Bookish Goodness: A Book and Subscription Box Review

 

I'm bad at updating. I'm sorry. This life-thing kind of kicks my butt most of the time. On to the real content!

 

I love books. My first goal in life is to have enough bookshelves to house all of my books. My second goal in life is to own all of my favorite books. Anyway, because I love books, I love watching booktube channels! They give me so many recommendations for books, which naturally means that my second goal gets harder and harder to achieve every time I read. I was watching one of my favorite booktubers, abookutopia, when she featured a service called Uppercase Box, which is a subscription box for Young Adult genre book lovers (disclaimer: I'm mentioning both abookutopia and Uppercase Box because I liked their videos/product not because I am affiliated with them in any way or because they paid me, because I'm not and they didn't.) I decided to subscribe to Uppercase Box and received my first box in May!

 

Each Uppercase Box comes with a cute uppercase bag, a little note explaining the book pick, a book, and extra book-related goodies. For the May goodies, I received a Maze Runner themed bumper sticker, a reading themed pocket journal, and a gorgeous art print that goes along with the included book. As for the main attraction, the May book was The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey.

 

 

 

Because I received this book from Uppercase, I am dividing the review into two parts, one for the book and one for Uppercase itself.

 

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Warning: There are spoilers for the book contained in this review. If you do not want the story spoiled for you, please skip to Part 2 of the review.

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Part 1 ~ The book
  

I really liked the first 3/4 of this book. I think the premise was well thought out and the world was sufficiently developed. I liked that Echo was a strong, independent character. I liked that Caius was set apart from his people; not only because he was a prince but because he thought differently. The wit and banter that flies back and forth in the story is definitely a plus that bolsters the entire story! The last half of the book, however, was disappointing. Altair and Tanith's characters both fell far short of their potential and ended up being lukewarm villains. The resolution to the book was obvious and felt contrived. Overall, it was a nice read, but not something I would necessarily recommend to others. I might read the second book (or rest of the books depending on how far this series goes) but if I do, I will borrow it from the library, not buy it/them. As a debut book though, it was well done.

Part 2 ~ Uppercase Box

   As previously stated, I received this book as a part of the Uppercase Box program. As a whole, I am pleased with Uppercase. I really enjoyed the extra content that the author and site provided for the story. I especially loved the art print that was included! They were both great additions. I also liked that the book was signed. However, the book itself was in poor condition. There were stains on many of the pages as well as a stain on the cover, but the stains did not hinder the reading of the pages. The back cover had the paper torn and resealed in a way that does not protect the cardboard underneath at all. I am going to wait until after next month's selection to make a decision on if I will continue with Uppercase Box. If the book is damaged next time, I will cancel my subscription. After all, the main purpose of subscribing to this service is for the book!!!

 

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Links:

Uppercase Box - http://uppercasebox.com/

abookutopia's uppercase unboxing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kaxlEvOJS0

And so it begins.

 It seems like only yesterday that I was swimming at the pool, enjoying summer vacation, when suddenly I look up and we are already three weeks into the Fall semester. How in the world did that happen? Oh well, Autumn is my favorite season anyway.

Somehow summer flew by without my noticing it. I did get to spend a weekend at Lake of the Ozarks with my family. But, for the most part, I spent the summer doing classes and working at the Campus Bookstore.

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Well, this is awkward. After promising to update every Saturday, and actually starting my second post, I didn't. School started off at a run. I told myself that I would start posting again once the semester settled down (which usually happens after midterms). What ended up happening was that I came down with a bad case of Viral Meningitis. I was hospitalized for 3 days and was then sent home on bed rest for 6 weeks. When I was finally well enough to come back to normal life, I had so much schoolwork to catch up on, I just didn't have time to post. But I'm back now! So, look forward to new posts and a possible collaboration with another, absolutely brilliant blogger (who also happens to be my best friend). I'd love to hear your opinions! Are there any specific topics you would like to see covered in my future posts? What about topics that you really wish people would just stop bringing up?

I'm new here, how about you?

Hi! I'm so glad you could be here with me for my first ever blog post! Now, on to the part where I introduce myself (I promise to keep it short)!

I'm Veronica and this is my blog. :) I am currently a senior at the University of Missouri, working towards a Bachelor's in Health Sciences, and planning to go to medical school in the near future. But none of that is really relevant for this blog (although it might come up later). What is important is that I am a crafty, outdoorsy, try-anything-once type of girl. That being said, this blog will probably end up being an eclectic archive of my various adventures in knitting, sewing, exploring my town, etc. Actually, other than the fact that I will be updating once a week, on Saturdays, I really don't have a solid plan for this blog. So stick around, you never know what you might find.

Thanks for coming along on this new adventure with me! I can't wait to see where it takes us.

Veronica