February Illumicrate Review| It's Carenza B

Hello!
So today I have something a bit different planned and I am going to be reviewing the February Illumicrate. I ordered and received mine in February but I wanted to read the book and test the products out before sharing my opinions with you guys. Without further a do here is my February Illumicrate Review!

Before I start the review, I will answer some questions that might arise in the comments!

What is Illumicrate?
Illumicrate is a quarterly (every 3 months) subscription service. It is a book based subscription box and each box comes with a new release (typically YA) and 3-5 bookish items. It is a UK based service run by Daphne from Winged Reviews.

How much does it cost?
Illumicrate costs £29.99 per box. This includes postage if you live in the UK, but if you live outside of the UK you will have to pay shipping fees.

How did you hear about Illumicrate?
I heard about Illumicrate through Sasha Alsberg's YouTube channel and it sounded really good. I then reached out to Illumicrate to ask if they could send me a box, sadly they had run out but they did offer me a discount code instead.

So those are so quick questions that I think people might ask and now I'm going to go into detail about the contents of the box.

Contents

This is what the box looks like from the outside. There is a lot of yellow confetti when it is opened and I really enjoyed this. 

This is a brief overview of the contents of the box, you get a really good selection of products.

The first things I found were these cool pencils from Pobble and Ping. They are exclusive to Illumicrate and I really like them. I don't think I'll ever use them because I don't want to damage or lose them.

The next thing I found was this cool Bookcase Pouch designed by Elena Illustration. You may have seen this pouch on my Instagram account. I really like it and it is super good quality. I've already taken it on two holidays and it holds a lot of pencils. This is also exclusive to Illumicrate

Next I found these super cute Love themed bookmarks from BeeDoo. These have sparked my love for bookmarks and in particular magnetic bookmarks. They are really good quality and I am currently using the one on the left. Again these are exclusive to Illumicrate.

 Possibly my favourite item from the box is this candle from Simple Co Candles. This candle is inspired by A Darker Shade of Magic by V E Shcwab (Which I have not read) and there were 4 candles you could get. I received Grey London and to me it smells like lemongrass or some other masculine scent. This is also exclusive.

The final item was this bookmark inspired by the book (Which I will show you later). I think that it is a nice touch to put in a bookmark inspired by the book. This is designed by Daydreaming Designs and is also exclusive.

There was this cool card in which had a message from the author and gave you a little inside to the world in which the book is set in. I have this pinned up next to my bookshelves. It's a really cool quote from the book and I really like the typography.

There was also this signed bookplate which I have now stuck in the front of my book. I have never received a signed bookplate and her signature is really cool.

There were some promotional items included as well. They were for 2 books that are coming out soon, one is The It Girl by Katy Seagull and the other is The Dark Days Club and I don't know who this is by. I think it's really nice that they included promotional products as it lets the subscriber find new books.

Another thing that was included was this recipe for lemonade and it is made by a character called Grace Reed. I don't know where this is from but I think it's a nice touch and in summer I will be using this.

Finally the book, you guys might already know this as I reviewed it for my last Book Review Monday Post. The book was Truthwitch by Susan Dennard, my review of which you can read here. I won't go into too much detail as my review has all my opinions, but I will say that I didn't enjoy the book and that I found it rather repetitive and too complicated (my review explains why).

So overall I really liked my first Illumicrate and I will eventually get round to subscribing for the next box. I think it's good value for money and I really enjoy waiting for it. I rate it 4.5/5 stars.

So that was my review of Illumicrate, I hope you liked it. Leave a comment saying what your favourite item was and remember that I will not be blogging through April, May and June because of my exams (my full reason can be read in my February Update). If you have any business inquires please email me on my business email itscarenzab@gmail.com

Carenza x

Book Review Monday- Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

Hello!
So I have my 4th Book Review Monday post and this time I am reviewing Truthwitch by Susan Dennard, I received this in the February Illumicrate (my review of which will be going up on 25/3/2016). I had never heard of it before then and was excited to read it, so without further ado here are my thoughts, feelings and opinions on Truthwitch.
WARNING: This review contains spoilers so do not read if you are/ want to read this book.

Cover

I'm going to be honest, I don't like the cover for this book. It has nothing to do with the book and I have no idea who the girl is supposed to be. I do like the typography used for the title though. Also I want to apologies for my cat being in the photo, he decided my bed was the best place to curl up on. Also, I am not mad keen on Hardback books. I'd say around 10% of my books are Hardback.

Plot 

What Goodreads says:
"In a continent on the edge of war, two witches hold its fate in their hands.
Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.
Safi must avoid capture at all costs as she's a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden - lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult's true powers are hidden even from herself.
In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls' heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike. For some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch."

To be honest, this is the best way of describing the plot. The plot is quite simple: They are being hunted, but all the terminology made it hard to understand what was happening (I'll talk about this more in my Opinions section). The Goodreads rating for this book is 4/5 stars on average.

Opinions

I am going to be honest, I did not enjoy this book. It was very slow paced until the very end were everything seemed to happen. I felt as if there were too many action scenes and they were almost always straight after another. The one major thing that held this book back was terminology, I didn't understand half of it and it wasn't explained. I felt as though I spent more time trying to work out what was happening than actually enjoying this book. I don't think I would have read this if it hadn't have been sent to me. I do love the premise of this book, that it's two girls friendship that save the day but there wasn't much of that friendship in the book. I will be continuing with this series as I am interested to see were it goes but I don't have high hopes at all.

Also I have decided not to include a Characters section in this review as I find it really hard to explain the terminology and I felt that the characters were too similar to ones in the book and ones that existed in other books.

So that is my review of Truthwitch by Susan Dennard, please remember that these are my opinions and that I am not trying to offend anyone in anyway. You can now follow my blog by using the follow by email option and I have direct links to my Twitter, Instagram and Goodreads down the sides. If you have any business inquiries please drop me an email at itscarenzab@gmail.com

Carenza x 

February Wrap Up and March TBR 2016| It's Carenza B

Hello!
So today I have my second Wrap Up and TBR, you can read my first one here. Like my last Wrap Up and TBR, I haven't read as many books as I would have liked to. Each book will have a short description as most of them will be reviewed at some point. So here is my Wrap Up and TBR, enjoy!

February Wrap Up

February was a slightly better reading month than January as I read 3 books, I'm slowly getting better at reading books and making more time to read them.

The first book I read in the month of February was Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas and holy crap it's amazing. I was already half way through this book by the beginning of the month. I won't go into too much detail as you really need to have read the other three books in the series to understand how good it is and all that happened in it. I am really happy with how it ended but I need more and I can't wait for the next one. I plan on reviewing the series at some point, so keep your eyes out for that.

  

The next book I read was Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and this was my favourite book of the month, my full review went up on Monday and you can read it here. I won't go into too much detail but I will say that I love it and I can't wait to read the other books, and guys the movie looks amazing. Eva Green as Miss Peregrine is perfect and I can't wait till October 7th, if you guys would like any posts about the movie let me know.

 

The final book I read this month was Truthwitch by Susan Dennard and I received this in the February Illumicrate. Again like Queen of the Tearling, I have a love-hate relationship with this book. I love the idea behind it, that two girls friendship can save the world but there was just so much terminology that I didn't understand and I felt like it could have been explained better. I plan on reviewing this as my next Book Review Monday Post.  

March TBR

I plan on reading 4 books this month, one being a novella and one of these books has been carried over from my February TBR.

The first book I plan on reading is one that I don't have a copy of and that is Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. I joined the Shadowhunter fandom 3 years ago and haven't looked back since. I love the characters, her writing style and just everything about these books has me hooked. So far I know that Lady Midnight will be part of a trilogy called the Dark Artifacts, and that it is set in Los Angeles and the main characters are called Emma Carstairs (who we met in Heavenly Fire) and Julian Blackthorn. I am so excited to read this as I have been waiting since the last book came out for a new one.   

Next I plan on reading my World Book Day book and that is Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell. I have never read a Rainbow Rowell novel before so I am excited to read this. The book revolves around the character of Elena, an 18 year old die hard Star Wars fan. Elena excepts to be part of a line of thousands of people waiting to see the new movie, instead she's part of a line of 3. Elena then has to endure this and do some pretty weird things, which I will let you guys find out. 

  

Then I plan on reading The Assassins Blade by Sarah J Maas, this is a bind up of 5(?) novellas, and all of them take place before Throne of Glass. I'm really looking forward to this but apparently you are suppose to read this before Queen of Shadows, but I don't think that it will have a major impact on your reading experience.

 

Finally I plan on reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, like I said in my previous TBR post I love this book and the character of Jane. I can't wait to read it again and fully appreciate it rather than study it.

So that concludes my Wrap and TBR post, I'm sorry it's a day late but I am super busy and the closer we get to my exams the more busy I will be. But after June, I have a lovely long 12 week holiday so hopefully I'll be blogging loads. I am thinking of changing my upload day to a Saturday as it is easier for me and I feel that Saturday is a good day to post. Don't forget to follow my blog by clicking the follow button, and leave me a comment about your reading habits from the last month. Don't forget to follow my Twitter and Instagram (@itscarenzab) and my business email is itscarenzab@gmail.com 

Carenza x