Reading in Heels

One of the things I was lucky enough to get for Christmas was a subscription to Reading in Heels from P. I’d been feeling a bit stuck in a rut with my GlossyBox subscription and I was looking for something new, something that suited me better. He found this service and asked if I was interested.

Reading in Heels sends you a paperback book and a collection of treats each month. The treats are typically lovely things like speciality teas, or scented candles or hand creams. The books (or so they promise) are almost always contemporary literary fiction. So, despite the name, which I admit I’m ambivalent about, you won’t be sent the latest Mills and Boon, nor indeed the latest fifty shades. As much as I love certain strands of genre fiction, I’d have to think twice before letting anyone else pick it for me. Lit fic, on the other hand, I’m pretty likely to either love, or really enjoy picking apart.

Long story short, yeah, I was interested in this subscription. So much so, that when he we swapped Christmas gifts and there was no immediate signs of it I was already planning to place my own initial order. As it happened, the initial sign (a card promising that a box was on it’s way) dropped through our letter box not ten minutes later.

That box arrived on the 6th of January and I was excited. It’s not a solid-walled box like the glossy boxes are, but a folded card box which ships inside a more robust card box. I understand that the Reading in Heels team are still experimenting with their packaging, but I quite liked it. Inside the book and the treats were wrapped in crepe paper.

First things first: The book. This month we recieved a copy of Birds Art Life Death bu Kyo Maclear. I must confess having never heard of the book nor the author and (shock horro) the Reading in Heels team confessed that it wasn’t strictly contemporary lit fic. However, it was a philosophical true story and it has my interest very much peaked. So much so that it has bumped itself straight to the top of my tbr pile and I’ll open it the second I finish my current paperback.

The next thing to fall out of the package was a slim, unlined notebook with a marble-print cover by Coconut Lane. It’ll go beautifully with my rose gold nail polish and my twin obsessions with unicorns and avocados. By which I mean I love it.

The remaining treats were a raw energy fruit bar by Squirrel Sisters, a rose-scented shower gel by Korres and a hair mask by Lore.

The raw energy fruit bar was pretty damned delicious. I really approved of the addition of nuts to give it some crunch and I enjoyed it far more than the Nakd bars I’m occasionally tempted by when I see them at checkouts in supermarkets and they promise to taste like bakewell tart (which they do not, by the way).

The shower gel also is lovely. It foams up nicely, it’s very creamy and gentle and it smells of roses. The fragrance could possibly be a bit stronger, but I realise that that might make the shower gel less delicate so I’ll let it go.

The hair mask was a weird one in that you’re supposed to put it on dry hair, and then go and wash and condition your hair as usual after a minimum of 15 minutes. The packet said that leaving it longer would enhance the effect so I left it for about 25 (I got distracted). The whole time it was on it smelled gorgeous. It rinsed off pretty easily in the show and my hair definitely felt softer for a couple of days afterwards but, as is so often the case with these things, I’ve no idea if it did anything else. It was nice anyway, and I’d use one of these again.

And that’s the box! I know I’m only on the first one but this already suits me a whole lot better than GlossyBox did and I cannot wait to start reading the book. I think we’re onto a winner here.