Here at Once Upon a Book Club, the office is full of excitement, and there is a definite celebratory buzz in the air. We can’t believe it’s our 10th Anniversary! A decade of bringing books to life, and what a decade it has been.

We have been reminiscing and can’t believe how we have grown as a company, as a team, and as individuals. When you say the words “ten years,” it seems like an age, but in all honesty, it’s gone by so quickly. 

It’s amazing when we look back and realize that ten years ago, Once Upon a Book Club began with one simple but magical idea: encouraging people to read by bringing books to life! What if you could reach a certain page, open a carefully wrapped gift, and suddenly hold a piece of the story in your hands? 

And now, here we are celebrating ten years of bringing books to life. Ten years of page-numbered gifts, unforgettable stories, exclusive editions, holiday traditions, and an incredible community of readers who know that opening a gift at just the right moment is a special kind of magic!

 

How Once Upon a Book Club Started

Once Upon a Book Club began in 2016 when Michelle Wolett wanted to encourage her mother to read more. So, she wrapped up gifts and marked them with page numbers, telling her mom she could only open each one when she reached the corresponding moment in the book. She hoped this would give her mom the incentive and encouragement to finish the book by bringing the story to life. The idea was simple, but brilliant.

As her mom read, the gifts became part of the story. A scene was no longer just something to imagine; it made that moment feel alive. As it turns out, Michelle’s mom loved it. In fact, she loved it so much that she kept asking for more. Soon, she was reading almost as fast as Michelle could plan each experience.

And that’s when Michelle realized that many readers would love the experience of feeling like their book was being brought to life. There was a gap in the bookish world for something immersive, interactive, and deeply memorable. Readers already loved getting lost in stories, but Once Upon a Book Club gave them a new way to experience them.

And with that, Once Upon a Book Club was born.

 

The First OUABC Book Box

Rewind 10 years to July 2016, and we released our first book box, “Lilacs,” featuring The Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly plus 6 beautifully wrapped surprise gifts. At the time, Once Upon a Book Club exclusively featured women’s historical fiction, and this first box set the tone for everything that would follow.

Our very first readers discovered Matka's ring (which was stolen by the Nazis), a secret message written in invisible ink, a pair of grey fashion socks, a headband scarf, a floral patterned cloth envelope containing a real photo of children from World War II, and a packet of lilac seeds, representing Caroline's lilacs in the book.

The first gifts were entirely hand-wrapped in Michelle's living room with the help of family and friends. Those original boxes were a labor of love, and what began as a tiny idea soon blossomed into a company.

The OUABC Launches We Will Never Forget

 

There are some launches that just stood out, and our Bridgerton Boxes happen to be one of them. We actually have an entire Bridgerton collection under our Special Collections in our shop!

Our Bridgerton Special Editions have become collector's items and are considered the royalty of any bookshelf. The special custom designs were so exciting, and then came selecting just the right moment to be accompanied by the perfect gift to bring the Ton to life!

Our Bridgerton Volume 1 and Volume 2 full boxes were hugely popular, each featuring 4 Bridgerton novels by Julia Quinn accompanied by a total of 8 delightful surprise gifts per box!

 

 

And then there is The Four Winds Series by Alexandria Warwick. From The North Wind to The West Wind, The South Wind, and The East Wind, these boxes captured everything readers love about romantasy. Sweeping settings, atmospheric gifts, romance, tension, danger, and fantasy worlds you don’t want to leave. 

These four Romantasy Boxes flew off the shelves! Each box featured one of the novels, which included special edition artwork on the cover, custom endpapers, uniquely designed page edges, and metal corner detailing. And let's not forget those carefully curated and beautifully wrapped surprise gifts to open at just the right moment!

Romantasy as a genre continues to grow in popularity, and yes, we have a whole collection dedicated to this exciting genre! Check out our Beginner's Guide to Romantasy and How to Build a Romantasy-Themed Reading Corner!

10 Years of OUABC Milestones

A decade is a long time in book years! Just think how many TBR piles have grown, how many bookmarks have gone missing, and how many “just one more chapter” promises have absolutely been broken.

For Once Upon a Book Club, the past 10 years have been filled with exciting milestones, new subscriptions, unforgettable seasonal boxes, and exciting, fresh new ways to celebrate the joy of all things bookish.

 

Young Adult Joins the Story

In April 2017, we launched our Young Adult book subscription box. OUABC had been in existence for about 10 months, and the time felt right to bring a new genre of titles to subscribers.

The first Young Adult box was “Mixed Media Memories,” featuring The Hidden Memory of Objects by Danielle Mages Amato. The gifts included items such as gold embroidery shears, a custom button necklace, a black and white backpack with a lime green wallet, and a pair of sealed black gloves.

It was the beginning of a whole new chapter for OUABC, opening the immersive reading experience to YA readers and fans of young adult fiction. Did you know that YA books are also popular with our adult subscribers? We even wrote about it in our blog, Are YA Books Just Junk Food for Adults, or Do They Have Just as Much Merit? And the answer was a resounding yes!

 

Middle Grade and Tween Readers

In February 2023, we launched our first Middle Grade subscription box, beginning with “Survival Island,” featuring The Forgotten Five: Map of Flames by Lisa McMann and three exciting gifts that brought the story to life!

In May 2024, Middle Grade became the bi-monthly Tween subscription box. After three wonderful years of curating boxes for young readers, the Tween subscription was sunsetted in May 2026.

The final Tween subscription box was “Talking to Animals,” featuring The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas plus five immersive gifts that will make everyone feel like they were part of the story! While the subscription has now reached its final chapter, Tween boxes may still appear from time to time as special one-time boxes. Sometimes the ending is not goodbye forever. It’s simply “watch this space.”

 

OUABC Lite (nothing lite about the experience)

OUABC Lite brought a fresh twist to the reading experience, offering our ever-growing community a book-only option with a magical sensory OUABC experience!

The first Lite box featured Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez. Instead of traditional wrapped gifts, OUABC Lite uses paper items tucked inside envelopes to incorporate the five senses into the reading experience. Sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch all play a role, helping readers feel as though they are part of the story in a new and creative way.

It is a wonderful reminder that immersive reading doesn’t always need to be big to be powerful. Sometimes, the smallest details create the strongest connection.

 

Fun and Exciting Bookish Apparel

After so many requests over the years for clothing and accessories, we were thrilled to bring an array of items to represent your love of reading within your wardrobe!⁠ In November 2025, we answered with the Winter Apparel launch.

The collection dropped on November 28, 2025, as part of the Black Friday Doorbusters, with subscribers receiving early access before the general sale. Available for a limited time through January 10, 2026, the collection gave readers a new way to wear their love of books proudly.

We continue to add to our apparel range, and our latest additions are proving to be a huge hit! Because sometimes being a bookworm is not just a hobby. It’s a wardrobe choice.

 

Holiday Boxes That Became Traditions

OUABC’s holiday boxes have become some of the most anticipated releases of the year, and it’s easy to see why. We’ve made sure to combine the joy of seasonal celebrations with the magic of immersive reading.

The Christmas Box began in 2017, bringing festive stories and thoughtful gifts together in true OUABC style.

The Halloween Box followed in 2018, giving readers eerie, mysterious, and atmospheric reading experiences perfect for the season of shadows, secrets, and things that go bump in the night.

The 12 Days of Book-Club-Mas Advent Box also began in 2018 and has since grown into one of OUABC’s biggest and most beloved boxes of the year. We had to ask Logan her thoughts! “Our Advent box is the biggest box of the year, and I am so proud to have not only written all 12 stories for the 2018 and 2019 Advent boxes, but to have grown this box into something that now welcomes writers from all over the world to share their work with our readers!”

Our Advent Calendar recipients receive an anthology of 12 short stories featuring each of the 12 gifts. Each story is written by a different author who wrote these tales specifically to bring our selected gifts to life! As you read each short story, you'll be prompted at key moments within them to open the corresponding gift for the day.

These gifts are all incredibly useful, beautiful items, perfect for the bookworm in all of us! These gifts are not Christmas-themed, and every item can be used and enjoyed year-round. Each book box includes a custom and exclusive book of 12 short stories that can only be found in our box, along with 12 beautiful gifts (one for each story!)

In 2019, OUABC launched the New Year’s Eve/Up All Night box, which has become especially loved for its 40-Book Reading Challenge. It’s the perfect way to ring in a new year, set fresh reading goals, and pretend that your TBR is completely under control.

Other holiday boxes have included Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, giving readers even more reasons to celebrate with books.