Unboxing: Celebrate Books February & The Valiant Review

When I got a shipping notification of my March box today, I realized I hadn’t even posted an unboxing of the February box on my blog yet. And that it’s been quite a while since I last posted anyway. Sorry about that, and here is my February Celebrate Books unboxing!

Celebrate Books is a Dutch bookish surprise box. There’s usually multiple choices for the box’ theme and/or language. In February, I picked the box with the Dutch book, because the theme spoke to me most: ‘Swords & Games’.

And I most certainly wasn’t disappointed! These boxes get better by the month!! The box had:

• A great ‘Movies are good, books are better’ quote tote bag by Young Adults Clavis Books
• ‘I like to party and by party I mean read books’ quote postcard. It’s already clear they come up with great quotes!
• ‘Things to do’ Sarah Andersen notebok, in which each page is divided in three spaces: What I could do, What I did, I dream of… I love her comics, so this is a really fun notebook!
• Reading snack recipe with brightly colored sword skewers!
• ‘Let’s go rattle the stars’ Celaena quote bookmark by the lovely Book Buddies Bookmarks. I already had one, so I decided to give it to someone else!
• ‘Rowans Hawk Form’ bookish candle, which smells like snow and sandalwood and was made by Romemade Candles. Now I finally have some Rowan merch!!
• ‘Elias’ lipbalm by Behind the Pages!! This smells really really good! I should definitely read An Ember in the Ashes soon
• ‘The Selection’ color-in bookmark
• The book: The Valiant by Leslie Livingstone, including a bookmark. This book was released on the day before my box arrived, and I immediately thought it looked really promising, because I love books set in the Roman Empire! I hadn’t heard of the book before, and it was nice to be surprised with a book I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen myself.
• ‘On the field of battle you’re either a warrior or you’re in the way’ quote print including the author’s signature! I really love this quote!

I read The Valiant earlier this month. As a birthday present, my sister gave me a TBR jar. The first note I took out of it, said: ‘Book that is published in 2017’. And so I picked this one! My Goodreads review of The Valiant:

This book was a pleasant surprise! I was afraid it would be cringy, because I’ve read quite a bit of historical fiction set in this time period. But it was a really fun read and it seemed fairly accurate when it comes to the historic facts. The main character reminded me a little of sci-fi/dystopian rebels like Katniss and Tris, and that worked pretty well in the gladiator setting. However, some events felt a little too coincidental to be realistic.

This was again a really great box! I’m really looking forward to the March one. Its theme is ‘First Impressions’ and it again has a Dutch book, a hardcover this time! I have no idea which book it will be yet, so I’m looking forward to unboxing it! I’ve also already ordered the April box, which is their one year anniversary box and is themed ‘Arty Party’, and the May box, which is actually REALLY epic: it’s ACOWAR themed! I chose the US hardcover edition, and it will be delivered on release day!