Acquired #BookMail By: JKS is the first publicity firm I started working with when I launched Jorie Loves A Story in August, 2013. I am honoured to continue to work with them now as a 4th Year Book Blogger. I was approached to receive a mystery book mail box from a debut YA author (D.E. Night) in conjunction with her release The Crowns of Croswald wherein I would have a lovely bookish box to open, photograph and share with my readers the impressions it gave me ahead of reading the novel!

I received my complimentary book box from D.E. Night courtesy of the publicist at JKS Communications in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

a word about ‘waiting on Wednesday’:

I have decided to start participating in this book blogsphere meme with a few small changes of how it’s regularly blogged about by my fellow book bloggers. I will either be introducing my current reads of upcoming releases as I am in the process of reading them and/or I might be releasing a book review about a forthcoming title by which I had been blessed to read ahead of publication. The main purpose behind the meme is to encourage readers and your fellow book bloggers to become aware of new books being released which caught your eye and which held your interest to read. Sometimes if your still in the process of reading the books, its the titles which encouraged your bookish heart. I look forward to spending the next seasons of the year, talking about the books I have on hand to read, the books I’ve been reading and the books I might not even have a copy to read but which are of wicked sweet interest to become a #nextread of mine.

Thus, this #unboxing is showcasing a title which is set to release in less than a fortnight (21st July) – wherein you will be happily excited to know I’ll be sharing my ruminative thoughts with you the week of it’s release! This post was inspired by the first #WaitingOnWednesday post I published and happily it gave me the inspiration to see if I could sort out how to showcase an ‘unboxing’ through photographs rather than a vlog post! I must admit, the experience has been wonderful and I would not be surprised if this is only one of several unboxings you might see flutter onto Jorie Loves A Story!

This is my 2nd #WaitingOnWednesday showcase, be sure to visit my 1st!

A new meme inspired by Waiting on Wednesday is Can’t Wait Wednesday for which this marks my first #WaitingOnWednesday post I’ve been able to share with the bloggers following this version of the meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings! (Tressa introduces her meme) Here is the post by which I shared my link. Be sure to find out which book bloggers I visited who helped ADD to my #TBRList by finding my blog hop route below this showcase!!

before i unboxed the #bookmail:

Shown in this photograph: The #bookmail box I received courtesy of D.E. Night via JKS Communications & Publicity and a letter opener given to those who are a member of The History Channel Club.

& long before the #bookmail was received,

i met this author’s world virtually through her site:

My initial reactions were so fully felt I could barely type words to describe my feelings:

I cannot wait to see what the author is working on with the box, as I was truly captured by the ingenuity of how she’s enveloping readers into her world-building whilst giving us a taste of the magical elements which bring her world to life. The music overlays and the illustrations help re-align you inside her story and of the arc in which will be carried throughout the series. Thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity to read a new MG Fantasy but also to feel the magic of how the author inspires readers to take a chance on her world and its message.

The reason I was so smitten with this book and the author is because her ENTIRE website was fully immersive – it felt as if you had stepped through an invisible threshold and were now entering into the world she’s built. Sadly, at the time of this #unboxing post the website I knew of the author’s is :gone:! I was truly gobsmacked! The overhaul is like any other author’s website – really, the bare bones of what it once was if you can even see a smidge of it’s origins. Even the chapter sampler which was so wickedly creative – hidden within the site itself – popping up as if by magical evocation and enchanting you to read it as it hovered in front of your eyes, whilst the illustrations which accompanied it were adding to the dimensional beauty of the author’s poetic prose – has been reduced to a ‘pop-up PDF’ – truly, dear hearts, I was smitten at the very first all-sensory experience (I, personally have found for a new release by an Indie Author) of Ms D.E. Night’s website!

However, everything which gave me a girlhood sense of wonderment and of the purity of unexpected joy – to the fluttering sounds of the fey only heard just a farthing away from my computer screen – now, dear hearts, it’s a hollowed out shell of that original site! For me personally, if this had been the site I’d first visited, I wouldn’t have felt like a graduate of Hogwarts about to re-enter into a dimensional space of such startling magical JOY as I had initially. Those first furtive footsteps I took into Ms Night’s world – as I clicked my mouse – where so evocative of what I hope to find within the realms of Fantasy (either through Children’s Lit releases or the adult realms) – I daresay, I nearly pinched myself realising I would soon be receiving this lovely #bookmail!

I was overtaken by the ingenuity of it – fragments now in my imagination and mental memory – as so much personal strife has happened in the few short weeks (since Mid-May!) since I first arrived on site to now. Such a gutting realisation, dear hearts, to know I’m revealling this story to you whilst noting I cannot give you that catalyst of JOY. I don’t believe I have felt so shattered ahead of reading a novel. I wanted more of that website – more of that world – it cast such a magical spell on me! I felt rejuvenated and inspired. I felt like this world I was about to enter was tangible, real and wholly visceral!

What pray tell happened to the music? The beautiful music which not only overlaid the words but rooted you inside Croswald? My heart grieves dear hearts, for you might not ever know the Croswald I originally ‘met’ by an inventively innovative creative author’s website. I felt as if the wind had left my sails upon my return. Almost as if you’ve misplaced something you had felt a part of but instead is nothing more than a mere figment of your own imagination.

[ skip forward – read what I said AFTER I shared my #unboxing photos !! ]

[ you dear hearts have a SURPRISE inasmuch as I did upon waking this morn! ]

Whenever I am receiving #bookmail from a publicist, author or publisher – I never know what I am going to find inside the book parcel. In this instance, the bundle I received in the Post was extra special because I knew going into receiving it there were going to be book-related extras & surprises! I truly was captured by the small details – from the collage of books on a shelf on the box itself – the curiously small box which was meant to contain all the surprises which nearly had me perplexed more than anything else – as I wasn’t quite sure how the smallness of it’s dimensions could hold so much inside it’s depths!

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