Haha, I have to say, the So Many Pages July 2022 box managed to truly surprise me. As you know, I usually read English books, but I couldn’t resist a Dutch book that was marketed as an “historical Heartstopper” taking place in the USA of the early 1900s. To give you some more context: I read a duology when I was a teenager set in the same place and time and while I loved book one, book two truly broke my heart. So when I saw this box advertised, I thought, “awesome, maybe this story will have a happy ending!” and bought it.
Well… :p Apparently not. You should have seen my face when I opened the box and saw the same book after all these years. It’s coming back to haunt me. I feel slightly stupid that I didn’t realise it was not just a SIMILAR book…I suppose they will have mentioned somewhere that it was a reprint but I must have totally missed that message…
Mind you, book one is amazing so I will be rereading it. Maybe I can even convince myself to read book two again. I am 31 now, I should be fine, right? Right? Maybe it’s not as bad as I remember…
About So Many Pages
So Many Pages is a Dutch online company offering mystery book boxes (with or without goodies), bookish items, books, and pre-orders for exclusive editions. Usually, they are focused on Dutch YA books but they also have a selection of English YA books and – sometimes – English book boxes.
The teaser
This is the info we received upfront:
- Brand new paperback, signed by the author
- Historical Heartstopper
- Beautiful YA novel about a love that is not accepted
- Set in the USA in the early 1900s
The goodies
The first item I discovered in the box was a tote bag inspired by New York City. To be honest, I’m drowning in tote bags by now so while I love the design, I’ll be giving this one away. Next, I found a candle shaped like a heart and a notepad for “reading notes”, which are both quite cute. There was also a bag with flower seeds.
My favourite items were the amazing art print that was created together with the author, and the book mark set.
The book
So, which book have I been talking about all this time? I’m talking about Wij, twee jongens by Aline Sax. Unfortunately, this book has not yet been translated to English (although it deserves to be) but the title literally translates to “We, Two Boys”. It’s the story of a poor family from Flanders who aim to look for a better life in the USA. Things go wrong quite soon though, and only one of the sons ends up in New York. All by himself, he’s struggling to find a way back. But then, he meets Jack…The book also came with an author note <3