Quarterly has two literary subscription boxes: Fiction Box and YA Fiction box. focusing on YA books, and other bookish goodies.
This review is of the Literary YA box that focuses on YA books, and other bookish goodies.
(I also recommend checking out my Owl Crate reviews, and my Uppercase Box reviews for other YA book subscription box options!)
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
The Subscription Box: Quarterly YA Box
The Cost: $50 a box + shipping (ships every quarter)
The Products: At least 2 YA books in every box plus book-ish goodies.
Ships to: US and International
Check out all of my Book Riot YA Quarterly Box reviews and all of our reviews of Book Subscription Boxes!
Each Quarterly box comes with a letter from the curator detailing the items included and why they were selected. This box is curated by author Jeff Giles.
The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles – Retail Value $18.99 (On Amazon for $11.16)
Since Jeff is the curator for this box, his book is included with his post-it note annotations!
Book Summary from Amazon:
For the perfect love, what would you be willing to lose?
It’s been a shattering year for seventeen-year-old Zoe, who’s still reeling from her father’s shocking death in a caving accident and her neighbors’ mysterious disappearance from their own home. Then on a terrifying subzero, blizzardy night in Montana, she and her brother are brutally attacked in the woods–only to be rescued by a mysterious bounty hunter they call X.
X is no ordinary bounty hunter. He is from a hell called the Lowlands, sent to claim the soul of Zoe’s evil attacker and others like him. X is forbidden from revealing himself to anyone other than his prey, but he casts aside the Lowlands’ rules for Zoe. As they learn more about their colliding worlds, they begin to question the past, their fate, and their future. But escaping the Lowlands and the ties that bind X might mean the ultimate sacrifice for them both.
Gripping and full of heart, this epic start to a new series will bring readers right to the edge of everything.
This book is one of those books that grips you from the very beginning. I received it in the March LitJoy YA box, and I recommend it!
Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen - Retail Value $9.99 (On Amazon for $6.24)
Book Summary:
Will Scarlet is good at two things: stealing from the rich and keeping secrets - skills that are in high demand in Robin Hood's band of thieves, who protect the people of Nottingham from the evil sheriff. Scarlet's biggest secret of all is one only Robin and his men know...that she is posing as a thief; that the slip of a boy who is fast with sharp knives is really a girl.
The terrible events in her past that led Scarlet to hide her real identity are in danger of being exposed when the thief taker Lord Gisbourne arrives in town to rid Nottingham of the Hood and his men once and for all. As Gisbourne closes in a put innocent lives at risk, Scarlet must decide how much the people of Nottingham mean to her, especially John Little, a flirtatious fellow outlaw, and Robin, whose quick smiles have the rare power to unsettle her. There is real honor among these thieves and so much more - making this a fight worth dying for.
I really enjoyed this book! It's a Robin Hood retelling with a romance angle. (I found the dialect to be distracting at first, but got over that in a few chapters.)
This Side of Home by Renee Watson - Retail Value $9.99 (On Amazon for $6.32)
Book summary from Amazon:
Identical twins Nikki and Maya have been on the same page for everything-friends, school, boys and starting off their adult lives at a historically African-American college. But as their neighborhood goes from rough-and-tumble to up-and-coming, suddenly filled with pretty coffee shops and boutiques, Nikki is thrilled while Maya feels like their home is slipping away. Suddenly, the sisters who had always shared everything must confront their dissenting feelings on the importance of their ethnic and cultural identities and, in the process, learn to separate themselves from the long shadow of their identity as twins.
In her inspired YA debut, Renee Watson explores the experience of young African-American women navigating the traditions and expectations of their culture.
I thought this book was beautifully written! I'm going to check out Renee Watson's Piecing Me Together next!
Hearth & Hammer Signal Fire Candle - Value $7
This scent is described as a "warm mixture of leather, tobacco, amber & musk." It's one of those scents that both myself and my husband Eric like (yay!) and it's made with soy wax, too! (12 hour burn time.)
Nature Tats Temporary Tattoo - Value $5
I'm usually not excited to see temporary tattoos in subscription boxes, but this little tree line tattoo is just adorable! (They have so many beautiful designs in their etsy shop, too.)
Noteworthy Paper & Press Bookmark - Value $8
I can always use a new bookmark, and this Walt Whitman quote design is stunning!
Verdict: This box has a value of about $45 (using Amazon sale prices). Considering I paid $57 for this box, I'm a little disappointed in the value. Even if you took the retail values of the books, the value works out to be $59. Typically with book subscription boxes, you're not going to see a high value, but I was hoping for a bit more from this box.
That said, I think the curation is great, and I like that one of the featured authors picks the other books. It's always interesting to see what an author enjoys reading!
What do you think of #LYA03?
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