The latest installment in the "You Are Your Own Fairytale" series, "Shine Your Icy Crown" takes on the bonds of sisterhood and the power of being single through modern poetry accompanied by illustrations.

Lovelace’s poems are the words you say to yourself when you’re having a bad day. They’re the kind of phrases you write in pretty pink faux cursive and pin on your wall (or your Pinterest board) to look at when you’re wallowing in self-pity and the sorrow of the world. There are moments of beauty. And it’s occasionally inspiring.

Once upon a time, I thought Lovelace’s "Women are Magic" series was all glass slippers and dazzling gowns, but midnight has struck and the magic of Instagram poetry has lost its spell on me. Blame it on brilliant poets like Danez Smith who have reminded me of what poetry can be, but the genre now just seems too obvious and un-artful to me.

It doesn’t help that, the more I read from Lovelace’s series, the less fairytale retelling they seem. If you asked me what story this collection, in particular, was playing off of, I couldn’t tell you ("Frozen," maybe?!), nor could I point out any connections other than an abstract mention here and there and a pretty picture of a crown drawn in the margins. With each new volume, the more vague, plain, and repetitive the poetry is. And I admit that it no longer feels like anything that special.

I still believe I love her earlier work, but the more time has passed the more afraid I am to revisit it. This may be the end of requesting her work, but I hope I feel the magic again…

I rated "Shine Your Icy Crown" 2 out of 5.

Thank you to Andrew Mcmeels Publishing and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Yet another lovely poetry collection by Amanda Lovelace! It's no secret that I love Amanda's poetry, it just speaks to me on a deeper level. 'shiny your icy crown' was absolutely beautiful, definitely recommend it!

Genuinely one of my all-time favorite poets I have her whole collection and this one did not disappoint I read the whole thing in one sitting. And while I couldn't identify with the poems in the same way as I have in the previous collections, this book was still worth the read.

Amanda Lovelace does poetry so well, I have come to expect a lot from her and this book did not disappoint. A tale of sisters helping sisters and empowerment and femininity, this book was beautiful and heart wrenching.

Amanda Lovelace é uma autora que eu gosto bastante, principalmente por sua poesia ser tão pessoal, intensa e sincera. Há muita identificação entre leitor-obra-autor. Shine your icy crown é uma extensão do que foi iniciado anos atrás com The princess saves herself in this one (que continua sendo o meu volume favorito).

I highly enjoy reading poetry; I read Amanda Lovelace's poetry books before and I did like them a lot. I read "The princess saves herself in this one", "The witch doesn't burn in this one" and "The mermaid's voice returns in this one" and I loved all three (some poems more than others, but I overall found the books to be great). In my opinion, Amanda Lovelace is one of the best contemporary poets and from which I am most excited to read from.


I do really enjoy her writing style. Her poems are packed with a lot of feelings. Each and every poem open your eyes to the world. Amanda Lovelace has a magical way with words. The illustrations are gorgeous, adding a visual side to the poems. I did highly enjoyed how every other poem was dedicated to a sister, and to the reader. Even though I do not have a sister, I had a fictional one while I read this book. Or so it felt like to me!


I do love the themes of these poems. It encourages feminism and gives a fresh perspective on fairy tales. It is emotional, sensitive, and covers everyday problems in a very original way, bringing them under the spotlight. It empowers women and supports equality. It brings a fresh perspective on modern poetry and it reads like a story, having some narrative in the poems (some being indirectly connected to the rest).


I would very much recommend reading this book in one sitting. It is a quick read and I think it was designed to be read all at once. I didn't have the possibility to finish it all at once this time around, and I think that took part of my enjoyment, but I do plan to reread it when I have more free time. This is a book for everyone, but if I were to only pick one category of readers it would be young women as they can most benefit from this book in my opinion.

a feminist & empowering poetry collection that focuses on self-love
and being a strong , self-assured, self-sufficient, fearless, and independent woman.

As lyrical as ever! Lovelace is a wonder, and shine your icy crown is yet another favourite! I found myself saving too many quotes to even count to send to friends as affirmations or advice; so beautifully written and illustrated.

Thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this, and promptly preordered it.
Amanda Lovelace is one of those authors that pulls you in and pours her words into your very soul.

2.5/5
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this collection!

This poetry collection was not what I was expecting. I knew a little about what Lovelace writes about in her poetry, but this felt lackluster for me. There are some good themes and messages discussed, but the target audience feels like the teenagers who are lost or for those that are struggling with recognizing their own self-worth. The audience was reached, but I could not find too much to relate to and I found myself speed reading this because I became bored while reading. I did enjoy the illustrations, but as for the poems, they felt like they were repeating the same messages and I did not enjoy this as much as I hoped.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me an e-Arc

TW: child abuse, toxic relationships, sexual assault, eating disorders, mental illness, self-harm, sexism, suicide, trauma (listed on page one of the book)

This poetry collection was empowering and comforting to read. I loved all the poems and the illustrations were beautiful. As always Amanda Lovelace amazes me with her collections. Highly recommend it if you love her poetry.

Fantastic poetry collection! I've read all of Amanda Lovelace's works and they are always so great at empowering women and making you want to scream about all the injustices in the world. The format of poetry is always very interesting and the poems thereselves all hit in different ways. Highly recommend!

I love this book! I enjoyed how Lovelace explored the bonds of sisterhood with this one. As usual, her poetry tells a great story and is told in a way that I can connect and identify with it.

I've heard so many good things about amanda lovelace and her poetry, so I was excited when I saw her nevest collection on NetGalley. And to be honest? This wasn't for me. And I'm not sure I'd call this poetry. Poetry as a genre has changed a lot over the years so maybe I'm just getting old and shaking my fist at the sky, yelling "Get off my lawn!".
I enjoyed some parts of the collection but overall it just left me wanting a bit more. But... I want to give the author another chance.

Review copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lovelace does it again with her ode to people who are trying to make it in the world. Her poetry is relatable and encourages readers to put themselves first.

I've read Amanda Lovelace's poetry before and really enjoyed this collection. Her writing is lovely and I look forward to adding the paperback edition of this to my collection

This is a beautiful book, filled with so many moving & emotional poems. Amanda Lovelace is a true poet and an incredible writer. All her poems feel so relatable and stunningly tragic.

Very deep in meaning beyond the words on the page. You pick up this book and can't help but keep turning the page and you are left engulfed in the emotions.

Sometimes a book comes into your life at just the right moment. Amanda Lovelace's The Princess Saves Herself in This One was one such book for me. I've deeply enjoyed and connected with a half dozen of her books since then, but they didn't quite reach that same level for me personally. Shine Your Icy Crown makes for the second of Lovelace's books that came to me at just the right moment, that I've connected to in that way.

The first section of the book alternates between poems that serve as a big sister speaking advice to a little sister, and poems that serve as the struggle the little sister is going through. The poems about struggle are ones that I connected with and made me wish I had a big sister to give me advice when I was going through those struggles. The poems from the big sister are ones I identified with, and they shared everything I've wanted to tell my own little sister but never had the words. I'm not sure I've ever gifted a book of poetry to anyone before, but I want my sister to have this one. The second section of the book makes a lot of powerful feminist statements that I think all of us need to hear every now and then. The third section gives a happy ending to the fairytale throughout.

Shine Your Icy Crown will be yet another book from Amanda Lovelace that I treasure and hold dear to my heart. It came to me just when I really needed it, and I'm grateful to have had the chance to experience it.

You know the feeling when you are unmotivated, thinking you don't have anything to read (that's a lie lol) an aren't motivated to pick up a full length novel? I went through the same feeling and I was so not in the mood to continue reading the books I am already reading when I realized that I had started this one ages ago and had forgotten about it. And I am SO GLAD I finally picked it up because oh my, this was I wanted to read!!!

You can say the whole book is divided into three parts, each one portraying a journey for every person out there who has been put down in life. I am not kidding when I say the prose was so effing good, I could feel the goofy smile on my face. Amanda breaks down the stereotypes and the 'competitiveness' that women are said to have against one another along with breaking down double standards that we see ourselves surrounded in. And more than that it spoke high volumes about loving oneself, about taking one's care without a care in the world because no, it is not a selfish act indeed. And apart from that it was about learning to respect yourself because you deserve as much respect as love from yourself! There are soo many lines I want to quote but at the same time I don't want to give everything away from this book (The struggle is real, trust me). But here's a small and absolutely lovely piece:

'you say lonely.

i say self-sufficient .
i say content dating myself

- your local spinster '

I loved this collection so freaking much! There's a possibility that many people wouldn't get too much out of it and there's a possibility that others would get so much out of it and I recommend everyone to read this because it contains a very good bunch of poems on empowerment that you couldn't get tired of reading! And did I mention that the author compiled a list of TW in starting? I really love when authors do that!!!! :)))

Trigger Warnings: child abuse, toxic relationships, sexual assault, eating disorders, mental illness, self-harm, sexism, suicide, trauma...