I was somewhere in between 3 - 3.5, but somehow, considering that I was into poetry these couple of days, I'd say it wasn't that good, or maybe it was just too much for me to read the third poetry book on similar topics. However, I would give it a go, once again after some time when I get the chance to see if it would work for me, or if the impressions would stay the same. Until then, I loved the cover, very beautiful colours and nicely designed. Tess's poetry has a great potential to warm your heart and I wish to see more of her in future.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for an ARC.

I absolutely loved this collection of poetry and found myself screenshotting lots of them for keeps. This is a brilliant book which explores faith, motherhood and self-acceptance.

arc provided by netgalley for an honest review.

this collection is filled with many short but intensive poems, surrounding the ideas of feminist, strength, and growth. for some of these poems it felt as if the author was reaching out to the readers and connecting with them and it was very enchanting. i also loved the little illustrations for every poem, they were very melodic and a joy to see in combination with the poems.

This is the kind of book that makes you want to hold it. Feel its paper. Sit with it. Underline. Bookmark. Come back to it on a rainy day with a cup of something warm.

In short, it's a lovely collection.

I was five pages in and I knew I was in love.

Guinery's poems were calming, inspiring, warm, comforting, loving. I will be reading her previous work and look out for anything else from her. Even thinking of gifting some copies to dear friends this holiday season!

Some of the poems in this collection felt dreamy and ethereal, and others felt very simple, bordering on trite. The more I read poetry the more I struggle to find what I like, and what doesn't just sound like pseudo-inspirational quotes. I want poets to do magical things with words and I got glimpses of that here, but not as much as I wanted.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange of an honest review. "The Moonflower Monologues" by Tess Guinery is a sugar-coated book focusing on topics such as faith, love, wisdom, friendship, etc. The writing style is rather repetitive and lacks individuality, also too sweet for me, I prefer more realistic and raw poems and these surely were not for me. The pieces in this books can be generally separated into three categories: 5-word sentences, almost-poems and just big paragraphs of text. It reminded me of Rupi Kaur's works, just more over-sentimental. Although there are a few main topics, I was left with the impression that a certain amount of poems/sentences/paragraphs were randomly put together in a book, absolutely no structure. The content also is quite religious and a reader cannot tell by the synopsis that such topics will be discussed, so I felt pretty uncomfortable. Such information has to be included one way or another, or readers will be simply mislead into buying and reading this book.

2 stars

I'm slightly disappointed with this read because the intro/foreword to the book was very beautiful and made me think that the rest of the work would be in the same vein. I also was a little caught off guard by how religious this was I reread the synopsis and didn't anything that would denote this as a religious collection, so that was a little out of nowhere for me. But the main complaint I have with the pieces were that a bunch of them felt very quickly put together to fill the book's page count the many shorter poems didn't feel intentional in the sense that the piece should have been that length, it felt like quick pieces that would act as filler. So with the foreword coming across as very beautiful it set a bar that the rest of the works could not meet.

This advanced copy was given in exchange for an honest review

The moonflower monologues is uplifting read . They are uplifting poems and there is short snd long poems. I like the colour of the paper and the front cover is quite gentle to the eyes.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book.

It feels like this collection has been written only for me.

Once I started reading the first few lines of the first page, I realised the book would mean more than I expected.

I just love the colourful pages and the subtle illustrations. It's so beautiful!

The writing:

It's empowering.

It's personal.

It's like your soulmate you have been searching for.

For readers of Rupi Kaur, this collection is a must read!

Another favourite!

Thank you, author and the publisher, for the advance reading copy.

This was a really beautiful anthology of poems. They really did touch me in ways only poetry is able to. I grew up with so many different things like poetry surrounding me so it only makes me appreciate it more. This is by one of the best poetry sets I’ve read in a long time and I absolutely loved it. Credit to the author for coming up with such a beautiful ensemble!

The Moonflower Monologues by Tess Guinery will take you on a journey of discovery, and you will be carried along by a melodious flow of consciousness that will prompt a personal blooming of the mind and soul. I was immediately swept up in this beautiful collection of verses, each of varying length, yet beautifully strung together through flowers, like a chain of daisies dancing on the wind.

I look forward to reading more of Ms Guinery's inspirational work. Many thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for an ARC.