February OwlCrate Unboxing

Hello Everyone!
It's Richelle and Emma back again, this time for an unboxing of our very first OwlCrate! We're having a very busy week here. For Valentine's Day, Emma went to Richelle's work with her to meet the residents and get lots of cuddles. We're also helping plan a bridal shower for my soon-to-be sister-in-law on Saturday. Plus extra shifts at work and killer migraines so it's been crazy. But today we received our very first OwlCrate subscription box. It's a box on Crate Joy. It's $29.99 a month and in each box you get a newly released YA hardcover book plus 3-5 other bookish goodies. Most of the swag in OwlCrate is exclusive and most (if not all) of the books have an OwlCrate exclusive cover and include things like signed copies, signed book plates and letters from the author so it's actually a pretty good value.

 So this is what the outside of the box looks like, which is super adorable with the OwlCrate logo. Second picture is what you see once you open the box (I removed the crinkle paper packing crap and put it straight in the garbage so it wouldn't get everywhere). At least this is what you kind of would see, I had to put everything back in the box after I dropped it while removing the packing materials so forgive everything being upside down.

So first things first, this is the spoiler card included in every box along with the matching pin, also included in every box. This month's theme was Hidden Worlds.The back of the card has all the items in the box along with what they're from and who made them. It's nice for references that I don't always get since I'm just now getting back into YA books.

First thing I pulled out was this little OwlCrate pouch and inside is a black necklace with a skeleton key with a top that looks like a button. I actually did know where this is from which is Neil Gaiman's Coraline, which if you haven't read it or seen the movie, do so immediately since it's absolutely awesome! It's a really nice necklace with a good heft to it, made out of metal. I will definitely wear it.

Next I pulled out the candle because I LOVE candles. This one is a soy candle by Books on Candles called Through the Wardrobe, which is a reference to the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. Emma really likes the scent and so do I. It's very wintry with kind of sweet notes to it. According to the spoiler card it's scented with pine, mint, and vanilla and I think it smells exactly like a magical forest in the winter would smell.

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Then there's this zipper pouch which Emma was very interested to see into (spoiler, there's nothing in it). The pouch is a very nice heavy-duty vinyl with a metal zipper. It says 'We dreamed together of a world remade' which is a very cool quote even though I didn't know what it's from. The spoiler card says it's inspired by Daughter of Smoke and Bone which I've heard a lot about on booktube even if I haven't read it and I do intend to read it some time when I've gotten through my current to be read pile. The pouch was made by Risa Rodil and I will definitely use it, maybe for my knitting tools or the odds and ends in my purse/backpack.

Then there's this little sticker with Alice and the White Rabbit and cards and tea stuff from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I think it's absolutely adorable and it will definitely be going up on my bookcase along with all my other stickers. It was done by artist Naomi Lord and I love it.

The last item in the box (before the book) was this wall tapestry from Evie Bookish, whose stuff I absolutely adore. It's not from anything in particular but it has art of this girl falling into an open book and says "Books fall open, you fall in". I think it's absolutely stunning and it's very well made from a pretty heavy satiny fabric. The only problem is that it's HUGE. Like this picture of it is sitting on my twin-sized bed and it covers like 85% of it lengthwise and is just as wide as the bed. Like it's huge. I have NO IDEA where I'm going to put it but I'm going to find somewhere for it to go because it's beautiful.

 Last thing in the box was the book which comes wrapped in plastic with the other little items that go with the book. This month's book was The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert. It's a YA fantasy novel about a girl named Alice who has lived her life on the run with her mother. After her grandmother dies, her mother is abducted by a dark figure who claims to be from the dark supernatural world of her grandmother's stories. So Alice teams up with a super fan of her grandmother's books to find her mother. It sounds really good (read the synopsis on Good Reads linked above because seriously I suck at summaries like this). My copy of The Hazel Wood came with an exclusive cover for OwlCrate. From the information included with the box it looks like the big difference is the primary color, the original is really dark like navy blue or black whereas the OwlCrate edition is a really nice forest green with gold printing. It also came with a letter from the author, a sheet of little stickers and the book itself was signed by the author which is one of the coolest things ever.

Consulting the spoiler card, it looks like the Coraline necklace, the Narnia candle, the Daughter of Smoke and Bone pouch, and the wall tapestry are all OwlCrate exclusive items, so the only thing not exclusive to OwlCrate is the Alice in Wonderland sticker. I really do love everything in this box, I'm really excited to read the book (I'll start it as soon as I finish Crooked Kingdom) and candles are pretty much my favorite things to get in subscription boxes.

The last things in the box is the little pamphlet which has an interview with the author of the book, a comparison of the exclusive cover and the original, a little word search related to the book, recommendations for other books like The Hazel Wood, an interview with the designer Risa Rodil who made the pouch, and a further sneak peak at the March box theme and the featured item.

Finally there's the card announcing March's theme which is Across the Galaxy. It's going to include an exclusive candle from Wick and Fable which I'm very excited about since I love candles and I love space/sci-fi things.

I think I'm going to put my Coffee and a Classic box on hold for a while in favor of OwlCrate just because the C&C box is the same price but I don't really enjoy or use the items that come with it. I keep wanting to like it more than I do but I just don't. So I'm going to keep an eye on C&C's facebook page to see what I'm missing out on and get OwlCrate for a while instead.

Anyway that was February 2018's OwlCrate: Hidden Worlds. I loved it so much.
Cheers,
Emma and Richelle