Fairyloot – July 2016: Pirates & Power!

Fairyloot is a book subscription box that offers you a newly released fantasy Young Adult novel along with 4 – 5 bookish goodies matching a different theme each month.

Fairyloot
Cost: £26 monthly.
Shipping Costs: £4.30 for the UK or £10.85 for international. (more details here)
Mailed Out: between the 15th – 20th  of each month.
Payment Method: Credit & Debit Cards and Paypal.
**Note: Subscriptions do not auto-renew – you can pre-purchase subscriptions for either 3 or 6 months. Fairyloot sells out incredibly quickly, so if you love the subscription, it’s worth purchasing a longer subscription to ensure you get a box**

I’m very impressed that Fairyloot actually dispatched their boxes EARLY this month – I received shipping confirmation on the 5th of July and it arrived on the 13th, which isn’t bad for a box travelling halfway around the world!

OVERVIEW OF CONTENTS

First impression of the box is favorable just from the effort put into the presentation! The quote on the box changes each month.

These purple and silver crepe ribbons make the unboxing so much prettier. 🙂 This is possibly the most attractively packaged box I’ve received yet!

Front cover of the info card – its artwork matches the theme of the month.

Here we have details of the contents within and where they’re sourced from, as well as the alternatives that were also sent to other subscribers. There were variations on two items this month, so even if you’re a sucker for spoilers like I am, there’s still a bit of mystery left for the unboxing – dun dun DUUUN. 😉

Geeky Clean Frostblood & Fireblood bath bomb (similar item – £5.00). This is an exclusive for Fairyloot and is based on the ARC included in this box! Its ingredients are vegan-friendly and not tested on animals. 🙂

I love the look of it combining the blue representing Frostblood and red representing Fireblood, and more importantly, it smells AMAZING. I sat at my desk creepily sniffing this for several long moments! I’m so happy to finally get a bath bomb in a box – this type of item is a luxury I wouldn’t spend money on to buy for myself, but it’s something I’ve been craving for a while and jealously coveted in other unboxings, so getting my own really thrilled me. 😀

Jon Snow Pocket Pocket Pop! Vinyl Keychain ($9.99 AUD): Why so glum, chum? Then again, you’ve had a rough time as of late…

Out of the box. Great details on this teeny little pop – I like the way they’ve styled his hair and his wardrobe, complete with sword.

Subscribers either received Jon Snow OR Daenerys Targaryen – I’m super jealous of those who received Dany as she’s my fave, but I don’t mind Jon Snow…I just think the lady with the dragons is much more interesting, lol.

Color-in bookmark from Behind The Pages – this is a brand new item from their store that’s premiering in this box. (regular bookmarks are $3.50 AUD, so value of $2.oo?)

Geeky Clean Pirate Bounty lip balm (similar item – £3.00).

Another Geeky Clean item, another exclusive item created just for this box! I don’t normally care one way or another whether items are exclusive, but the fact that these items have been designed to match the books in this box is pretty cool! It really ties the box together, everything’s so coordinated. ^_^

Notebook from Museums & Galleries. You need to create an account to log-in and see prices and they only sell in bulk to companies, so no confirmed value on this one – hmph, don’t they know I’ve got a blog to research for, what kinda show are they running! This could be around $15? (sorta-similar notebooks online from $12.27 AUD to $24 AUD)

I live in the technology age where hand-writing is nearly a forgotten art, so I don’t have much use for notebooks, lol. I can barely read my own hand-writing, it’s like The Da Vinci Code trying to decipher what I’ve scrawled on the page, so I won’t be jotting down notes in this anytime soon!

However, my mama was pretty excited when she saw this – as an English teacher, Treasure Island is important to her and it’s also of cultural significance since Robert Louis Stevenson is buried in her home country of Samoa. Bit of trivia for you there. 😉

Tote Bag by AliceInWonderbookland ($18 USD): this one is a tad difficult to read, but if you squint and tilt your head sideways, it says ‘I Ship It’. Which is SUPER CUTE and as a rabid shipper of ALL THE OTPs, this speaks to me on a spiritual level, haha. Plus I’m a sucker for terrible puns, so that won me over. 😉

I have gotten a few totes in different boxes, but this is a cut above the rest as it’s got a neat design, I like how the stark white stands out on the black background and I appreciate the relevance to the theme!

The first of the 2 books included is an ARC for a novel that’s not due to be released until January 2017, which makes me really smug! I love getting this months ahead of the general public, hehe. I do receive e-ARCs through NetGalley, but it’s really awesome to get a physical book I can hold in my hands!

Frostblood by Elly Blake (available for pre-order on Book Depository for $15.59 AUD).

The synopsis has me excited, this sounds like everything I like to read combined in one book! Protagonist with kickass powers, dark brooding warrior, reluctant allies / opposites attract…YAAAS. 😀

The first in a page-turning young adult fantasy series perfect for fans of Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen and Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series In a land governed by the cruel Frostblood ruling class, seventeen-year-old Ruby is a Fireblood who has spent most of her life hiding her ability to manipulate heat and light – until the day the soldiers come to raid her village and kill her mother. Ruby vows revenge on the tyrannous Frost King responsible for the massacre of her people. But Ruby’s powers are unpredictable…and so are the feelings she has for Arcus, the scarred, mysterious Frostblood warrior who shares her goal to kill the Frost King, albeit for his own reasons. When Ruby is captured by the Frost King’s men, she’s taken right into the heart of the enemy. Now she only has one chance to destroy the maniacal ruler who took everything from her – and in doing so, she must unleash the powers she’s spent her whole life withholding. Frostblood is set in world where flame and ice are mortal enemies – but together create a power that could change everything.

Matching bookmark provided…

…and the flipside shows the alternate cover that was sent out to subscribers. Gotta say, I wish I’d gotten the Fireblood version because this pale icy blue cover was ridiculously hard to photograph! The text DID NOT want to show up in my photos.

It’s cute that the ‘hero’ of the box, the main book, is wrapped up to tantalize you further! Inside the purple wrapping paper, we have a few promotional materials:

A card hyping up the book and why it was chosen for Fairyloot…

A little postcard with the cover image…

A letter from the author to Fairyloot subscribers…

And the book itself! What a lovely evocative cover (shades of Pirates of the Caribbean).

Inherited by Freedom Matthews (available  on Amazon for $14.99 USD)

If saying ‘I love you’ meant death, would you still say it? The Wilted Rose, of faery-tale and folklore, is a pirate ship filled with unfortunate souls-each forbidden to love. One such soul is Valencia ‘Lennie’ Roux. Raised in a brothel and an heir to a curse; Lennie never expected to pique the interest of any man. Yet with the arrival of vivid-eyed Nathaniel, she is torn between wanting to know him better and fearing what that knowledge would mean. With Nathaniel bringing the crew’s total to six, the Wilted Rose sets off in search of the remaining two heirs. They hope that in reuniting, they will convince the faery Sorceress responsible for the curse to end it. However lurking beneath the water is a long standing enemy of the Wilted Rose; who is determined to thwart their quest and bring down its leaders. Together the eight heirs fight for survival, friendship and love.

There’s so much going on here, I’m excited! You’ve got pirates, magic and curses, forbidden love, a race against time, WHOA. :O

And the final jewel in the crown – each book is personally autographed! I’d forgotten that detail from when I initially subscribed, so it was a lovely surprise when I opened the book and saw my name. 😀

VERDICT

Quality of Curation: 10/10. I cannot give any higher praise, every single aspect of this box was well-planned! All the bookish goodies clearly match up to one theme or the other, and it’s neat how many exclusive items are included!

Worth It? Umm, in case it wasn’t obvious, let me state for the record that I LOVE THIS BOX. 😀

From a money point of view, let me convert the individual values to one currency…okay, I spent $79.18 AUD and the value is approximately $83.54 AUD without even adding my guesstimation for the value of the bookmark and notebook! Once hand-wavy values are added for those two items, this ends up being worth around a hundred bucks! (ie. approx $75 USD value for a box that cost around $48 USD)

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 kitties approve this box!

Find Out More: You can find Fairyloot on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.