Unboxing and Review: Fresh Fiction Box (July 2020)

July 9, 2020 /

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This is month six of my six month experiment for the Fresh Fiction Box Not to Miss book subscription service. If you are interested in what I’ve thought of my previous boxes, you can check those reviews out here.

What did I get in my box this month? I am going to share the contents with you here. My review is not for the books I received because I haven’t read them yet, but instead will be for the content and subscription experience.

Unboxing

The first book in the box was Accidentally Family by Sasha Summers (Romance, Entangled:Amara). Here is the back cover blurb:

“Life for Felicity, and her teen children, is finally back on track. After her divorce, she wasn’t sure if her sweet family would ever be the same. But things are good––right up until her ex’s spirited toddler lands on Felicity’s doorstep. If the universe is going to throw lemons at her, thank God she has her best friend, Graham, to help her make lemonade out of them. How did she never notice how kind and sexy he is?
Graham is still recovering from his wife’s death years ago and trying to help his teen daughter get her life together. Who is he kidding? His daughter hates him. Forget lemons––he’s got the entire lemon tree. So when Felicity suggests they join forces and help each other, he’s all in. And suddenly he can’t stop thinking about her as more than just a friend. Too bad their timing couldn’t be worse…
Because life rarely goes as planned. Luckily there are many different kinds of family to hold you together and lift you up…plus maybe even a little love between friends.”

The second book in the box was A Dream Within A Dream by Mike Nappa and Melissa Kosci (Christian Suspense, Revell). Here is the back cover blurb:

“Trudi Coffey only realizes that she hasn’t seen Samuel Hill in weeks when the FBI shows up asking questions about him. After a strange encounter with an armed man demanding her help and an attack by a member of the Boston mob looking for someone named Dream, Trudi manages to find Samuel–or rather, he finds her. He’s made some pretty powerful enemies, but right now his full attention is on protecting Dream from the mob. Because Dream has something they want–the map to the location of artwork stolen from the Gardener Museum during the infamous 1990 heist.
With danger closing in from all sides, Trudi and Samuel will have to call on all of their allies to keep Dream safe and discover the identity of the people who have been hunting down Samuel. The real questions are whom can they trust? And who will make it out of this thing alive?”

The third book in the box was an ARC of A Sweet Mess by Jayci Lee (Romantic Comedy, St Martin’s Griffin). Here is the back cover blurb:

“Aubrey Choi has been content running her highly successful bakery Comfort Zone and with its first expansion taking up all of her time, dating has been the least of her priorities. Then a one-night-stand with gorgeous Korean hunk Landon Kim makes her want things she didn’t think she had time for. Too bad it turns out he’s a celebrity food critic whose scathing review of Comfort Zone goes viral and nearly destroys Aubrey’s business—and her fond memory of their night together.
Landon tries to clean up the mess he made by offering Aubrey a spot on the new celebrity cooking show he’s producing. She agrees to use this as a way to save her bakery and her reputation—no thanks to him—but vows to guard her heart. Now Aubrey and Landon find themselves sharing a villa in California wine country, which is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. For the next three weeks, baker and critic will tempt each other as they struggle to resist admitting that they have all the necessary ingredients for love.”

The fourth book in the box was an ARC of Flame: A Dark Kings Novel by Donna Grant (Fantasy Romance, St. Martin’s Paperbacks). Here is the back cover blurb:

“Living among the Dragon Kings, Cain has spent lifetimes learning to distrust both mortals and Fae. He is a warrior born―and every instinct demands that he fight to keep his own kind safe. But when a fringe member of the Dark Fae contacts the Kings with an urgent warning, Cain is torn for the first time. How can he trust this beautiful creature when resisting his primal attraction to her is battle enough?
Noreen is horrified by what her kind and the malevolent Others are planning for the Dragon Kings. Dark Fae or not, there are lines she will not cross―even if it means risking her life. But she never imagined that she would risk her heart until she meets Cain. She wants him with a soul-deep desire that frightens her…and endangers them both. Is saying goodbye to everything Noreen has ever known worth a love that will span time and realms?”

Here is the whole box: one mass market paperback, one trade paperback, two ARC paperbacks, two packets of tea, and a treat.

Check out the unboxing video on YouTube!

Review

What I liked:

  • The trade paperback was a Christian fiction book that I am excited about reading.

What I didn’t like:

  • One of the books was an exact duplicate of a selection from the June box.
  • Two ARCs in this box. Again. Those are freebies to me. For some people those might be considered a bonus, but not for me.
  • No eBook in this box.

Overall Opinion

While I was really excited to get a Christian fiction book from an author that I like, the price of that one and the other paperback book is about $18, which made the box overpriced again this month. And I am getting too many ARCs with this service.

The cost of this service is $25.95/month including shipping. If you add up the retail prices of the two that I received (not including the ARCs), it is $17.57. Even adding in shipping and tax, I wouldn’t have paid that much if I bought them outright.

Unfortunately, I will be cancelling this subscription. If you don’t mind Advanced Reader Copies, and you are not picky about swearing or graphic violence/sex, then this service might be good for you. It is not a good fit for me.

-Loraine Nunley

Unboxing and review of the Fresh Fiction subscription box for July 2020 #FreshFictionbox #SubscriptionBox Share on X