This reads a bit like a coming-of-age diary. Like a confessional. These poems are what would happen if you sat down before those you once cared for deeply as a teenager and poured out the contents of your heart in simple, conversational, stream-of-consciousness terms so they could see your love - and your journey, your evolution through it - in its many shades.

It’s the lovelorn thoughts you carry around in your head about someone. It’s the contents of that letter you write to an ex, but will never send. It’s the romanticized pinks and butterflies and foot-popping kisses that only, and I mean only, happen in the movies. It’s heartbreak as it stings between your two front teeth.

Here is where fantasy cracks open on the sidewalk and a crush swoops in to skin your knees. Here is where you get your first sip of the unrequited. This is when you learn, when you burn. This is when you lose over and over but you dust yourself off to try again.

This collection is testimonial to what it means to live. To feel. To be young in a world of firsts and almosts, of ‘c’ya laters’ and ‘too little, too lates.’ It’s a place for reflection as well as perspective - but one that’s not too far ahead in the game yet. (Think more like a couple football fields away.)

The themes here are not deep. They’re easy to see and even easier to feel. Cliches dot the periphery too much sometimes; still, you can’t help but relate.

The lines in this are no more layered in meaning than the colors of love are faded, but that’s okay because the sentiment behind the words is bodied and human. They’re a shade of what we can feel.

So many of us have been here before. We’ve been hurt or betrayed, have regretted or abstained. We’ve loved someone else when we should’ve worked on loving ourselves instead. And if we haven’t experienced any of these things yet, we probably will before too long.

So while this was by no means achingly profound, if anything, the universality to be found in these pages is comforting. 2.5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the ARC!

I found myself reasoning with a lot of things Hancock said in this short collection of poetry. It was relatable in so many ways to my struggles with relationships, and it just felt really real, raw, and emotional. I really enjoyed this book. The writing was superb and easy to read, I did find myself getting lost in the big chunks of text, but easily found my place again. It was a good book and I recommend it to anyone.

I don't read a lot of poetry, but from time to time I enjoy delving into something different if I know I will enjoy it. This was no exception. I would have happily read more and more of Catarine's work. A raw and real take on heartbreak in a variety of forms. Everyone remembers their first love no matter what age it sweeps us off our feet. And everyone inevitably remembers their first heartbreak. Just one of the themes explained in her work. I really enjoyed this and will be preordering a copy for my shelf, as the cover is also truly beautiful

**Thank you to NetGalley, the author, & the publisher for a chance to read & review an E-ARC of this collection!**

I found my love of poetry thanks to a poet that wrote in a way that made it easy for me to connect to the emotions of the poems. In this collection, Catarine Hancock writes beautifully about such personal experiences & with intense emotionality, thought, & purpose. Please find my extended feedback below...along with some potential spoilers (beware).
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Things I Liked:
-The way the poet showed a journey of self discovery throughout the collection. It was beautiful to see how love can shape us in the best & worst ways.
-The writing was very easy to follow & flowed wonderfully.
-I liked that to me...if felt as if the words were thoughts. I know that might sounds weird...of course words are thoughts...but I mean it more in that while reading it felt as if the words in these poems could have been my thoughts if I'd been in a similar situation. It was relatable.
-I thought it was very interesting & thought provoking that she named the sections after colors or "shades" as the title notes.

Things That Didn't Sit Quite Right With Me:
-I do have reservations about how the concept of loving yourself & loving another got too tied together in some parts of this collection. That can be a very dangerous path to traverse. However, it is important that this potential slippery slope is highlighted so that self-love is promoted.

Overall, I gave this collection 4 stars. I think it would be a great read for those interested in poetry, exploring emotions through verse, or discussing the many different types of relationships & the lessons they teach us.

This is a poetry book with a mixture of long and short poems as well as prose. It was nice to get a mixture of both of these in one book.
Her style isn't overly complex, which I find a lot of poets try to do, but this means that it's easier to relate to and read.here were a few poems that stuck out to me as I read, however, I did find myself skimming over quite a few poems as they just didn't grab me. But this is something that happens with a lot of poetry books, not every poem is going to be to your taste and poetry is a very personal genre, for both the writer and reader.
There was quite a lot of repetition throughout, and although I can see what the poet was trying to achieve, I found this to a little irritating, but that is probably down to personal preference, I just felt like it was becoming a little predictable.

Overall I enjoyed this book and I'll be interested to see what this poet releases next.

As I read the first section of this book I was unsure if I was going to enjoy it, I found the opening a little too chaotic for me and found it hard to resonate with the poet. Once I moved onto Ocean Blue (the second poem in the book) I found myself connecting more and more with the words and the feelings Catarine shares.I did not know anything about the poet before I read this book but I could really feel her emotion through the pages as I read. I can understand where some people would find the free writing style of poetry a little messy but this wasn’t an issue for me. This is poetry that was made to be shared, read it aloud and quote the hell out of it!

4.75

This poetry book was something that I've been looking for. Something that would make sort of understand what type of emotional feelings that I used to and will feel in the future about romance.

There is a poem for everyone and I'm sure people would relate to it. I enjoyed every single one of them and how much it correlates with our day to day lives. How much it means to be able to understand your own emotions.

The author wrote her poems from experience and being able to publish it is something that I applaud for, since releasing personal poetries is a courageous to do.

I would like to thank the publishers and NetGalley for providing me an arc, in return for an honest review.

I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this before, but I enjoyed it. It felt extremely personal; similar to reading somebody’s diary rather than reading a collection of poems, however I think that’s what I liked about it. It was so raw and personal that it made me feel something; made me relate to Hancock and feel the pain that was being conveyed.

This collection is about the different types of love, the different aspects of love and relationships and the lessons that can be learnt from them. It’s the exploration of having expectations about relationships and finding something else entirely instead. It’s also about self worth - the discovery and adoption of it. The heartbreak and reflections on these topics really spoke to me.

I thought this was great. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more from Hancock.

Thank you to Netgalley & Central Avenue Publishing.

I started off this collection nervous that I wasn't going to like it. The first section, in particular, made this thought appear as I found it quite repetitive and not as impactful as I had hoped. I was worried it would be like this for the entire thing but it wasn't. The rest of this collection I found so beautiful I was at a loss for words. Every section moulded together from pain and loss to learning to love again, from learning lessons and making memories.

The use of colour to section off the different relationships and provide subliminal meaning to each section worked extremely well and I absolutely loved the poet's use of free verse throughout. Being a lover of that structure of the genre, whether reading or experimenting with it myself, it was such a pleasure and comfort to read.

Hancock's poem offer that raw and honest tone that I find some poets can't get through in their work but she did it so beautifully.

Definitely recommending to anyone who loves raw and emotional poetry that doesn't hold back; it reveals the good, bad and ugly, but also shows that a happy ending can be found.

I'm not going to lie; poetry is not something I regularly read, so you should probably take my review with a grain of salt. I did, however, take my time reading this book. It was my attempt at taking it all in properly and learning to appreciate poetry in general.

This collection is formatted like nothing I've seen before. The author begins by choosing a color, tells the story of the relationship, lists the things that remind her of her lover, and then ends with a section that reads more like a letter explaining how she currently feels about them now.

Although unique, I found this type of formatting jarring, and at times it read like scattered journal entries rather than creative writing or poetry.

I loved the concept of separating various relationship experiences by color. But when each chapter/section follows the same pattern each time, it becomes repetitive and takes the meaning away from the importance of the words.

I did, however, appreciate getting to read the author’s journey of love. It begins with the heartbreak of first love, moves into love lessons learned, and ends with the acceptance that we have to love ourselves before we can be loved. It was emotionally charged and beautiful to read.

I feel like this book is not suited to my demographic, late 30’s, but is geared towards a teenage audience. Therefore I’m glad that the darkness and heartbreak ended on a good note. It gives a younger impressionable audience hope and demonstrates that it is, in fact, possible to find true love after heartbreak.

Thank you to Central Avenue Publishing and Netgalley for providing a digital review copy of Shades of Lovers in exchange for an honest review. Although it wasn’t the right book for me, I'm sure plenty of readers will love it.

You can read more of my reviews at https://www.wherethefksyourcake.com/

First let me say that I am not a free verse , poetry lover. I avoid those types of books at all cost. However the girls at my high school LOVE free verse books. Especially dealing with love. For them I decided to read Shades of Lovers. I am so glad that I did. Excellent! Thought provoking. I will not only purchase for my collection but I highly recommend it to my students.

Shades of Lovers is one of the most structured poetry anthologies I have read. It reads almost like a relationship journal, chronicling Catarine Hancock's relationships, each disguised as various colours. It's quite clever, has exceptionally smooth transitions between periods in Catarine's life and is incredibly vulnerable. But it's also structured to a fault, with repetition of a few styles or themes which didn't really work for me.

I love the concept of dividing the key relationships of a life into a colour depending on the impact they had upon them. For example, a stormy grey or a fun pink. It's simple, but it really works and made it feel very much like a novelisation of journal extracts. Some of the poems Catarine shares here are hugely impactful, predominantly those shared about her first relationship. These really hit you where it hurts, and surely are relatable to everyone in some small way. She challenges even her own approach to relationships in an honest and thought provoking way. Asking of herself, did I hurt that person and force myself to love them, because I just needed someone good for me after that last horrible relationship? Am I struggling to give myself to this person because I loved the last one so much? Do I love this person more than I value myself? Will it matter that I won't ever love someone that way again? What if I don't want to? There are lots of poignant questions, some more uncomfortable than others, that I really believe most readers will feel some impact from.

But there are also poems which fall quite flat, feeling very much like stories or personal catharsis rather than creative poetry. Catarine often speaks directly to her various partners, telling them how they should read these poems or thanking them for what they contributed. This approach felt too deliberate and more about telling them how she felt, or getting her say, than about sharing something personal with the world. I also think some readers will actually find it quite uncomfortable to read sections in which she still thanks an abusive partner, or at least tries to level with them. For anyone feeling quite raw about abusive relationships, I can imagine that would feel out of place.

Catarine also follows a very rigid format: she introduces the colour, tells the story of the relationship, includes a poem with a literal list about the things which remind her of that person and then ends on a letter to them summarising how she feels about them now. I really didn't enjoy the lists, and the letters made the sections again feel about speaking to the person who hurt her and not about creating a poetry collection for readers. Some of her approach is also extremely obtuse; there is very limited room for personal interpretation because everything is, ironically, very black and white with her poetry. For example, she often speaks about "you" when she is referencing herself. But will usually format this as, "you"(me) or "you"(myself) rather than letting the reader work out what she's trying to say.

It's a more obtuse approach than I really appreciate, and the repetitive style for each relationship became quite dry. I do really enjoy some of her poems - I think that Hancock probably has a really impressive collection in her future because the opening poems were incredible. But there are some issues for me here which detract from her talent and from my overall enjoyment of her work.

ARC provided from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Central Avenue Publishing for providing a digital review copy of Shades of Lovers in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure, I'm currently writing this review at 2am while crying because it is generally not a good idea to read poetry books at 2am if you're not prepared to cry.

Shades of Lovers feels so much more intimate than anything I've read in a long time. Catarine Hancock reflects on all of her past relationships in such a poignant and unique way via the poems in this book and honestly just... wow. I'm blown away that someone only slightly older than me can not only reflect on her own life in such a deep, mature way, but that she's also managed to fill this book with insight into such a healthy, important perspective on relationships and self love that teen audiences especially (I've seen this book shelved in different age ranges and since its a reflection on young love it likely is going to be the right book for different people at different ages but since Catarine herself is a teen in the relationships she's reflecting on I'm considering it more YA/new adult) really need to hear more about.

An autobiographical poetry book about relationships, self love, and poetry itself that I'd recommend for literally anyone.

Shades of Lovers is a beautiful collection of poems which explore love in all it's forms. From true love, heartbreak to self love. It's an in-depth, thoughtful and stunning read.