A Box Of Stories + Discount Code

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During the first lockdown, one of the ways I coped was to lose myself in a book. I am, and always have been, a vociferous reader. My earliest memories are of being read to and of having vouchers for Waterstones (and Dillons if anyone can remember them) and the delight of the day when my Dad would take us into Manchester to choose my new books. Even now some 30 years on I find it almost impossible to walk past a bookshop and not go in and buy a book (or three!)

Over the last few years, my reading has been, understandably, mostly children focussed. But now they’re older and their sleep in more reliable I can carve out time for myself to read. Last year was the first year in a long time that I read and read and read. The lockdown helped to kick start that as I would spend a Saturday afternoon on the bed reading whilst Damian took over with the children; giving me some of that much needed time on my own.

I managed to get through a lot of my to be read pile but of course, I decided to treat myself too! I ordered a couple of mystery boxes from a company called A Box Of Stories and I was thrilled when they got in touch with me last year to ask me to review their Crime and Thriller Box.

What is ‘A Box of Stories’

A Box of Stories seeks to ‘rescue’ books that would otherwise be pulped. So many books are published each year but only around 17% receive a decent marketing budget that helps to get them onto the bestseller list and therefore into the hands of readers.

A Box of Stories uses book forums, websites, critic review and blogs to create a box of books to delight the purchaser. I have had three or four boxes from them so far and have been really impressed with the books I’ve received.

Choosing Your Box

There is a range of boxes to choose from. In the past, I have had a mixed box but for this review, I was sent the crime box. This box is £21.99 (with discounts of up to 10% if you sign up for a subscription). The books arrive well packaged and it is exciting to open the box to see what books you have!

In my Crime box I received the following books:

• Closer than you know (Brad Parks)
• The Exclusives (Rebecca Thornton)
• The Last Place You Look (Kristen Lepionka)
• All The Beautiful Lies (Peter Swanson)

I’ve not read any of these books but they all look and sounds great and I’m looking forward to starting them.

What Happens When You Order?

I’ve loved this box so much that it’s encouraged me to sign up again for a subscription. I have chosen a fiction box. I have decided to put monthly for now, but I may well change to every two months. After I had gone through the system you can choose the date for the box; so I selected my next one for 1st March and then monthly from then on. I then had some emails. One invited me to link my GoodReads account and in doing so it will ensure that I don’t receive any books I have logged on there (I’ve recently set up a new GoodReads account as my old one was a bit of a mess!) I was then sent a second email which invited me to select two genres that I would like to exclude from my box.

At the moment there is a slight delay to boxes going out which is pandemic related as well as the sheer volume of orders they’re working through. Since I last had boxes they now send an extra gift every third box which I understand can be a voucher or an extra book!

I think it’s excellent value and if you want to order your own box, you can do so using the link here to secure £4 off.