Oh. My. God. Finally. I finally made it off the Fairyloot waiting list and received my very first YA-subscription box <3 <3 <3 I couldn’t have been happier when I received my first box.

About Fairyloot

Fairyloot is one of the best known UK book boxes that ship internationally. They offer two types of subscription plans: Young Adult (book box with goodies or book-only) and Adult (book-only). In most cases, their featured books are fantasy books. Next to their monthly subscription, they also have special edition boxes and exclusive editions.

The teaser

This is the info we received upfront:

• Romantic and sweeping epic fantasy
• Inspired by the legend of Chang’e from Chinese mythology
• “one of the most stunning editions we’ve ever created”
• YA/Adult cross-over category

I bet you can already guess the featured book! Afterall, it’s one of the biggest releases of this winter!

The goodies

The first item I discovered was a tote bag, inspired by the featured book and designed by @rosiethorns88. While I love the colours and its size, I have way too many tote bags by now, so I will be looking to sell this one.

Next, I found the set of bookends with a celestial theme, designed by @jezhawk, who also designed the included socks (inspired by The Starless Sea). If you are a book collector like me, you can never have enough bookends, so these were a welcome find! The socks are nice too, but I never wear ankle socks, so I’ll sell these too.

The box also included a necklace inspired by Crescent City (review book one), designed by the Fairyloot team. I quite like this item. It’s very elegant and although it might appear a bit fragile at first, the charm is actually sufficiently sturdy.

Last but not least, my favourite items: an art print by @cyt_draws inspired by Wicked Fox and a set of tarot cards inspired by Red Rising and illustrated by @lizzart_zardonicz. The tarot cards are the Queen and King of Pentacles and feature Mustang and Darrow.

The book

I have to admit, Daughter of the Moon Goddess (Sue Lynn Tan) is not a book I would typically pick up myself. I’m not an epic-fantasy type of girl, nor am I overly fond of poetic language. Nevertheless, I have to admit that the Fairyloot edition is stunning. It has an exclusive cover, two coloured stencil sprayed edges, artwork on the endpapers and foil embossing on the hardcover by @naiivu, and is signed by the author. Furthermore, the box contained an author letter, as well as an author interview.

The story is a retelling of a Chinese legend about the moon goddess and it tells the tale of a young woman on a mission to free her mother. It’s the first part of The Celestial Kingdom Duology

Unfortunately, it turned out that the novel was indeed not my cup of tea for the reasons listed above, but definitely check it out if you are into epic tales and poetic narratives!