Review on RETTACY Dotted Grid Journal 2 Pack - B5 Large Composition Dotted Notebook With 384 Numbered Pages,100Gsm Thick Dotted Paper,Soft Leather Cover,Inner Pocket,7.6'' X 10'' by Rodney Shepherd

So I ordered three different sets of notebooks on Revain which I am posting reviews for today. Out of the three, this is my favorite although it does not come without flaws. I will take you through the reasons why this is my favorite along with pointing out what the flaws are even though I am keeping this notebook at 5 star overall rating. If for some reason, I have issues with the binding or the pages falling out as I use this, I will post an update at a later time.First of all the wrapping and shipping with this one as the others came A ok. No issues there at all with any damage, but maybe I have been getting lucky lately. I choose this item with the two different colors in case I wanted to keep one to use and give one away to a friend so that is a plus. Contrary to the hardcover books which have the page strap glued into the cover, this one was exposed on the back but still feels like good quality and it fits around the whole book.The first page as are the is a bit silly with the title lines on the bottom of the page and not at the top. The paper is smooth and the dots well visibly and the printing is consistent through the book. The page number are easily visible. There are two book page ribbons attached to the book, just like the other hard covers I reviewed and that along with the elastine strap will allow you to bookmark 3 separate sections if required. I really like the flexibility of this book give that the binding, cover and pages are soft enough and flexible to roll it up if you have to, not that I would do that to a fancy notebook. It has a nice feel to it in hand however, and I wanted to point that out.The back page pocket is pretty fancy with the pocket in the back cover although I am not sure if I would ever use it. Time will tell if anything falls into it. The book has a really nice feel to it and although its not real leather it makes you happy to handle it. They did a great job on the binding from it looks like so far and the glue on the cover is amazing. The soft cover has a great texture to it. Because this book is composition size, I really like it! That is my standard size that I personally enjoy to use as it allows you to write long flowing sentences without running into the edges of the page as you do in a list taking journal.The downside to this book, is that although it states 100gsm's this book out of the three that I tested today, had the worse show through out of all of them with the same ink and the same pen as you can see from the pictures. The ink lays smoothly onto the smooth paper which has minimum bite to it. You can see from my writing sample with my fountain pen that the ink absorbs almost immediately into the page without feathering and and immediate and intentional rub of my last word, that it smeers very little. No sooner then I finished scribbling and smearing that word did I turn the page to blot it onto the cover in front of it and you can see minimal ink transfer which tells me the page has good ink absorption properties.That is where the fantasy ends however. Using my medium nib Parker Duofold with Parker Black Quink, it left a horrible show through on the back of the page. I almost want to take one star off for this because it means either that I can't use black on it and expect to write on both sides of the page, or that I can only use Fine nib fountain pens which is not my greatest desire. If your looking for a book to write long flowing cursive with your fancy fountain pens, this may not be the book you want to buy. Obviously this item may not be competing with Rhodia as some others have compared it to, but its not at that price point either. I am sure it will handle any standard felt tip or ball point pen that most normal people use.Ok, so that was my negative feedback on this item. You might be thinking to yourself why I did not remove one star from my review then? Well young Sherlock, the reason for that is that this sucker actually tucks right into my Gaelin leather composition notebook cover! After I was done with my writing sample and pictures, I eyeballed this feller up and down and then rolled my fat gluteus maximus over in my chair to rip my old college composition notebook out of that fancy leather case and supplant it with this one. Damn it fits in nice and tight but oh it looks so nice! I don't write on both sides of those crappy old composition notebooks anyways I will definitely use this notebook once I am done FIFO'ing the empty pages of the leftover notebooks from my college days.This one will get promoted to my Gaelin notebook cover and get used for my work notes. It will be a perfect upgrade and a linear progression in notetaking maturity for me as I go through my old notebook collection and will eventually end up using this guy right here. It is a really nice notebook. It has a great feel to it. The paper is of high enough quality yet not expensive enough to the point that it will leave you feeling sacrilegious at ripping a page out. Out of the 3 notebooks I reviewed today, this one is my favorite hands down- primarily due to its size, its construction and the hand feel. Now once I am done using all of my other composition size notebooks, (like in the next 10,000 years or so), I actually would consider ordering this item again not for a gift, or for somebody else, but to actually use myself. However, I would definately step up my game and get the 120gsm version. As a final thought, I know its way cheaper then the Rhodia notebooks sold at Goulet or Gaelin this notebook would probably make a good substitute that you can pick up for about half the price if not more which is already a good price, but here you get two of them!