Unboxing - A Box of Stories #5

 

Book Box Subscritions and Out of Control TBRs

So I currently get 3 book box subscriptions, A Box of Stories which comes every other month and FairyLoot and Illumicrate which come every month.

I love my A Box of Stories box as its inexpensive and you never know what your going to get (I currently get the 2 box Fantasy box down from the 4 books Sci-Fi and Fantasy box) the only problem is some of the books really don't sound interesting and out of the 5 boxes that I've recieved so far this year I've read about 4 of the books. I have 15 books unread from A Box of Stories.

I started getting Illumicrate in May and I have had the May, June and July box. With Illumicrate they do a varity of genres so you could get YA or Adult Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Contemporary etc and I'm predomantly a YA Fantasy reader. I didn't want the book in the August box and I couldn't afford the box for September and out of all the boxes there's only been 1 book that I've read and that was May's book The book of Night by Holly Black which I really didn't enjoy, I'm unsure on Junes book We All Fall Down by Rose Szabo and I am dying to read July's book The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones (I just have to get through my library stack first). So I have 2 books unread from Illumicrate.

I started getting FairyLoot in May also and I have had all of the boxes so far as I prefer YA Fantasy and thats why FairyLoot does so when it came to having to only have 1 book box for September I picked FairyLoot (even though I also wanted the book that was in the Illumictare box). I have had 5 books from FairyLoot since May (June was a double book month). May's book was The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah, June's book was This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede and Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber, July's book was The Darkening by Sunya Maya and August's book was Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen but I haven't actually read any of the book even though I am looking forward to geting to The Darkening and Violet Made of Thornes. So I have 5 unread books from FairyLoot.

Altogether I have 22 unread books from book boxes, 25 if I include the 2 A Box of Story books and September's FairyLoot book which will be here sometime this month (and countless books that I already own that I haven't read yet) and even though I seem to be going through a lot of books this year (I'm currently reading book 49)

I think I really need to start reading some of the books I already own and as well as the one's I've been getting from the library and maybe cut back on book box subscritions and buying new books just so I can unhaul the books that have been on my shelf for years that I am either not going to read or that I've read and I'm not going to read again as my shelves are almost full.

How many of you are also having this trouble? Being subscribed to various book boxes but are not actually reading the books I'm curious to know.

I'm thinking of maybe cancelling my subscription with Illumicrate and just keeping FairyLoot and A Box of Stories for the rest of the year and if I'm still inthis situation in the new year cancelling the A Box of Stories box to or at least spreading the subscription out so it comes every 4 months instead of every 2.

Review - The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside by Jessica Ryn

Title: The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside
Author: Jessica Ryn
Pages: 400
Release Date: November 26^th 2020
Format: Hardback
Buy it: Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: She’s always looking on the bright side...
Dawn Elisabeth Brightside has been running from her past for twenty-two years and two months, precisely.
So when she is offered a bed in St Jude’s Hostel for the Homeless, it means so much more than just a roof over her head.
But with St Jude’s threatened with closure, Dawn worries that everything is about to crumble around her all over again.
Perhaps, with a little help from her new friends, she can find a way to save this light in the darkness?
And maybe, just maybe, Dawn will finally have a place to call home….
 
My Review: This story follows two women who are very different. Grace is the manager of St. Jude’s Hostel and Dawn is running away from her past and is given a room in the hostel.
 
Grace starts to fall for one of the residents even though it’s forbidden and she has to try and keep her feelings hidden while she tries to keep St. Jude’s open.
 
Dawn has been through a terrible time and has been living on the streets for the last 20 years until she is given a room at St. Jude’s, she loves to help people even breaking the hostel rules by allowing a young lad to stay in her room with her and coming up with fundraising ideas to keep St. Jude’s open.
 
I enjoyed the story but I thought the ending was a bit rushed and lacking, I think there could have been another chapter or two on both Dawn and Grace.
 
Currently Reading: 
Read in 2022: /40

Review - News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Title: News of the World
Author: Paulette Jiles
Pages: 209
Release Date: 
Format: Paperback
Buy it: Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.
 
In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence.
 
In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna’s parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows.
 
Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act “civilized.” Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land.
 
Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember—strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become—in the eyes of the law—a kidnapper himself.
 
 
My Review: This was a nice quick historical fiction read about an old army captain named Jefferson Kyle Kidd who travels around Texas reading the news of the world from his newspapers.
 
He is offered a $50 gold piece to transport a 10 year old girl Johanna who was kidnapped by the Kiowas at the age of 6 back to her aunt and uncle.
 
During their 400 mile journey from Wichita Falls to San Antoni they encounter various issues along the way from Johanna trying to escape and go back to the Kiowa’s to an evil man wanting to buy her.
 
This book isn’t something that I would normally read but I enjoyed the story and the ending was fantastic. If you are looking for a quick historical fiction book to read I would recommend giving this a try.
 
Currently Reading: 
Read in 2022: /40