Customer Reviews

The Secret Diary Journal, Lined, Key and Lock Closure, Red, (2011 Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I ordered this journal for my nine year old son. It is challenging to find a journal for a boy with a lock. I thought it was pricey but it is leather bound and appears to be of good quality. However, the lock never really worked. Had I know this, I would not have purchased it. I could have bought any regular old notebook. I tried to contact the company but was unsucessful. I would not recommend anyone to purchase it.

I'll be honest, it's my fault for not reading the size, but so small!

Disregarding all the reviews, I ordered the journal. The lock was worse then it looked. I tried to open it, but I couldn't figure it out, until last month. Finally I realized that to open it you turn the key counter-clock-wise. To lock it you turn the key clock-wise. So I came up with this little rhyme: The past is open, but the future is closed. Coding: The past is to open, the future is to close. Which means: Turn the key clock-wise to lock the journal, turn the key counter-clock-wise to unlock. And not to make you mad, but I forgot my key one time, and I asked my friend to get into the lock with a pencil or something, and he did it in a second. So here is my advice: DON'T EVEN BOTHER WITH IT! Just read on:

Personally if you're a parent, I reccemond buying a 20$ or 10$ journal, with a regular lock, and replace it with a master-lock. That way you can get her something with unicorns or fairies on it. And in some cases your son wants a diary: Get him the pirate one, or keep looking. But if you like this one do this: (except with different duct-tape, and stick paper).

The journal is more of a plain color then it looked, I thought it would be more fun, but it wasn't. So in an attempt to lighten the mood I duct-taped it with tiger prints, and bought from the craft store, glitter stick paper, and turned it all cool. But it costed so much to turn it to that, I wish I would've just bought a different journal! And then on top of that started falling apart at the seams! So if it's not obvious enough:

Pros:

Has a lock, that kind of works. Lots, of paper.

Sort of stylish.

Cons:

Easy to get into with a paper click or a long thin pencil. Key is not original, looks like a regular key from the old days. Lock is very confusing, and not to mention, ugly!And its very hard to push the lever to the lock, to half lock the journal.

The journal has no decorations inside, I wouldn't mind a little royalty symbol, or a swirl, or something!

Because of the lock, it doesn't lay down right, so you have to hold it in your hands, and hard to write in.

Paper nearly pealed off because of where the clasp for the lock is placed, puts pressure in the inside of the journal.

Looks very kiddish because of how big the lock is on how small the journal is,(you would have to own it to completely understand this one.)

So small!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can almost rip the lock off because it is sewn on the back which is not that stable.

Overall if you can deal with all the cons I would buy, other then that, its pretty much a scam. Sorry to people who enjoy this.

~12 year old~

The leather is very soft and smooth. The lock can be a little tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it's really a piece of cake. Lined, heavy duty pages...I haven't owned/used a locked journal for such a long time, I cannot wait to start writing in it!

It's really nice quality leather, the paper is lined and thick, and overall it looks quite quaint. My only complaint is that the lock is a little awkward to open and close, but it's nothing significantly annoying, and it's easy to do. Contrary to other reviews I have to say that so far ( a month or two?) the lock has been working perfectly fine. I'm very happy with it.

My grandsons wanted a locking diary that wasn't covered with flowers and/or pink (being manly boys) -- but wanted a journal that locked. I looked in all the local stores and couldn't find what they wanted until I shopped Amazon. The diary comes in two colors so they can tell them apart. The boys live in Vladivostok, Russia (no locking journals that aren't covered in flowers or pink there either).

I ordered this product twice from Amazon and both orders were filled with BLACK journals rather than the RED journal I had ordered. Amazon denied responsibility instead advising me to contact Fine Keepsakes which I did and Fine Keepsakes said it was an Amazon problem. Talk about incompetence and a run-around.