I don’t subscribe to any book boxes, instead I keep an eye on the various book subscription box companies I’ve used and liked before and if there’s a theme I like the sound of I get it. That’s what happened with June’s Illumicrate box. Illumicrate is a monthly, UK based YA subscription box and there are lots of different subscription types you can sign up for – including a book only option which I may take advantage of in the future. Each month you get a new release book along with roughly 5 bookish times based around a theme. This month’s theme was For Book Lovers, and instead of the goodies being all fandom themed, they are all very general and are things that bookish people would probably use.

The first thing I saw when I opened the box (which was really well stuffed) was a smaller cardboard box and in that was a glass TBR jar from KDP Letters. I really like the green colour of the lid and the text on the glass that says “Read Me” – it’s a really pretty colour. I like the idea of a TBR jar but have never actually done one. I keep track of my TBR with s spreadsheet (I’m a big fan of spreadsheets) but I think maybe also having a TBR jar might give me a push when I’m very undecided about what I want to read next.

The next thing I saw was a huge and beautiful wall hanging from Carol Garcia PR. It’s seriously huge (it could work as a very thin blanket it’s that big) and has great colours and it features a goddess reading in the clouds over a sea of books. There was also a set of sticky page flags from Hey Atlas Creative and a bookend from Fable and Black that features a stack of books and a cat on the back of a chair. There was a collectible coin featuring Hermione Granger which was cool and a book sleeve from Sparrow_And_Wolf. I hadn’t seen a book sleeve like this one before. The ones I have are made out of fabric and have a hole in the top to slip the book in. This one is more plasticy and has a zip on the top so a book inside it would be super protected from any spilt liquids.

There were two books in this month’s box. The first I saw was Birthday by Meredith Russo and this copy has rainbow sprayed edges. This is a book that when I read the blurb, it rang a bell for me so I think it’s one I had heard about before and it had piqued my interest then. It’s about Eric and Morgan who were born on the same day but are slowly growing apart as they try and figure out who they want to be. The story is told on one day every year for six years which sounds like an interesting choice.

The second book was This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura, it has yellow sprayed edges and I think the cover and spine is beautiful. I’d not heard of this book before but reading the blurb it sounds like something that’s right up my street. CJ enjoys helping out at her aunt Hannah’s flower shop but when her mother she plans to sell the shop to the McAllisters, the same people who swindled CJ’s family out of their property when Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II, a rift threatens to split CJ’s family and her entire North California community. For the first time CJ finds the strength to step up and fight for what she believes in.

Also included in the box was a sampler for The Paper & Hearts Society by Lucy Powrie, a bookmark and signed bookplate for Birthday, and a signed bookplate and letter from the author for This Time Will Be Different too.

I really like the idea of having the items in a book box be more general than fandom-themed every now and then. I don’t read as much YA as I used to so a lot of fandoms past me by and while the item might be cool, I don’t get as much enjoyment from it compared to someone who is in that fandom. I am very much looking forward to reading both books as well as they are either ones I’d never heard of or are books I wouldn’t have gone out to get myself. I think this was a pretty good box from Illumicrate though I do think it is a bit of an expensive box to have monthly. That being said, I’ll keep an eye out to see what themes they have in the future.