Amanda Lovelace strikes again! <3

In this illustrated poetry collection, the author explores the complicated relationship she had with her mother, who died from cancer.

The two first parts of the book (ghost-mother and ghost-daughter) talk about death, pain, grief, and trauma. Once again, Lovelace speaks from her own experience, and the poems deal with child abuse, sexual assault, eating disorders, depression, self-harm... However, the last part of the book (sun-showers) is all about resilience and love.

I can’t wait to keep reading more about this poet and fill all my bookshelves with her books <3

Honestly I feel as if her writing gets worse as she publishes more of her work. Not so sure if it’s because I don’t connect to it anymore or if it’s because I just get really bored reading her work. I enjoyed some of the poems in here. However, I really feel like this collection could’ve been longer than what it was and could’ve used some descriptive writing incorporated into it.

to drink coffee with a ghost is a raw and emotional poetry collection and it deals with various topics. I really liked the illustrations in the book, as well as the overall authenticity.

This little book resonates deeply with me. Every girl and woman with a complicated relationship with her mother needs to read this. My circumstances weren't the same, but a lot of the emotions were and are. This book will be on the bedside table for a while.

I really enjoyed reading this poetry collection. I connected to some of them but not all but I liked the flow of the poems and the illustrations. I like how the author puts trigger warnings at the beginning of her poetry books. I have read almost all of the authors other works of poetry. The author talks about the relationship she had with her mother before she passed away from cancer. I have never had a parent die, but I have had relationship issues with a parent.

**Thank you NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

I am completely floored by Amanda Lovelace's new installment.

In To Drink Coffee With a Ghost, Lovelace hones her attention on her relationship with her mother and her journey of coping with loss, grief, and hatred. The book flows like a bittersweet love letter to her mother and to herself.

I felt like the emotional investment in this installment was much stronger than any of the other books by Lovelace. It was raw and candid, and I felt tingling in my chest while reading it. It was heartbreaking and inspiring, all at once. Her prose and stories will resonate with you, even if you haven't suffered the same losses or pains. Her writing is brilliant and makes me cry every time.

I loved how it alludes to all of Lovelace's previous works, nodding to her Women are Some Kind of Magic series. It brings up the recurring point about the power of sisterhood, and focuses on how her own relationship with her sister has brought her hope and happiness.

In addition, Munise Sertel's artwork is just breath taking. The illustrations and colors fit perfectly with the writing. I'm completely in awe.

I'm in love with this installment and will admit that this is my favorite one of Amanda Lovelace's works. I look forward to buying a copy when it comes out this fall. If you are a fan of modern poetry, you should check this out.

This collection really resonated with me and so many of the poems hit me really hard. It mostly centres around the grief of Amanda losing her mother to cancer and is extremely personal, raw and honest. Even though I can't imagine what she went through and grief is such a personal, individual experience I was able to connect to the overall feeling and it reminded me a lot of what I went through when I lost my nana several years ago. I loved the underlying bond of sisterhood and it made me want to give all my sisters the biggest hug. Amanda's words will always find a way to bury themselves in my soul. Her poems will always bring out an emotional response in me and like many of her past collections this made me cry. I think this is definitely a new favourite of mine from her. Also, the art throughout was so cute!

Lovelace has extraordinary capability with words, a skill which lends itself beautifully to her poetry collections. I especially appreciated her honesty in writing about her relationship with her late mother, with whom she had a complicated relationship. The simple format of Lovelace's poems works in her favor. Bold statements about becoming her own person and unlearning toxic messages are incredibly impactful when they are not buried in swaths of unnecessary phrases. Her poems stand out on each page.

All of Lovelace's poems are drawn from personal experience and memory, yet every reader can understand her questions about life after death and pervasive childhood memories. Every time I read one of her books, I come away with a new outlook on life, and I appreciate her wisdom and perspective that has been so carefully cultivated within this book.

I give To Drink Coffee with a Ghost 5/5 stars, and recommend it (and all of Lovelace's work) to readers everywhere.

I liked this collection but I found it hard to relate to. It was very specific to her experiences which is unlike her other books where I felt her poems were more open to interpretation and relatable. There were some really strong poems but there were also some I felt like I had read in the past so I wasn't that impressed.

I have always enjoyed reading Amanda Lovelace's poetry collections. I have read all of them and will continue to do so in the future as she releases them. I will say, I prefer this series over her first. I think this one pacts more emotion--especially this one. This deals a lot with grief and the trauma of losing a parent and how she dealt with that dark time in her life. I really enjoyed this--the cover is also stunning. The writing was beautiful--and once again, I can't wait to read more from her.

To Drink Coffee with a Ghost by Amanda Lovelace is a collection of powerful poems about the relationship between her and her late mother. The poems were bittersweet, detailing the complex love-hate relationship with her mothers.
The poems, while in a formatting I personally am not a fan of, were amazing and while I didn't connect to them completely, they spoke levels of emotions the writer was trying to release. And some poems felt like the writer herself was trying to speak words of wisdom to the reader.

you are not
a disappointment.

you are not
the culmination

of what people
expect of you.

- life is not a pass of fail.

I apologize as I'm unable to review this book. It will not download properly to any device I have. And I have searched for other apps to download it onto. But it does not want to open up for any app.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and Lovelace for this book. I've read everything that Lovelace has put out and have yet to be disappointed by any of it. I've never been a fan of poetry but Lovelace's work is what truly made me appreciate the genre. I recommend her books to anyone who comes into the library looking for contemporary poetry and will continue to do so!

I love love love amanda lovelace previous books and this one is also really good, like really really good !

I read it in one sitting but I will re read it again and again

She talks about grief and I recognize myself in some of it.

It was beautiful, magical, lyrical and yes sometimes sad but a good kind of sad.
It was perfect and I cannot recommended you enough to read it

I loved the illustrations too, it really bring something more unique

to drink coffee with a ghost is Amanda Lovelace's second installment in her things that h(a)unt series. While I didn't love the first collection in this duology, mostly because I didn't connect with any of the poems, this one was the opposite, some of them really resonated with me and made me feel lots of emotions.
While "to make monsters out of girls" talks about abusive relationships, this one talks about familial relationships, especially about Amanda's mother and sister.
Overall this was a very good poetry collection but I just didn't love it as much as I love her "women are some kind of magic" series.

Just like all the other Amanda Lovelace books/collections, "to drink coffee with a ghost" is an adventure, a journey to self-discovery and self-forgiveness. In this three-part collection, she brought me to a story full of anger, doubts, insecurities, grief, and trauma. This was also a hard read for me. Thank you for the trigger warnings! This also shelled out a lot of emotions for me. The poems, although most of them are addressed to a mother, were relatable and can be replaced by someone/people we all wanted to forgive, Someone we all love despite the awful things they've done to make us who we are today.

I love how the book portrayed forgiveness - a process that doesn't come with a manual or a three-step process. Because forgiving others and forgiving ourselves (and finding ourselves in the process) is never easy.

Here are some favorites from this book:

"what do we do
with all the things
we need to say
to someone
we'll never see
again?
-maybe that's why i write."

"they said to me ,
you can't be angry at your mother. you
can't be angry at your dead mother.
you can't be angry.

i wanted to take the floor & scream,
my trauma doesn't get wiped away
just because it's inconvenient for
you to love someone who was also
capable of causing others pain.
-hard feelings."

"i don't necessarily think you should have to
forgive those who have mistreated you in
the most life-defining ways. forgiveness us
something sacred. however, i would like to
think i could forgive you, if given the
opportunity. i would like to think you would
give me reason to.
-here's hoping."

"you are not
a disappointment.

you are not
the culmination

of what people
expect of you.
-life is not a pass or fail."

This was absolutely beautiful.
This was my first time reading anything from Amanda Lovelace, but it will most definitely not be my last. The heartbreaking story of her relationship with her mother, and then her lovely relationship with her sister, ugh, it just got me right in all the feels.

3.75 stars

I have read all of Lovelace's collections and I always really enjoy and value them. This one is the second book in the "things that haunt me" series. There are many trigger warnings associated with this book that is stated at the beginning of the collection. (I always appreciate a trigger warnings page.)

This collection mainly deals with grief, sexual assault, and loss. This collection you can tell is very personal to the author as the collection discusses a mother-daughter relationship. It talks about the relationship a child has with their parent and the emotions that go along with not feeling accepted by them. It also deals with grief and we get the perspective of someone who lost a parent and what that is like.

This was a great collection about grief and loss, it also explored topics of toxic relationships, the desire for love and acceptance, the danger and impact of words, and the topic of escapism. I really enjoyed how books and tarot cards were referenced and referred to as an escape to help someone cope.
My only issues with this were that I felt the ending was a bit abrupt and it felt like it did not have a proper close to the collection. But overall I thought it was a really solid collection with an important message. It also had some beautiful illustrations.

This book hit me very hard. Amanda Lovelace wrote beautiful poems that made me full of emotions. I had to pause couple of times. I highly recommend this one to everyone. 4.5/stars

Amanda Lovelace continues to be a special writer to me. I enjoy her poetry and I find that she has always written about the human experience and interpersonal relationships with poise and raw emotion. This book was much more about female relationships; that of the narrator and her mother, the narrator and her sister, etc., and that was a really gorgeous book to read as someone who has a mother and sister, in which I've struggled in my relationships. Mothers and daughters are often strained, so I am sure this resonates not just with me but with lots of daughters and mothers alike. I will always recommend Amanda's books to my female friends.