5 IMPORTANT STARS, A GIFT TO HUMANITY - BECAUSE WE ALL DO THIS ALL THE TIME.. Every human in this world should read Amanda's books to be a BETTER human.

CW: suicide, child abuse, sexual abuse, toxic relationships (friendship and romantic), eating disorder, fatphobia, trauma.

Amanda's books are SO SAD but also so beautiful and SO IMPORTANT.

It is SO IMPORTANT to LEARN TO IDENTIFY AND REMEMBER ALL THE DIFFERENT FORMS OF ABUSE girls and women of the world are constantly subjected to by all of is humans.

Physical abuse and discrimination are often easier to identify than other subtler forms of emotional abuse so ingrained in the fabric of our humanity that we don't even realize we are ALL abusers at a certain moment: unrealistic and unfair expectations, double standards, constant judgment, unwanted attention, neglect, shaming, lack of support and empowerment are just a few of them.

TO LEARN HOW MANY OTHER FORMS AND BECOME BETTER HUMANS EVERYONE SHOULD READ AMANDA'S BOOKS

As a human, woman, mother, sister, friend, wife, I'm SO GRATEFUL Amanda writes this books!

Amanda Lovelace's series just keep getting better and better. Can't recommend them enough!

This third book in the series was still quite lovely, but I must confess I didn't find it quite as resonant as the first two... Lovelace has a wonderful knack for taking the darkest moments of her life and relating them in a way that is honest and resonant and not at all self-pitying or overly maudlin. She presents the naked truth of her experiences and shows the reader how she moved out of the dark and into the light. And she does it with a lovely lyrical linguistic style and format that allows her to keep the sharp corners and edges in place but not cut the reader to shreds with them.

And yet, somehow, in this third book I didn't feel the same connection that I did with the earlier two. Don't get me wrong - I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. It moved me and brought tears to my eyes and, eventually, a smile to my lips as things finally came together and our heroine got her well-deserved happy ending.

I'm not sure exactly where or why it lost the magicality of the others in the series. It is possible that it is due to my most recent "reads" of the first two books actually being "listens". I reviewed those as audiobooks and listened to them both in sequence before turning to this third book. I really enjoyed listening to them - perhaps even more than reading them previously, which is something I never experience - and am wondering if the resonant connection I felt was the more powerful for hearing the author read her stories in her own voice. Perhaps that's the piece I'm missing with this last installment. I will definitely be hunting down an audio copy to see if that's it.

While I think there are many, who would gain from the words in this book, I wouldn't describe it as poetry.
I feel like someone older than me has whispered into my ear about keeping my head up. It felt like a sibling came into my room around midnight to remind me that the opinions of others don't matter. It felt like an aunt coming up beside me after a campfire to tell me that this too, will pass.
But it didn't feel like honey dripping from my tongue as I read it. It felt more like quotations to me.
For this reason, I give it a low rating as I want more from a book of poetry, but I wouldn't rate the ideas as low.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book :)

Another beautiful book of poetry from Amanda Lovelace. So many important words of wisdom in a small book. This was written beautifully and the artwork was stunning. I have read most of Amanda's poetry, but I think this one might be my favourite. I appreciate that she puts content warnings at the beginning of her books. I also listened to the audiobook as I was reading the eARC. LOVED!!

Really wanted to love this, and some pages struck a chord, but I didn’t connect to it as much as I’d have liked.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Until I read this one book, I never realized I had the key to my own heart.

It's the most relatable one by day in this series, it makes you feel like your not only reading with your mind, but also with your heart.
You feel the love you have for yourself rising from that little dark cave you've put it, and it's wonderful.

Another great work by Amanda Lovelace! I love how encouraging her works are, how they make me feel beautiful and powerful, and the artwork included is absolutely captivating, I highly recommend everyone read her books and find their own strength from them.

"Get far, far away from me & stay there"⠀

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I love everything I've ever read by Amanda Lovelace. Poetry is so personal and for me, I relate to so many of the themes she includes. I know "Instagram poetry" gets a bad rap, but it's accessible for people who would otherwise not break into the genre.⠀

My absolute favorite poetry collection from Amanda Lovelace is The Mermaid's Voice Returns in this one. Pick up Unlock Your Storybook Heart on March 15th, and then checkout her backlog!⠀

QOTD: do you read poetry? If so, what is your favorite collection?? I'm

I was so excited when the opportunity came because this book was one of the most anticipated to read this year and it was beautiful.
Is about finding your inner truth, living and loving without tags and don't being afraid of the what they say.
And this one got a special spot in my heart because is dedicated to bookworms so is extra special to read the advices your book gives you.
I could relate with that.

Thanks in advance to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to receive an advanced copy - all thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.


Amanda lovelace’s trilogy here has beautiful illustrations throughout the pages, her poetry becoming more and more spoken word style than before I’d say. Out of the three in this one, I’d say this is probably one of my least favorites but Looking through reviews it’s either your favorite or your least favorite. Read and you decide. I’m excited to see what comes next for her.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The third installment in the "you are your own fairy tale" series, this collection of poems packs a punch to the heart. I loved the premise, and the more I read, the more I wished I could go back and share some of these words with my younger self. I don't often buy books that I've already read, but I can't wait until this one is published so that I can purchase it and have it to refer back to. This might also be a good time for me to find books 1 and 2 in the collection!

CW: eating disorders, mental illness, self harm, sexism, queerphobia, death, grief, trauma

I always love reading Amanda Lovelace's poems and was so excited to finish off this trilogy. I love these fairytale-inspired poems, and how she tackles difficult subjects with them. There's just something about the way she writes that I can easily understand and relate to, even if I've never been in her position.
I will always recommend her poetry books to people, especially if poetry is something you want to branch out into.

Thank you to NetGalley, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and Amanda Lovelace for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Amanda Lovelace is without a doubt one of my favorite authors of all time. After reading and adoring every single one of Lovelace’s works in 2021, reading an ARC of “unlock your storybook heart” is the highest honor.

This collection is a phenomenal finale to the “You Are Your Own Fairy Tale” trio. I was laughing, crying, and making “ohhhh” sounds throughout the book. Lovelace has a way of capturing the heart’s truest emotions and putting them into words. Every poem feels like the warmest hug and a cup of your favorite tea.

This specific collection brings up so many different feelings. Part 1 feels like the duality of the old self and the new self, existing at the same time yet not always having access to one another. It’s the advice you give a friend but don’t always take yourself, and I felt that on such a deep level. Part 2 felt like a love letter to the self from the self. Validity, inspiration, and the purest form of love come to mind as I read it. I cried especially hard at part 2.

I would absolutely recommend this book, as well as Lovelace’s other wonderful works, to anyone and everyone. I adored this collection so much, and I look forward to anything Lovelace publishes in the future. Well done!

I've enjoyed most of Amanda Lovelace's other book and this one was no exception, but with this one especially I found myself identifying with a lot of the messages. This collection was perhaps a calmer or quieter theme than some of the others, but no less impactful. There are strong themes of learning to love yourself, grief of or loss of a parent and not letting what other people think affect you. Overall this is definitely up there among her collections for me and might be fighting for my favorite.

I'm a bit of a poetry novice. I might like the idea of poetry better than the reality, honestly. So my opinion might not be the most well informed. But I was drawn to this collection due to the storybook theme and I wanted to give it a shot.

<i>unlock your storybook heart</i> has a handful of truly beautiful and poignant pieces. The poems about the grief of losing a parent really hit home for me in particular. The illustrations also added a lot of charm and helped me as a reader view my life with a more romanticized lens.

That said, I do tend to struggle with this style of incredibly succinct poetry. They tend to read like Tumblr posts or motivational posters. Quite a few of Lovelace's poems in this collection had that feeling for me. Very little of it felt like something I hadn't read before. Maybe it's a lot to put on a little book of poetry, but when I pick up something like this I tend to be looking for something that's going to make me want to break out the highlighter so I don't forget it. There wasn't much that was quite so profound here.

This collection was cute and I enjoyed it, but I don't think it's anything that's going to stick with me for a long time.


Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

i was a little underwhelmed with this one. perhaps because i keep comparing it to The Princess Saves Herself in This One, which blew my mind.
"unlock your storybook heart" on it's own, at face value is a sweet, precious little declaration of love, self love, and vulnerability.
some poems i enjoyed, some i read the first line and skipped, maybe i'm just not in the mood for love poems right now.
all in all, i love amanda's voice, this book just didn't hit me like her others.

This is my first poetry book from Amanda Lovelace although I've heard a lot about their other poetry books and will definitely give them a read now because I really enjoyed this one!!
So many of these managed to hit right home and I loved the themes that she has woven into these poems. I specially enjoyed the queer themed ones.
Highly recommend to people who like reading poetry or those who want to start reading it!!

This was okay. There were some lines that were really beautiful, but most of the poems were a miss for me. Though I’m sure it wasn’t, this collection seemed like it was hastily written. There just didn’t appear to be as much thought to the structure as other books from the same author.

As always, I absolutely loved Amanda Lovelace's newest book! I love that I relate to the poems, even if sometimes the content of the poems is a bit triggering. Sometimes you have to face the difficult things in life.
This is definitely a collection of poems I would recommend, like all of her books.

This is the third and final instalment in Lovelace's "you are your own fairy tale". This is my least favourite in the trilogy, and it just fell flat for me. This reads like a self help book, which I didn't like, I was hoping for more lyrical writing which was seen in the first collection. I am still interested to read her other work in the future.