Hi all! Faecrate announced their March theme, Revel the Chase, yesterday and I just had to write up a To Buy or Not to Buy post about it before I buy the box for the theme art print alone! Keep reading to learn more!
As usual, all of the opinions in this post are my own, so please take them with a grain of salt, and don’t be offended if my least favorite fandom is your favorite. We all have our own preferences. 🙂
SPOILER ALERT! These posts will name the included book of the month, which often isn’t announced in advance. Please don’t continue to read if you want to be surprised by the book.
The Box Details
Company: Faecrate
Theme: Revel the Chase
Month: March 2021
Information Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKhl0N3ALfk/
Cost: $29.99 + Shipping & Tax
Included Fandoms: Legendborn, House of Salt and Sorrows, Wicked Saints, The Gilded Wolves, and MORE
Anticipated Book of the Month: Of Wicked Blood by Olivia Wildstein and Katie Hayoz
Special Book Features: Exclusive emboss designed by @rachelbostickillustration, stamped page edges, artwork on the inner dust jacket by @elionhardt, and a signed bookplate by both of the authors
Early Reveals so far: None yet!
My Thoughts
I’ll start with the theme art, since Faecrate includes the theme art as a large art print on the back of the spoiler card. I love Wicked Saints, so I’m really in love with this print of Serefin and Malachiasz! Of course, I can’t afford to buy a box simply for the theme art print, but dang, it’s tempting in this case. As always, @gabriella.bujdoso made the beautiful artwork. (I’ve really come to like her style, and getting the art print is one of my favorite things about Faecrate these days!)
This box will be Faecrate’s third anniversary box! As you can see in the details section above, they’re really pulling out all of the stops for this box in terms of exclusive features. I’m really excited to see that they’ve switched up artists/designers for this box! Don’t get me wrong, I love Noverantale and Gabriella Bujdoso’s recent contributions to the Faecrate exclusive books (They both worked on the September and October books, which were GORGEOUS.) but I’m glad to see that Faecrate is giving other artists a chance. I already love Rachel Bostick’s art, and I actually have her January calendar as my phone’s wallpaper! I’m very excited to see what she designs for this book.
Speaking of the book, I’m interested, but not overly excited for the book pick of the month. Aside from some early reviews popping up on my IG and WordPress feeds, I haven’t heard too much about it yet, and I wasn’t able to find any excerpts in order to sample it. (I really wish that authors/publishers would release more teaser excerpts! Give me something other than a title, synopsis, and cover to be excited about!) Luckily, the book releases the day after the box goes on sale, so as long as it doesn’t sell out immediately, I’ll should be able to read a sample on my kindle before making a final decision. The synopsis sounds interesting, but I just need to make sure that the writing style engages me enough to want to own the book. (Also, this is a small thing, but I’m not the biggest fan of the books original cover. It’s not terrible, but it also doesn’t really thrill me, and reminds me of older covers from the 2010s.)
The fandoms this month are definitely quite fun! Normally, I wouldn’t really care too much about Faecrate’s fandoms, as I haven’t been a huge fan of their item quality, but their December box’s items pleasantly surprised me in terms of quality and value! I still won’t get my hopes up too high, but I like all of the fandoms mentioned! I’m not sure if the Wicked Saints item will just be the art print or something extra, so I’ll ask and update the post if I get a response!
Of course, before ending this post I most address the elephant in the room: the severely delayed shipping of Faecrate’s recent boxes. I think that this could be a big factor in people’s decision to order from the box. Faecrate’s boxes have been quite late recently, with boxes usually arriving at some point within the next month after it was supposed to ship. (For example, my September box arrived in early October. My October box arrived in late November. My December box just arrived in mid January.) While yes, we are in the middle of a global pandemic that affects manufacturing times, packing times, and and shipping times, and also yes, Faecrate does post frequent updates on their site and IG stories, I just don’t entirely understand how this box is so chronically late each month. Most of the issues that I’ve seen have involved things getting stuck in customs or delays in getting things to them, so I wish that they’d just be more proactive about this issue and try to order their books and items farther in advance, especially after at least 5 consecutive months of delays! Their boxes tend to be worth it, even for just the book alone, but the delay makes it a bit difficult for me to recommend sometimes.
All-in-all, I’m still pretty undecided on this box. I’m not sure if I’ll like the book yet, what any early item reveals might be, or if their will be a Wicked Saints item in addition to the theme art print. My final decision will depend on the answers to those questions!
Pros
- Faecrate’s 3rd Year Anniversary Box!
- Features and supports 2 indie authors
- Really great book exclusive features!
- Items will feature fandoms that deserve more love in my opinion!
- One of my favorite fandoms is represented on the theme art
Cons
- Box will likely arrive late
- No early excerpts available online of the book
- Not always the biggest fan of Faecrate’s item choices or quality
Thanks for reading my ramble! Let me know in the comments what you think of the book, theme, and items! Would you get this box?
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