A Box Of Stories: What's Inside

Did you know that 77 million books get destroyed every year in the UK and that 83% of published books don't get the publicity required to be discovered by the masses? A Box of Stories operates to stop this from happening. I stumbled across this company randomly while scrolling on Instagram and knew that I wanted to give them a go although I was kind of apprehensive about it because I'm such a picky reader (aka I don't really like mystery/thrillers). They send you four books that have received good reviews from readers but aren't necessarily getting the hype that they should.

I ordered a fiction box for £14.99 which came with 4 fiction books across a variety of genres. My favourite genres to read are generally fantasy, historical fiction and ya contemporaries but I opted for this box because sometimes you can discover a new favourite completely by accident (I didn't think I liked historical fiction until all of my favourite books from last year had a historical setting!) so I was willing to give anything a go! I also find that I very rarely buy adult fiction for myself when I'm in bookstores so I thought this would be a great way to maybe discover more interesting reads.

For £14.99 you can get either the fiction box (which I opted for) or the mixed box which also contains some non-fiction titles as well. And then if you're particularly picky or you just want to try a specific genre you can also get Mystery/Thriller, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, and Light Reads boxes for £21.99. It's also available as a subscription service where you receive 4 new books every one-four months!

Now we get to move on to the fun bit (and probably why most of you are here), just what did I get in my mystery fiction box from A Box of Stories?

The Zoo

Christopher Wilson

This is a satirical novel set in the communist Soviet Union following a twelve-year-old boy with brain damage who somehow finds himself in Stalin's inner circle during the final weeks of his rule. As I mentioned I love historical fiction so this one immediately caught my eye (also the cover is beautiful) and I can definitely see me picking up this one soon!

Ok, Mr Field

Katharine Kilalea

Mr Field is a concert pianist who after suffering an injury that upends his career prospects decides on a whim to use the compensation money to buy a house in Cape Town but while there he begins to lose his mind. From the description, this gives me Piranesi vibes which I read and loved in September so I'm excited to give this one a try too! And again the cover is so pretty (I'm a sucker for a good cover).

The Last Place You Look

Kristen Lepionka

Fifteen years after Sarah Cook disappeared and her parents were found murdered, her boyfriend who was convicted of the crime is sitting on death row and is weeks away from execution. His sister, however, believes he is innocent and hires a police inspector to reexamine the case. It's a mystery/thriller which I was expecting but it's only around 300 pages and it sounds like an interesting premise so I think it's definitely worth a shot and who knows, maybe mystery/thrillers can be the historical fiction of 2021 for me!

All The Beautiful Lies

Peter Swanson

Days before his graduation, Harry is called back home by his stepmother Alice due to his father dying. Harry returns home but worries that Alice is harbouring some secrets of her own can he uncover what really happened to his father or will she stand in his way? Again another mystery/thriller (love that for me). This one doesn't really entice me as much as the others unfortunately but who knows I may end up picking it up on a whim some time!

All in all, I'm happy with what I received and I can definitely see myself picking up at least two of these books. I actually hadn't heard of any of these books before despite them being from 2017 and 2018 so they definitely delivered on that front! I think I would place an order again because it's fun to discover new books when you have absolutely no idea what to expect but I'll see how I feel after I've read this selection! A Box of Stories uses your account details to make sure that you won't receive the same book twice so you'll always be discovering new books! Have you read any of these books? If so I'd love to know your thoughts on which ones I should begin with!

As you know I'm such a fan of companies that give back and as well as supporting up and coming writers, A Box of Stories also donate a percentage of their profits to charities that work to improve literacy globally. If you're interested in checking out A Box Of Stories for yourself you can check it out here* and you'll get £4 off your first order! Happy Reading Friends!