BOTM is Offering a New Romantasy Subscription Box: Allurial. Is It Worth It?

Alright, bookish folk. To absolutely no one's surprise, another established book subscription company has jumped on the romantasy-exclusive-box bandwagon. To my surprise, however, it's only happening now. After quite a long time of the romantasy gravy train running full speed around the bookish tracks, BOTM is just now starting a new monthly subscription with three limited edition romantasy picks to choose from. Currently, the first "token" costs $9.99 with a promotion code, ALLURIAL, automatically applied at checkout.

First, what's pretty cool about this new subscription.

Despite the absolutely glutted romantasy market right now and the insane amount of cookie-cutter offerings in said glut, I think, at least in some small way, that a new book subscription for romantasy from a company like BOTM may present more than one substantial positive.

• Allurial books are (supposedly) truly limited editions. Unlike other companies who tout the same claim but then turn around and reprint even their monthly subscription books 🙄, Allurial claims their books will not be reprinted once they're sold out. And before anyone @'s me, I'm not against reprints so everyone gets an opportunity to get some priddy books. Just don't call them limited. They're not. They're still nice, though.

  
  

• Unless Allurial's offerings are extremely limited, sign-ups should not operate on a waitlist format as other book subscription companies, so the dreaded waitlist purgatory some suffer for boxes like FairyLoot and The Broken Binding won't apply here (maybe—we'll see if the tune changes later on).

• Additionally, and most appealing in my estimation, Allurial claims customers get unlimited skips. If you don't like any of the books for that month, you can skip. No problem.

  
  

• Like the main BOTM subscription, if you didn't like the book, you're covered by a reader guarantee. Allurial will replace your book for free in your next box if you email them using their contact form or at member.services@allurial.com and tell them you didn't like it. I'm sure there's a limit to how many books you can replace in a given time so this policy isn't abused, but that's still a pretty good assurance for those who are afraid they won't like the book and don't want to get stuck with it.

• Shipping is free. While I like this kind of perk, I know better than to delude myself with "free shipping" from companies. No way are companies eating shipping costs. The shipping isn't free; it's added into the cost of the book. Nevertheless, shipping is not a line-item charge for Alluria orders. At least it's not $10 for just a book shipped via media mail sent in a box (or even a bag) with little to no packaging to protect the book.

  
  

• The books look nice.

Now, onto the negatives. And I do mean negatives.

• Right out of the gate, EVERY BOOK is a duplicate. A Dance of Lies will be FairyLoot's July 2025 Romantasy pick. The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy will have a multitude of other special editions available from both book boxes and online bookstores. A Forbidden Alchemy has a 1st print run with nice edges and endpapers, which right now is cheaper than a single Alluria credit at a couple of places. And McEwan's books will almost certainly get special editions from other special edition companies in the future.

  
  

• Speaking of credits: Holy cow, tokens cost how much? Alluria's limited editions are $26.99 for the regular monthly token price and $19.99 for each additional add-on. Now, BOTM's tokens have sharply and steadily risen in cost over a short amount of time recently (less than 5 years ago, my price was about $13.99 or $14.99 for a single-credit plan and now the price is up to $17.99 a month, with some sketchy variations in cost for different people). Add-ons were $9.99. Now, they cost $11.99. And this increase is just from February 2025 for me. It was $2-$3 less for the monthly credit and $10.99 for the add-ons. These increases are very close together and rapidly occurring. I don't doubt that prices will do the same dance with Alluria, too. Sure, that's cheaper than regular-price special editions from other companies (maybe)—but for how much longer?

  
  

• Tokens expire. Unused tokens for active subscriptions expire after twelve months. If you cancel, tokens expire in 60 days. If you pause, you can still use your tokens as an active subscriber can, but you can't pause for more than three months at a time.

• The Alluria editions come with the "A" logo on the front and spine of the dust jacket (and the case wrap on at least one) of the books. If bookish folk don't like stickers on beautiful books, logos may not be welcome, either.

  
  

• So far, Alluria's editions don't offer signed copies (even if in limited quantities). For collectors who value signed editions, these may not be as appealing as the signed copies competitors offer. (And I mean wet, hand-drawn signatures, not computer-printed, digital signatures.)

  
  

• For right now, this subscription is US-Only. On one hand, this can't be helped. Publishing and sales rights for certain books don't extend everywhere for all books 😔. It's the way the book falls open. On the other hand, there are subscriptions not currently available to US customers because of the same dilemma. One could use mail-forwarding services to get around the restriction, however. Hope's not completely lost.

Conclusion: It's up to the individual.

The pro's and cons for me look pretty balanced. For someone with an interest in B5 romantasy books, I'd say this is a good alternative to book boxes with full subscriptions and waitlists that never seem to end.

Will I be getting it? Eh, I may try it. Right now, I'm not interested in any of the picks, and I'm not impressed that they're ALL being done in special editions elsewhere.

Also, I'm more of an indie reader. I may dabble in B5 romantasy occasionally, but only to see if anything's changed in the mainstream offerings. I think, for now, I'll probably stick with the few subscriptions I have, which I'm trying to whittle down even more anyway.

#bookofthemonth #alluria #bookbox #specialeditionbooks #romantasy #romance #fantasybooks