Book Talk: My First Uppercase Box Review!

You may be wondering, "Yvette, it's the last Wednesday of the month. Where is your monthly Happy Hub?" Chances are you aren't as aware of the weekdays and where they stand in relation to the month so you probably aren't thinking that. This is my long-winded way of saying that I have rearranged some blog posts for my own selfish reasons (I want my birthday celebration to be included in my Happy Hub, is that so bad?) but it all worked out because I have some new content that I wanted to share with you.

The "box" is actually a bag.

It's been a bit on the gloomier side recently so the lighting in these photos are not prime, but they get the job done and I hope my excitement will be enough to brighten up the entire post. There were several reasons why I had chosen Uppercase Box. The first and most obvious was because it was a book subscription service. The second was that when I looked back at the books they featured in previous months, I was excited about every single one of them, whether it be because I had already read and loved them or because I had heard so many good things about them and I have been itching to get around to reading them.

The name "Uppercase Box" is a bit of a misnomer since you can see the package actually come in a bag, but I much prefer it this way. If I'm going to keep up with this subscription service, I do not want boxes taking up all that space. Not to mention it's very wasteful to have all that extra packaging when everything can fit so nicely into a minimalist drawstring bag. 

Close-up of the goodies.

When I first opened the bubble mailer that it arrived in, my first impression was that it smelled so good. Turns out that was the packet of loose leaf tea from Noveltea Tins. The bag they sell is 3 ounces for $14. The packet that came in this box was 2 ounces. I cannot wait to try this, especially with this month being a cooler May than I'm used to. There was also a bookmark with an illustration of Lydia Bennet promoting a tea that they are releasing soon. 

The second goody was a set of postcards featuring several book worlds. I'm a big fan of postcards so this was the perfect blend of some of my favorite things. It's extra exciting because these are exclusive to Uppercase! In case you can't see the worlds very clearly, I'm seeing Alice in Wonderland, the Shadowhunters rune (so I assume that's where that is from), the Hobbiton, either the Small or Grand Palace from the Grisha trilogy, what looks like the cornucopia from The Hunger Games, and, of course, Hogwarts. I love this greeting from paradise, illustrated by Eric Nyffeler. Not sure what the value of this set of postcards is because it's not on sale anywhere and the artist does not sell postcards in his shop. 

Everything in the box.

Now we have arrived at the good stuff! This month's book is Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes. I hadn't heard of this book or the author previously but from the synopsis, it sounds like it's a contemporary novel with a splash of romance but I cheated and read some of the reviews and I'm seeing key words like "mental illness" and and "psychological issues" so I'm not going to go into this expecting unicorns and rainbows. Along with the book itself is a matching bookmark and a little sticker. Oh, and did I mention the book is signed? I think Uppercase guarantees a signed book or a signed bookplate every month. That's a nice perk. 

My Instagram unboxing! (x)

The list price for the book ($17.99) plus 2 ounces worth of tea (~$9) already covers the cost of the box itself. The other nice thing about Uppercase is that they include a bookmark with code words that you enter on their website when you get to the corresponding page in the book to unlock exclusive content, making your reading experience interactive and unique. And on top of all of that, you also get a nice hand written note personalized to you. This is such a fun box, I'm definitely looking forward to using the goodies and reading the book in this month's and I already cannot wait for the June box. 

This was a nice early birthday present to myself (early when I actually received it since my actual birthday was yesterday)! Are you subscribed to any book boxes? I love seeing all these unboxings on Instagram. Uppercase doesn't have themes, which is nice because I feel like those are almost like spoilers. What if I'm not interested in that month's theme? What'll I do then?! At least this way I know I'll get a variety of things and it's a true surprise. It may be a little early for me to start singing this box's praises since I only have one to go off of but I'm very happy with what I got. I didn't mean to write so much, I guess I got a little carried away, but this is my first subscription box after all! I hope you enjoyed this post because this is just the beginning of my birthday posts! (This one kinda counts, right?)


Talk to you soon!

xo, Yvette