Once Upon a Book Club is a subscription that offers a unique reading experience. Each month, you’ll receive a book to read, a 5″ x 7″ quote print, along with 2-4 corresponding gifts to match a quote/item mentioned in the book. Readers are advised to open the gifts as they finish the corresponding page to make them feel as if the book is coming to life!
You can choose between Once Upon a Book Club’s Young Adult edition and Adult edition. This is the review of the Adult box.
DEAL: Enjoy 10% off your first box. Use coupon code BOOKNERD.
The box interior looks lovely with those words in script.
The items inside were neatly stacked inside the box.
I’m excited to open the gifts!
Everything in my box!
They replaced the tri-fold booklet with this Book Club Kit.
At the back is a map of the Forest of Dean.
Inside is a Q&A with Eva Chase, the author of the featured book. There are even some discussion questions!
Don’t worry what other people think, be who you want to be.
We also received a card with a message from the author, telling us her story on how the book came to be.
This lovely bookmark reminds us to only open the gifts when we get to the page indicated on them. No peeking!
They apologized for the box delays and also included these cute stay-at-home stickers!
The book has the Once Upon A BookClub 2020 Selection sticker!
The Daughters of Foxcote Manor by Eve Chase ($19.39)
Readers of Lisa Jewell and Simone St. James will delight in this haunting, touching story of mothers, daughters, and belonging–and the devastating lies families tell themselves in order to survive.
One of the New York Times “Novels of Suspense and Isolation”
One of Bustle’s Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2020
One of PopSugar‘s Best Books of July
One of New York Posts Best Books of the Week
One of CrimeReads’ 10 New Books Out This Week
One of Bustle’s Best New Books Out the Week of July 21An isolated forest estate.
A family with a terrible secret.
The discovery that changes everything.England, 1970. On the one-year anniversary of the Harrington family’s darkest night, their beautiful London home goes up in flames. Mrs. Harrington, the two children, and live-in nanny Rita relocate to Foxcote Manor, ostensibly to recuperate. But the creeping forest, where lost things have a way of coming back, is not as restful as it seems. When thirteen-year-old Hera discovers a baby girl abandoned just beyond their garden gate, this tiniest, most wondrous of secrets brings a much-needed sunlit peace, until a visitor detonates the family’s tenuous happiness. All too soon a body lies dead in the woods.
Forty years later, London-based Sylvie is an expert at looking the other way. It’s how she stayed married to her unfaithful husband for more than twenty years. But she’s turned over a new leaf, having left him for a fresh start. She buried her own origin story decades ago, never imagining her teenage daughter would have a shocking reason to dig the past up–and to ask Sylvie to finally face the secrets that lead her back to Foxcote Manor.
The book cover is really pretty. We also get a quick glimpse of the story at the back cover.
The story revolves around a family who found a baby just when they’re grieving and going through a terrible tragedy.
I like the dual timeline in the book, set between the present and the 70s.
Everything is centered in The Foxcote Manor, an old and crumbling house tucked away in one of England’s wildest forests.
Now, we get to open our first gift!
It’s a terrarium! This one is a bit different from the usual terrarium as those look like somewhat of a fishbowl and you can put the contents inside from the top. This one has a base where you can arrange your plants and enclose them with the glass dome lid.
This reminds me of the rose case in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast!
The next gift can be opened when we reach page 182.
I liked the packaging of this gift. It is a plastic mailer bag but it seems like it was wrapped in a personal hand-written note!
Inside it is a picnic mat. In the book, it was described to be somewhat tattered and worn out. However, this one is brand new!
The velcro enclosure neatly tucks away the mat. It even has a handle attached to it. This is quite big and it’s made of a glossy canvass material. I like this because it will be useful for me and the kids when we got out on picnics or even beach trips!
On page 337, they put a QR code that we can scan. It directs us to a Youtube page where we can listen to the sounds of the forest! It’s about an hour long and I like how this book not only takes us on a visual journey but it also triggers other senses, making me fall in love with the story more and more.
The last gift can be unraveled upon reaching page 352.
It’s a small box, with pretty leaf prints.
It’s a keychain! It came with a card that contains an excerpt from the book.
I like the keychain, it’s so beautiful! It has a keyring and a clip so you can easily store your keys with it and place it on the hoops of your jeans or even your wallet. It also has a cute tassel hanging around.
The main keychain is a gorgeous tree that weirdly reminds me of the tree of life. The jade like crystals hang around and make it look like the tree is lush and abundant!
Once Upon A Book Club makes reading more fun by sending gifts related to the story! I found myself completely glued to the featured book in this box, the mysterious settings and the well-fleshed-out characters drew me in. The gifts also kept me excited as I turned every page. My favorite is the mat because I can use it for future picnics or beach trips. The keychain is also really pretty. Even the QR code is a nice addition to the box! It directed me to a video featuring the sounds of the forest and it made a nice background music for me while reading. This box and its contents are perfect for enjoying alone time! If you’re a bookworm who loves surprises, this subscription is for you. They also have a subscription option for the Young Adult genre!
What do you think of this month’s Once Upon a Book Club?
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