Thank you!!! So many people get so lit up the second it's mentioned that only women are picked for boxes and it's like, just as you said, yes we need to celebrate women in fantasy but that doesn't mean I want to ONLY read female authors. I also agree with you about the choices. Very few actually feel adult, more like YA adjacent :/
I was actually kind of nervous to talk about that, especially because I have been a big advocate of recognizing women in adult fantasy, but the aim of that has never been that it should ONLY be women. so I'm glad you appreciate that! and yeah, most of these choices are definitely not what come to mind when I think adult fantasy 🫤
I've never actually thought about that before! I don't know what the downsides of being in a book box like that would be, unless they have an issue with FL specifically, though I also don't know how that impacts sales/profit for the author, but definitely an interesting thought
I read primarily on my kindle so I choose all of my own reads and I always stick to the same stuff. I signed up for the wait list for the adult book only box. I’m so excited because I do feel like I want to get some beautiful books that are different from what I would’ve chosen for myself!
I hope you enjoy it if you get off the waitlist! I feel like that would be prefect for you honestly, I think that is the right type of mindset to go into a subscription with
When they first announced the adult subscription I was tempted to sign up but in hindsight I'm glad I didn't. The editions are STUNNING but only a couple of the choices are books I would have been interested in. I have the Goldsboro subscription and one thing I've realised is I don't like to receive special editions of first books in series because I prefer to read completed series so they're only going to sit on my shelf for a year or two until the sequels are released. Then might not even like them 😅 Thanks for making this video, it was really interesting to hear your thoughts!
I also prefer to read completed series! I just signed up for the Broken Binding's subscription and I think that one will satisfy what I was wanting from the Adult Fairyloot. thanks for watching!
I also have had the fairyloot subscription from the beginning. I have mixed feelings about it. I've read all but April 2023's book, but I've given 3 books 5/5 stars, 3 books 3/5 stars, 2 books 1/5 stars, had 2 DNFs, and one skipped month (Poster Girl). They definitely could use a more diverse author selection. I think they gear towards authors who previously wrote YA because their core membership, at least initially, is people who read YA. This box probably started with their subscribers looking for more adult books as they slowly grow out of YA, and the authors with a YA-book track record make good transition books.
yes, it definitely felt like it was geared toward their YA subscribers, but I saw so much interest from adult fantasy readers that I don't think they needed to entice the YA subscribers to join 🫤 I appreciate your star breakdown! I think mine was two 4 stars, one 3 star, two 2 stars, one 1 star, and a DNF....that's not great haha and I think looking back, I'd lower one of those 4 stars to a 3
omg this means so much to me! both because i think my voice is obnoxious and i enjoy other people with relaxing voices, so i'm glad i'm that person for someone 😊
I just started getting the unplugged adult book box to see if I will get better adult books. So far is it seems more diverse and doing books I haven't heard about before. I'm trialing before I cancel my FL subscription. I agree with So many of your points. I just want pretty good books to read. So far I haven't found the perfect box tho unfortunately.
Oooh I haven't heard of that one!! I suppose there won't ever be a ~perfect~ book box haha but I think Fairyloot is definitely aimed at a certain demographic that they didn't make clear beforehand
@Sarah {faeryreads} haha yea your definitely right. Not perfect so much as enjoy what I'm getting. I think that's more me wanting to read adult more than YA anymore though.
Most adults don't want character art....and so many of these do seem like YA. Or New Adult. I think OwlCrate has better adult selections for sure. Great idea for a video!👍
@@faeryreads OwlCrate has beautiful books..good quality! I received my July YA box on Saturday. Good quality items, beautiful book...which I am half way through. It's so good!
I have the adult (book only) Illumicrate and I’m happy with the design of the books but I do think they need to select actual adult fantasy. Like Fairyloot they shift toward younger adults and female protagonists. I also subscribe to Broken Binding, which does a freaking amazing job, and Goldsboro which isn’t perfect for my taste but always targets high quality adult books. I’m sticking with all three but I agree with you, I would love to see a book only book box that targets debuts and marginalized authors.
I have the Broken Binding as well and their picks are great! I kind of love that they do already published series so i can more accurately judge if I'd be interested in them. I haven't paid attention to illumicrate's picks, but I will be going forward because that's an interesting point
@@faeryreads Yes, I feel like Broken Binding is run by adult readers and some others are awfully interested in pretty books and maybe not quite so much interested in good books…at least for me. As an aside - The Wolf of Oren-Yaro/Bitch Queen and the Tide Child have been insanely beautiful, IMO, but, for me, nothing beats their Dandelion Dynasty edges. Too fabulous for words!! (Me being a raving, nerdy, book geek.)
OMG for real!! That's the series that put them on the map for me!! Those edges are STUNNING!! I'm so glad that they did something kind of similar for the Tide Child, at least in the way they all form one picture.
@@faeryreads I DESPERATELY wish they would do The Rook & the Rose. I love my floppy reading copies but no hardcovers is a crime. It’s an amazing trilogy and absolutely deserves a beautiful edition. I, of course, am saying this when I’m only 10% into Labyrinth’s Heart but I completely trust this team of authors.
Just wanted to tell you I loved your video. I agree with basically everything you said. I was tempted to subscribe to FL Adult box but their choices are mostly New Adult. I don't get it. There were only a couple of books I would be interested in reading. They got better with the customizations lately, and there are a few stunning editions (the beginning of the box was definitely rough), but I don't think I'm missing out on anything even now. I also think they're going through some issues with the YA boxes, lots of complains online.
Aw, thank you! Yes, I agree the books are very New Adult! It's interesting that the YA boxes are having complaints as well, I feel like that was the gold standard of subscription boxes for a long time! I always got major FOMO of all the editions haha
I used to get the YA Fairyloot boxes and I feel you summed up my thoughts on it pretty well. The books were pretty but often I had no interest in them. All of them were written by women when I was getting them and thats absolutely fine but I would’ve appreciated more diversity, especially when almost all of them were written by white women. They were also usually romance and i rarely want to read romance. A book that includes romance is fine, but I tend to prefer to steer clear of romance books, y’know? I was considering giving the Adult subscription a go to see if maybe I might prefer the books in there, though I personally did enjoy the extra stuff from the YA boxes, but I might need to do a bit more research before trying it.
especially with the YA box, it's SO easy for them to find books with romance by white women unfortunately 😒 I think YA in general needs more men writing it and they could highlight men in the age range...but nope
I've been subscribed to FL adult since the beginning. I have also cancelled a few subscriptions since like FL's YA box. I was rather frustrated in the beginning of FL adult, not because of the black sprayed edges, but because we weren't given much information on what kind of books we were going to get. I don't like most fantasy romance books, so I can appreciate that there's a good balance, but we still don't really know what kinds of books we're going to get. It's been a mish-mosh, but nothing really high fantasy (which was what I was hoping for). It has been a decent subscription, but if it has taken them 14 books to get a design I really love (with the exception of Babel and April's was gorgeous), I can only hope it'll get better.
i agree, they weren't clear what types of books they were going to include from the beginning! i think that is why i ended up being disappointed, because i assumed one thing and they never told us any information to make me think differently. i was expecting more high fantasy as well, and while i also appreciate a good balance, i think they could have pushed it even further and chosen an even wider range of books!
I think you missed a BIPOC author, there are three instead of two-- RF Kuang, Roshani Chokshi, and Olivie Blake. (And Juno Dawson isn't BIPOC but she is trans.) They've since included TJ Klune as their token dude (though it seems that box wasn't very well received). I personally find white man Fantasy to be generally more stale, less diverse, low Fantasy, and all around has a lower bar to publication so I'm not terribly bothered that it doesn't feature in their box. And there are other boxes like The Broken Binding that pretty heavily feature your standard white male authors (Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence, etc). I also have mixed feelings about the sub as a whole and while I'm not happy with their current skip policy, I'm also no longer fretting about canceling my sub if I run out of skips. Because honestly? It's been pretty shaky. There are 3 books that I absolutely loved both the content and the special edition (Babel, A Dowry of Blood -- already owned the self-pub, and EWEoF) and I would have sought those SEs secondhand. I already enjoyed and owned the self-pub of The Atlas Six, and I quite liked the SE (though may not have hunted it down). HMRC was a fun enough read, not a new fav, though I didn't gel with the sequel. And I quite liked City of Dusk and am hoping the sequel keeps me interested (it's a really rocky first 150 or so pages, though, but once it picks up it's definitely my vibe) I just don't find the SE to be special. Loved Amina, but I think the US bright colors fit the book much better so idk if I'll ultimately hold on to my FL copy. I've otherwise disliked all the other books (aside from the Roth which I skipped and haven't read separately). And those are also all the ones that have felt much younger in tone as well, so I'd probably have a better hit rate if they stuck to truly Adult titles. There's a big trend (especially in Flower Bride and Spells for Forgetting and Book of Night) where it's supposed to be the author's debut Adult work... but then most of the plot revolves around flashbacks to when the characters were teens, dual timeline/etc... and even as adults they just seem really immature because they're rooted in this very teen event in their lives and haven't been able to grow up past it. Just having characters that are in their twenties does not mean it's an Adult book. Also worth noting-- I did pick up their two crossover YA books last year that were Orbit titles: One Dark Window and The Stardust Thief. Which both felt more Adult than several of the very immature "Adult" subscription books. Aesthetically I find a lot of their editions to be dark, and apart from Babel I've really preferred their stenciled edges to the digitally printed ones. SFF books in the store are overwhelmingly black already, if it's an SE I'd like it to stand out. Emily Wilde became my fav book of this year, and I never would have heard about it if it wasn't a box pick, so that bought them a lot of goodwill from me. I've already read it four times, lol. But there hasn't been a single book in 2023 that I wanted to keep, and only really 4/10 for 2022; so at least for me I think it makes more sense to cancel and pick up the ones I'm truly excited about at secondhand mark-up rates. I hope that the Romantasy sub will make the Adult sub gain more of its own identity, but I'm not sure if I like their current tastes as much.
sorry for replying to this so late, I needed to sit down and read it all! I appreciate how long this comment is omg I totally did forget Olivie Blake, that's my bad! unfortunately 3 authors of color instead of 2 is still not great on Fairyloots part haha I just finished The Stardust Thief and I 100%, I don't understand how that was a crossover book? I was expecting more romance from it because of that (but I was totally okay that there wasn't much lol) I agree that I want special editions to stand out!! thats why they are ~special~ lol they don't need to blend in with all my other books
I think fairyloot announced in their web page that there is books in ya are mixed. And yes I noticed too all the book I have from July last year tell now are women 🤔.. I skip two months and 4of my books are stand alone and 4 are series
That was interesting! A few years back I got 3 or 4 fairyloot boxes....in the end I never read any of the books 🤭 I think as much as I would like it, I think such subsribtion boxes aren't for me. I personally don't like those kind of illustrations of people in the books.
there are always going to be hits and misses with a subscription box, but I feel like ive been getting all misses 🤣 I'm glad they've kept most of the character art on the endpapers because character art and endpages are the two things I care about the least haha
Idk personally I disagreed with everything said I actually really liked all of the Fairyloot books I've gotten in terms of appearance (I started from Babel and haven't skipped a month yet and have been fairly interested in all their choices) aside from Postergirl (which just isn't my style, haven't read it tho, but I have a friend who loved how it looked and also loved the book so I passed it on to her). Honestly I've enjoyed all the picks since Babel and even the ones I haven't read my friends have had good things to say so like idk. And I LOVED Emily Wilde. You can't satisfy everyone I guess.
i do think most of the choices they've made in regards to design since babel have been good as well! i was so looking forward to emily wilde, but it just wasn't for me. i haven't even seen anyone else say anything bad about it lol! it's definitely true that nothing is going to work for everyone
Thank you!!! So many people get so lit up the second it's mentioned that only women are picked for boxes and it's like, just as you said, yes we need to celebrate women in fantasy but that doesn't mean I want to ONLY read female authors. I also agree with you about the choices. Very few actually feel adult, more like YA adjacent :/
I was actually kind of nervous to talk about that, especially because I have been a big advocate of recognizing women in adult fantasy, but the aim of that has never been that it should ONLY be women. so I'm glad you appreciate that! and yeah, most of these choices are definitely not what come to mind when I think adult fantasy 🫤
Do you think male authors are declining to be associated with FL? I have to wonder...
I've never actually thought about that before! I don't know what the downsides of being in a book box like that would be, unless they have an issue with FL specifically, though I also don't know how that impacts sales/profit for the author, but definitely an interesting thought
I read primarily on my kindle so I choose all of my own reads and I always stick to the same stuff. I signed up for the wait list for the adult book only box. I’m so excited because I do feel like I want to get some beautiful books that are different from what I would’ve chosen for myself!
I hope you enjoy it if you get off the waitlist! I feel like that would be prefect for you honestly, I think that is the right type of mindset to go into a subscription with
When they first announced the adult subscription I was tempted to sign up but in hindsight I'm glad I didn't. The editions are STUNNING but only a couple of the choices are books I would have been interested in.
I have the Goldsboro subscription and one thing I've realised is I don't like to receive special editions of first books in series because I prefer to read completed series so they're only going to sit on my shelf for a year or two until the sequels are released. Then might not even like them 😅
Thanks for making this video, it was really interesting to hear your thoughts!
I also prefer to read completed series! I just signed up for the Broken Binding's subscription and I think that one will satisfy what I was wanting from the Adult Fairyloot. thanks for watching!
I also have had the fairyloot subscription from the beginning. I have mixed feelings about it. I've read all but April 2023's book, but I've given 3 books 5/5 stars, 3 books 3/5 stars, 2 books 1/5 stars, had 2 DNFs, and one skipped month (Poster Girl). They definitely could use a more diverse author selection. I think they gear towards authors who previously wrote YA because their core membership, at least initially, is people who read YA. This box probably started with their subscribers looking for more adult books as they slowly grow out of YA, and the authors with a YA-book track record make good transition books.
yes, it definitely felt like it was geared toward their YA subscribers, but I saw so much interest from adult fantasy readers that I don't think they needed to entice the YA subscribers to join 🫤 I appreciate your star breakdown! I think mine was two 4 stars, one 3 star, two 2 stars, one 1 star, and a DNF....that's not great haha and I think looking back, I'd lower one of those 4 stars to a 3
Your voice is so relaxing! Books and a asmr voice is such a great combo😊
omg this means so much to me! both because i think my voice is obnoxious and i enjoy other people with relaxing voices, so i'm glad i'm that person for someone 😊
I just started getting the unplugged adult book box to see if I will get better adult books. So far is it seems more diverse and doing books I haven't heard about before. I'm trialing before I cancel my FL subscription. I agree with So many of your points. I just want pretty good books to read. So far I haven't found the perfect box tho unfortunately.
Oooh I haven't heard of that one!! I suppose there won't ever be a ~perfect~ book box haha but I think Fairyloot is definitely aimed at a certain demographic that they didn't make clear beforehand
@Sarah {faeryreads} haha yea your definitely right. Not perfect so much as enjoy what I'm getting. I think that's more me wanting to read adult more than YA anymore though.
Most adults don't want character art....and so many of these do seem like YA. Or New Adult. I think OwlCrate has better adult selections for sure. Great idea for a video!👍
I never hear as much hype for OwlCrate, but I should check them out!
@@faeryreads OwlCrate has beautiful books..good quality! I received my July YA box on Saturday. Good quality items, beautiful book...which I am half way through. It's so good!
I have the adult (book only) Illumicrate and I’m happy with the design of the books but I do think they need to select actual adult fantasy. Like Fairyloot they shift toward younger adults and female protagonists. I also subscribe to Broken Binding, which does a freaking amazing job, and Goldsboro which isn’t perfect for my taste but always targets high quality adult books. I’m sticking with all three but I agree with you, I would love to see a book only book box that targets debuts and marginalized authors.
I have the Broken Binding as well and their picks are great! I kind of love that they do already published series so i can more accurately judge if I'd be interested in them. I haven't paid attention to illumicrate's picks, but I will be going forward because that's an interesting point
@@faeryreads Yes, I feel like Broken Binding is run by adult readers and some others are awfully interested in pretty books and maybe not quite so much interested in good books…at least for me. As an aside - The Wolf of Oren-Yaro/Bitch Queen and the Tide Child have been insanely beautiful, IMO, but, for me, nothing beats their Dandelion Dynasty edges. Too fabulous for words!! (Me being a raving, nerdy, book geek.)
OMG for real!! That's the series that put them on the map for me!! Those edges are STUNNING!! I'm so glad that they did something kind of similar for the Tide Child, at least in the way they all form one picture.
@@faeryreads I DESPERATELY wish they would do The Rook & the Rose. I love my floppy reading copies but no hardcovers is a crime. It’s an amazing trilogy and absolutely deserves a beautiful edition. I, of course, am saying this when I’m only 10% into Labyrinth’s Heart but I completely trust this team of authors.
@arlissbunny I haven't read that series but that honestly seems like a solid contender for TBB to do!
Just wanted to tell you I loved your video. I agree with basically everything you said. I was tempted to subscribe to FL Adult box but their choices are mostly New Adult. I don't get it. There were only a couple of books I would be interested in reading. They got better with the customizations lately, and there are a few stunning editions (the beginning of the box was definitely rough), but I don't think I'm missing out on anything even now.
I also think they're going through some issues with the YA boxes, lots of complains online.
Aw, thank you! Yes, I agree the books are very New Adult! It's interesting that the YA boxes are having complaints as well, I feel like that was the gold standard of subscription boxes for a long time! I always got major FOMO of all the editions haha
I am thinking of switching from young adult subscription to adult one , need someone review adult fairyloot boos for a year at least to decide.
I used to get the YA Fairyloot boxes and I feel you summed up my thoughts on it pretty well. The books were pretty but often I had no interest in them. All of them were written by women when I was getting them and thats absolutely fine but I would’ve appreciated more diversity, especially when almost all of them were written by white women. They were also usually romance and i rarely want to read romance. A book that includes romance is fine, but I tend to prefer to steer clear of romance books, y’know? I was considering giving the Adult subscription a go to see if maybe I might prefer the books in there, though I personally did enjoy the extra stuff from the YA boxes, but I might need to do a bit more research before trying it.
especially with the YA box, it's SO easy for them to find books with romance by white women unfortunately 😒 I think YA in general needs more men writing it and they could highlight men in the age range...but nope
Great video! Agree with your opinions. I’m underwhelmed so far and will be skipping till I run out of skips and then cancel…
thanks ☺️ yeah, I skipped may and im gonna skip July as well....as soon as I run out of skips, I think I'll cancel haha
I've been subscribed to FL adult since the beginning. I have also cancelled a few subscriptions since like FL's YA box. I was rather frustrated in the beginning of FL adult, not because of the black sprayed edges, but because we weren't given much information on what kind of books we were going to get. I don't like most fantasy romance books, so I can appreciate that there's a good balance, but we still don't really know what kinds of books we're going to get. It's been a mish-mosh, but nothing really high fantasy (which was what I was hoping for). It has been a decent subscription, but if it has taken them 14 books to get a design I really love (with the exception of Babel and April's was gorgeous), I can only hope it'll get better.
i agree, they weren't clear what types of books they were going to include from the beginning! i think that is why i ended up being disappointed, because i assumed one thing and they never told us any information to make me think differently. i was expecting more high fantasy as well, and while i also appreciate a good balance, i think they could have pushed it even further and chosen an even wider range of books!
I think you missed a BIPOC author, there are three instead of two-- RF Kuang, Roshani Chokshi, and Olivie Blake. (And Juno Dawson isn't BIPOC but she is trans.) They've since included TJ Klune as their token dude (though it seems that box wasn't very well received). I personally find white man Fantasy to be generally more stale, less diverse, low Fantasy, and all around has a lower bar to publication so I'm not terribly bothered that it doesn't feature in their box. And there are other boxes like The Broken Binding that pretty heavily feature your standard white male authors (Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence, etc).
I also have mixed feelings about the sub as a whole and while I'm not happy with their current skip policy, I'm also no longer fretting about canceling my sub if I run out of skips. Because honestly? It's been pretty shaky.
There are 3 books that I absolutely loved both the content and the special edition (Babel, A Dowry of Blood -- already owned the self-pub, and EWEoF) and I would have sought those SEs secondhand. I already enjoyed and owned the self-pub of The Atlas Six, and I quite liked the SE (though may not have hunted it down). HMRC was a fun enough read, not a new fav, though I didn't gel with the sequel. And I quite liked City of Dusk and am hoping the sequel keeps me interested (it's a really rocky first 150 or so pages, though, but once it picks up it's definitely my vibe) I just don't find the SE to be special. Loved Amina, but I think the US bright colors fit the book much better so idk if I'll ultimately hold on to my FL copy.
I've otherwise disliked all the other books (aside from the Roth which I skipped and haven't read separately). And those are also all the ones that have felt much younger in tone as well, so I'd probably have a better hit rate if they stuck to truly Adult titles. There's a big trend (especially in Flower Bride and Spells for Forgetting and Book of Night) where it's supposed to be the author's debut Adult work... but then most of the plot revolves around flashbacks to when the characters were teens, dual timeline/etc... and even as adults they just seem really immature because they're rooted in this very teen event in their lives and haven't been able to grow up past it. Just having characters that are in their twenties does not mean it's an Adult book.
Also worth noting-- I did pick up their two crossover YA books last year that were Orbit titles: One Dark Window and The Stardust Thief. Which both felt more Adult than several of the very immature "Adult" subscription books.
Aesthetically I find a lot of their editions to be dark, and apart from Babel I've really preferred their stenciled edges to the digitally printed ones. SFF books in the store are overwhelmingly black already, if it's an SE I'd like it to stand out.
Emily Wilde became my fav book of this year, and I never would have heard about it if it wasn't a box pick, so that bought them a lot of goodwill from me. I've already read it four times, lol. But there hasn't been a single book in 2023 that I wanted to keep, and only really 4/10 for 2022; so at least for me I think it makes more sense to cancel and pick up the ones I'm truly excited about at secondhand mark-up rates. I hope that the Romantasy sub will make the Adult sub gain more of its own identity, but I'm not sure if I like their current tastes as much.
(The high of EW being my fav book of the year followed by Flower Bride being my undisputed worst of the year... whiplash, I tell you!)
sorry for replying to this so late, I needed to sit down and read it all! I appreciate how long this comment is omg
I totally did forget Olivie Blake, that's my bad! unfortunately 3 authors of color instead of 2 is still not great on Fairyloots part haha
I just finished The Stardust Thief and I 100%, I don't understand how that was a crossover book? I was expecting more romance from it because of that (but I was totally okay that there wasn't much lol)
I agree that I want special editions to stand out!! thats why they are ~special~ lol they don't need to blend in with all my other books
I think fairyloot announced in their web page that there is books in ya are mixed. And yes I noticed too all the book I have from July last year tell now are women 🤔.. I skip two months and 4of my books are stand alone and 4 are series
oh interesting 🤔 if it's a YA box, they should do YA books 😂 im not surprised the YA books are all by women, there is a SERIOUS lack of men in YA
That was interesting! A few years back I got 3 or 4 fairyloot boxes....in the end I never read any of the books 🤭 I think as much as I would like it, I think such subsribtion boxes aren't for me.
I personally don't like those kind of illustrations of people in the books.
there are always going to be hits and misses with a subscription box, but I feel like ive been getting all misses 🤣 I'm glad they've kept most of the character art on the endpapers because character art and endpages are the two things I care about the least haha
What books do you like lol
lol none of these ones apparently 😂 though obviously I am hoping to enjoy the 6 that I talked about that I haven't read yet
@@faeryreads im about to start Amina Al-Sirafi so fingers crossed
@iheartwalle I listened to the first few chapters the other day and i'm really excited to continue!!
This is really helpful because I have debated subscribing to this and now I am not going to 😂
yay, I'm glad it was helpful!! I don't blame you for deciding not to subscribe haha
Idk personally I disagreed with everything said I actually really liked all of the Fairyloot books I've gotten in terms of appearance (I started from Babel and haven't skipped a month yet and have been fairly interested in all their choices) aside from Postergirl (which just isn't my style, haven't read it tho, but I have a friend who loved how it looked and also loved the book so I passed it on to her). Honestly I've enjoyed all the picks since Babel and even the ones I haven't read my friends have had good things to say so like idk. And I LOVED Emily Wilde. You can't satisfy everyone I guess.
i do think most of the choices they've made in regards to design since babel have been good as well! i was so looking forward to emily wilde, but it just wasn't for me. i haven't even seen anyone else say anything bad about it lol! it's definitely true that nothing is going to work for everyone
cool video
thanks!!
Too romance heavy.
agreed! there is so much more to adult fantasy than fantasy romance
Good thing April Adult is written now by a gay man.
right!! i was pleasantly surprised by their choice