Thank you to the publisher Andrews McMeel Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Before I start, I must say that I am a huge fan of Amanda Lovelace, and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to read this book. I have absolutely loved it!

'Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things' is a book of poetry that talks about women, abuse, sexism, love,... It talks about many topics and the author writes it in a way so beautifully written. It talks about death, cheating, trauma, and misogyny, too.

I found really interesting the way the author talked about some topics, like the body image, how we perceive and love ourselves, the sexism inside many regular things we are used to do usually. The author writes about death, and how we see it, how ephemeral is life, how it catches off our grasp like sand between our fingers. Are we ever going to achieve all the things we want to before everything ends?

I highly recommend you this book, whether you're a fan of Amanda Lovelace or not, if you're a fan of poetry, you're going to absolutely love it!

#FlowerCrownsAndFearsomeThings #Netgalley

This book is lovely. I like reading some of Amanda Lovelace's poetry. It's kind of like reading a poetic message. Also, as these poems can be told about so many things.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with a digital copy of this book.

This book was beautiful to say the least. I usually dislike flowery writing and most poetry, but this author has the ability to touch me with her words like no other can. The empowerment of women in all of her books is what I wish every author would aspire to do. I can't put into words how much I love her poetry. If you haven't ever read something from this lovely author, please do. You won't be disappointed. I'm pretty sure that I will pick up every poetry collection that she'll write, because her writing is just stunning

I thought this might have been suitable material for 12th Grade students as part of our discussions about gender equality/women's rights etc., but the topics here are a bit too edgy and risqué for teenagers. That said they would certainly appreciate the length of the poems as well as some of the takeaway messages of inspiration, which would likely become mantras to be routinely posted across social media ...
The male of the species is painted in a rather grim light in these poems, deservedly so it might be argued. Yet this poetry collection lacks some balance in getting the empowerment message across to an audience such as teens, while not alienating men by tarring them all with the same brush.

Thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This is the first poetry book I have read by Amanda Lovelace and it was fantastic! I read this in one sitting and found all of the pages enjoyable. The illustrations were beautiful! I really loved how the poems were so relatable and current with the times. The one about the mask may be my favorite. I would recommend this to any woman looking for a great poetry book that will make them feel empowered.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this collection! Thank you Amanda Lovelace for adding a comprehensive trigger warning list at the beginning of her book- I really appreciate when an author does this.

I really love poetry and have been reading a bit more of it over the last two years. This collection started out strong, and I began marking some of my favorites. After a while, I began to feel less empowered. Some poems felt like power ballads and some felt.... very submissive. Though I appreciate the balance, it took a bit away from the empowerment.

Once again, Lovelace doesn’t follow through when it comes to the premise. This poetry book is all over the place, where the subjects (i.e., « i » and the different « shes ») change constantly without any consistency. Apart from a reference or two, this has nothing to do with Persephone or her myth. We get more sayings and tweet-like short passages that we’ve heard countless times before. While reading those, I thought it’d be at least more interesting to see the passages in an essay format, but the ideas barely scratch the surface. It would’ve been great to approach the themes from a new angle, but nope: same old same old.
I would love for the author to dive into the themes she explores multiples times and truly explore them. I think there is potential, but it is unfortunately wasted in this collection.

Out of Lovelace's more recent poetry collections, I enjoyed this one a bit more than I thought I would.

The poems had a little more fierceness to them than her previous fairy tales series, and I was appreciative of that from a reader standpoint. The short form style is not exactly my favorite but I was able to enjoy my read thanks to my interest in the theme about Persephone.

The two poems that stuck out to me were "will i get to do all of the things I want to do" and "marked".

⭐️ 3 / 5


Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

I finished the whole thing in less than an hour, and I enjoyed each line so much. As a young woman, many of these poems fill your heart and make you feel powerful and understood. Amanda was able to capture and deliver so much emotion through her poetry, and I could definitely see the parallels between the poetry and the figure/persona of Persephone.

The downside of this book however, is how vague and similar to almost every Pinterest / Tumblr quote most of these poems are. Sometimes, what was written as a poem could easily be a sentence. But at the end of the day, it was still an enjoyable and powerful poetry collection.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishing team for providing me with an arc of this book!

I wish I enjoyed this more. The idea behind it and the message it is trying to go for is great but the poems…were not poems. A lot of this was glorified tumblr posts and it seems to be a trend in poetry lately which is frustrating because that’s not poetry. Writing tweets in a book is not poetry. There are nice messages in here but I wouldn’t qualify any of this as poetry. I couldn’t really connect with many of it because it just felt so preachy. I’ve read previous books by this author and this one seems the most off base.

On a positive note, the art was beautiful between the pages. .

Amanda Lovelace continues to create powerful work. She manages to weave several tales into one overall tale. The way she handles triggering topics is done with such care and consideration. This reminds me I need to get back to her back list.

I've read almost all of her works in the past and I truly appreciate her writing style. This, unfortunatly was not her best. In a world where is seems everything is a social media status or tweet, this losing something in it's simplicity. Maybe I was expecting to much depth. There were a few good ones but most left me feeling nothing.

4 1/2 Stars

Amanda Lovelace just speaks to my soul. I can identify with everything she writes. I have felt what she has felt; I've lived the same experiences. For me, you don't always need a lot of fluffy words and exaggerations to say what you need to say and I personally enjoy how beautifully she does this. Her words, her titles have such an impact. What I love most though is knowing there is someone else in the world that has felt the same thing I felt at one point or another. It gives you hope that you aren't alone in this crazy world right about now.

I haven't been the biggest fan of this author in the past, but it's been a couple of years since I read a poetry collection of hers and I decided to give her another chance; this turned out exactly like I had expected.

The book is separated into two sections: spring and underworld, just like persephone. These two parts are separated with illustrations and they are really cute; one has blue skies and a sunny field with grass and flowers, and the other has night time and roses in flames. Can you tell these two illustrations were my favourite part of this book? I honestly don’t know what my problem with this author is, and I don't want to hate on her, but I just don’t like her poetry. I can get behind some of her ideas and intentions, but not her execution. Some of her poems literaly look like tumblr posts.

I like [book:Break Your Glass Slippers|52945057] very much and I expect so much from this one. Unfortunately, this book disappointed me beyond repair. I feel like it's trying to be empowering, but the result is just a mess of contradicting Pinterest poetry. The author tries to mix in serious topics (sexual assault, domestic violence, ...) with things like "folding clothes is an act of affection" and the result is very unnatural and overdone.

<i>NetGalley provided a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions posted in this review are mine</i>

What can I say about this book apart from saying that it is a completely work of art? I loved every single page of it, every word. The day that the concept of Persephone/Kore is used in this, is absolutely a masterpiece. The illustrations are also to die for, matching all the words inside. It speaks for women, in a way that needs to be spoken about. It explores the complexity of the feminine world and how we´re trying to break the mold that society put us in. If I were to describe it in one word, it would be "Ethereal". One of my favorites of this year, without any doubt, truly recommend it to everyone!

This is my second book by Amanda Lovelace (my first was 'The Princess Saves Herself In This One')

Once again I've realized that I like poems a lot more than I did in school. I think a lot of that is to do with the fact is that writers like Amanda Lovelace write about things that I can personally resonate with.

As I was reading, I was taking note of poems that particularly stuck out to me and a couple of them I went to just move on to the next one and stopped to think, "I get it. I feel that. Why did I pretend I didn't?" More than a few of these really made me think about myself.

I highly recommend this book if you're looking to explore the concept of femininity and finding your place in the world (especially if you don't fit neatly into societal norms). The complementary illustrations are stunning and really help inspire and compliment the poems.

I've read multiple collections of Amanda Lovelace's poetry, and I really want to like it, but I can never get into it. I liked the duality of life and death in how she was expressing what it means to be a woman, but it felt like it was being forced as an idea instead of the concept developing naturally throughout the poems. The art was pretty, but it became repetitive.

I feel this collection is a bit shorter compared to the previous collections.

What I feel about the poetry content:

💯 The lines are authentic and express the signature style of the author

They are short and lyrical yet hard-hitting. That would be when you can relate to the lines word by word.

This is the first time I feel all the trigger warnings given at the beginning of the book apply.

There's hint of abuse.


Regarding the illustrations:

They are repetitive. I find them colourful and beautiful yet I still prefer the previous artwork.

Overall, a good read and something not to miss if you need some self-love and motivation.

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

📙 This is my fifth experience reading one of Amanda Lovelace’s poetry collections, which goes to show you that I am definitely a fan of her work! In this collection, specifically, Lovelace alternates between Wildflower and Wildfire poems, which are supported with artwork.

The poems really worked and resonated with me, for the majority of her work. More so than prior collections. And what I thought was fascinating is the use of duality between fierceness and softness. I feel like it’s important, especially for women, to recognize that channeling each ends of this spectrum can be useful and does not necessarily need to be feared, or avoided. Rather, accepting the intricacies of one’s personality ought to be celebrated and explored.💫

💬 Needless to say I enjoyed this one quite a bit! Although I did enjoy the alternating sequence between wildflowers and wildfires, sometimes it was a bit difficult for me to move through the poems sequentially. I’m sure I don’t speak for the majority of readers, but I think I may have felt a bit more grounded reading a wildfire section, and a wildflower section. Or, something to break up the consistent alternating sequence. But it may have been that the author wanted a buffer so that the reader didn’t feel overwhelmed by the intensity of some of the poems.

Regardless, I enjoyed this collection! Many of the poems are new favourites in this collection.

Olivia 🐈 and I rate this poetry collection a solid ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.75 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrew McMeels publishing for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

CW: sensitive material relating to intimate partner abuse, SA, cheating, child abuse, trauma, death, violence, misogyny, body image, ED, alcohol, fire.