Last month, I signed up for receive a monthly book box subscription. It's the thing at the moment, they seem to have started up out of nowhere, and now they're competing against each other. I think they're an amazing idea. As I live in the UK, the shipping for the US boxes always put me out of pocket, as they charge a lot to send it over here. Fair enough, it was never going to be cheap.
I did, however, find one based in the UK. It's called RavenPost.

I wrote a review of their August box, which you can read here.

I canceled my my subscription, as I will admit, I wasn't too impressed with it. I had, however, already paid for Septembers box so I thought I might as well get that one too.

It arrived this morning.


Here's what I got and my thoughts.

NOTE: I paid for this box, so it wasn't sent for free for review. Just to clarify. I'm being 100% honest about my thoughts, as this blog is The Honest Bookclub. Yeah, you get the idea..




I went to pick up my parcel from the post office before work this morning, and was greeted with a box, instead of the mail bag I got last time. I was curious, to say the least.

I will admit, when I opened it, all I said 'oh'. First, I didn't get the bag that I got last month, which I found useful to keep my kindle and books safe in my bag. Didn't get one this month, but okay. 

Anyway, it looked as if everything was just thrown in, but that's more of the fault of the postal service. You know they're not very careful with post and parcels these days. Even if it said 'Fragile' on the side, it would be chucked out. I've seen those videos....


Hidden beneath the shredded paper was my RavenPost items.




Inside was Everything Everything, which I've heard of but not really looked into. I looked it up, and I thought I'd share the story. This is a debut novel from author Nicola Yoon, and it's about a girl who never leaves the house. She only see's her mother and her carer on a daily basis because she's allergic to everything.

A moving truck appears next door, and a boy comes into her life. This is a love story that revolves around two people helping each other, and the theme of the book is to live your life. (I like these type of books)


That's what I got from GoodReads. To find out more, go onto the page and have a browse.



It sounds interesting. I think my co-blogger has mentioned this book to me before, so that's good. Not a bad choice for the theme of September which was isolation.




The other thing I got in the box is a pair of small cookie cutters. Now, if you know me at all, you'll know I am the worst cook/baker in the world. There's a real craze for the Great British Bake Off, which is a show on TV here in the UK that my colleagues and mum are obsessed with. Not me. (I don't really watch tv anyway) I'm really not a fan of baking, I'd just rather eat the results of said baking and get tubby (oink!)
Although, if I did enjoy baking, I'd still be disappointed. These are really small, plastic cut outs which you can get so cheap from a shop. I'm not impressed with this. I'm not even sure who they're supposed to be, I don't read classics so if they're from an Austen book or whatever, I wouldn't know. Le sigh. 



I also got this bookmark. That's it. And the price of the box is £25. I think it's really steep considering what you get. The book alone is only £7.99, so I feel ripped off. I did a bit last month, so I'm not sure why I'm surprised about it this month. Honestly, I could have bought a few books with this money, so I feel let down. £25 is a lot of money to a lot of people, me included. I know it's a new company starting out, but it's nothing special. I'm just.....not happy with this. Spending that much and getting hardly anything back. It wasn't even presented as nicely as last month. It was at least a bit neater and better presented, having a drawstring bag that we could re-use and it's all neat and organised inside.

I also got this note, which didn't really have much indication that it was from the RavenPost, until I got to the end of it and it's mentioned in a hashtag.  I was waiting on other things, so I had no idea what was in this box.
Not even a name mention on this one, unlike last month.

I don't want to sound too harsh about it, but I need to be honest. I'm genuinely unhappy about the fact that I've lost out on £25 of my hard earned money and got this, and I don't want to bitch, but it's just how I'm feeling. 
If the price was a hell of a lot cheaper, I'd be okay, but that's just....so much money. By all means, if you're okay with spending £25 and getting just this, you can subscribe at the RavenPost website. Next month's theme is Space.
People's situations with money are different, so I'm not trying to put anyone off. It's just not for me. 



All the contents.


Apologies to the owner and staff at RavenPost if they found this review upsetting. It's not intentional.




What are your thoughts? Have you subscribed to this box, or any others that are floating around? Let us know! We'd love to hear from you. You can either leave a comment or find us at any of the following social outlets: