
Author: J. Bree 
Rating: 4 // 5 stars

3. 
Title: Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Deserted Island Diary: Volume 1
Author: Kokonasu Rumba

4. 
Title: Illuminae
Authors: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Rating: 5 // 5 stars
-reread-




I only hauled two books (and one was free!) in January which is why I decided to include them in this post rather than make an entire blog post out of them. I'm pretty excited about both of these so let's go ahead and just dive right in!

The first one I got was Cruel Illusions by Margie Fuston. This was the December book pick for the Fairyloot YA box (unboxing coming soon!) and I think it's such a gorgeous edition. It has an exclusive cover, digitally sprayed edges, artwork, and so much more. I believe it's also a standalone? I'm not sure on that one, though. What I do know is there's apparently vampires and I'm all for it. Hopefully I'll get to this one this year, maybe around Halloween time? 

The second book I got was a signed ARC of The Ever Storms by Amanda Foody which I won in a giveaway. I love Amanda Foody's books and her middle grade series is no different. The Ever Storms is the third book in it following The Accidental Apprentice and The Weeping Tide. The best way I can describe the first book is wholesome, cottagecore-vibes, and Pokemon meets How to Train Your Dragon. I'm so excited to have won this copy and already have a series binge-read planned now that it's been released. 



Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Lauren



You can follow my bookstagram here for more bookish content!

To get more awesome posts like this post, click the follow button to the right!

Get free worldwide shipping with Book Depository using my affiliate link