I love Amanda Lovelace’s poetry and this book is no exception. It is the perfect conclusion to the trilogy and has many hopeful pieces in addition to some heartbreaking ones in her classic style. I always enjoy her books and look forward to the next one. I received a free copy of this ebook from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This one is the third and final installment of Lovelace’s “you are your own fairy tale” series, and I wish I’d known before I started. I haven’t read the other two. No worries, though, you won’t miss anything if you haven’t. I enjoyed it immensely, and now I want to go back and read the first two.

A huge fan of Lovelace’s “women are some kind of magic,” I saw this book was available and pounced immediately. This book examines our fascination with the storybook life, with being so involved in getting it perfect that we miss actually living our own stories. They aren’t perfect. They are messy, and they aren’t always the heteronormative dream portrayed by all the companies who run the world trying to sell us “the dream.”

Sure, there can be some great things, romantic or otherwise, but we save ourselves. We carve our own lives and we can tell our own stories, messy bits and all. The thing I enjoyed most about this collection was how relatable it is. I nodded along through most of the entries and many times I felt as if Lovelace read my diary, or perhaps was telling my own story, because we have more in common than not, and it’s nice to be reminded of that sometimes.

This one’s out in March, and if you’re a Lovelace fan, you’re going to love it. If you’ve never read previous works, then you have a month to get caught up!

I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book. Opinions stated below are entirely my own.

This is more of a 3.5 for me, but rounded up.

I usually love Amanda's poetry collections, and I think I have read almost all of them. They're healing in a way, like a deep snuggle with a thick blanket. But, I do feel that many of the books are delivering the same message with some differences between volumes. This one did have the story of a princess and her knight (also female), outlining a tale of loving support and self-love, interspersed with thoughts about grief.

I do feel that this volume is coming from the voice of someone who is more confident and who is able to reflect on the pain that they have felt in the past. It seems a fitting ending to this collection, and as a whole, I enjoyed reading it.

The illustrations are gorgeous and really compliment the book.

"her books say if you avoid all the stormy chapters, how will you ever find meaning in the rainbow-filled ones?" -From unlock your storybook heart

5 stars

This is the third and final installment in this poetry series (though you don't need to read the others to understand this one), and for me it hit the strongest. I felt more connected to these poems. Lovelace examines grief, impowering yourself, new beginnings, and love with her direct feminist fueled prose. Double page illustrations along with simpler sketches pair well with the written words and elevate it to a new level.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

I've very much enjoyed Amanda Lovelace's previous work, but this one was a little disappointing in comparison. It read more like a self-help book than a poetry collection. That's not to say that the writing isn't lovely. It simply felt repetitive and a bit cliché.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I'm disheartened to say the final book in Amanda Lovelaces "You Are Your Own Fairy Tale" series was. . .disappointingly banal. I say disheartened because, years ago when I first read the "Things That H(a)unt" duology I thought to myself that this was an very unique and inspiring author. Lovelace excels when she gets into the nitty gritty of emotions and trauma, but her more recent works come off as shallow comparatively. I could pick up any of her last five books without looking, open a page, and not be able to figure out which book it is from because it all sounds the same.

I have a hard time even categorizing this as poetry. It's more. . .tidbit/self-help/instagram prose? There are many poets who shine with short form poetry (see: Rupi Kaur, Nayyirah Waheed, and Trista Mateer) but Lovelace doesn't give the same gut pulling emotion as them. Only two poems out of a 130 page collection were enjoyable, and I can't even really list them because they were both titled "her books say" as were many others.

Being fully honest, this is truly the first collection of poems of hers I fully disliked. If I had to recommend any of her work I'd tell people to read the "Things That H(a)unt" duology or the "Women Are Some Kind of Magic" series.

I really, really loved this book. It was both extremely relatable and whimsical, relevant and poetic. I loved the loose retelling aspects just as much as I love the author's words and the way they expressed such difficult themes in a comforting and beautiful way. I will definitely purchase a physical copy of this book the second it comes out in stores.

"Unlock your storybook heart" is the third & final book in Amanda Lovelace's feminist poetry series, “You are your own fairy tale." This is such a magnificent way of ending the series. Lovelace never disappoints, she pours so much love and truth into her poems. This book is so reassuring -- she tells us that things will eventually get better and that you should give yourself a break. It's as if she knows me and is speakly directly at me. As always, rating: 5/5 stars.

I gave this a four out of five stars. I really enjoyed the illustrations in this. I usually always enjoy the authors works. I have read most of what they have published. I love seeing what they release. It makes me feel so many things. The poets poems inspires me to write more.

This is a story about love and how we can turn it inside & out.

I will read anything Amanda Lovelace ever writes. This one was particularly beautiful, and the reflections on grief and loss were particularly impactful after a couple years of being a human during these strange times. As always I’m going to buy this once it’s released and read it over, and over,

Thank you so much NetGalley & Andrews McMeel Publishing for the eARC.

A beautiful book of poetry. This book validated and walked me through how to get though it. Highly recommend. Especially loved the reflection to true life to humanize my feelings and relate. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

another incredible heart wrenching poetry book by Lovelace. One of my absolute favourite poets - my friend introduced me to them and i am indebted to her forever now. As always, impeccable imagery and detail and as magic as ever. such amazing, relatable feelings and emotions that i just adore. amazing x

E-Arc Book & Audiobook Review
unlock your storybook heart, by Amanda Lovelace
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Book Release Date: 03/15/22
Audiobook Release Date: 03/15/22

**These books (e-book and audio) were provided by NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for free in exchange for an honest review. **
**There are multiple trigger warnings discussed at the start of the book. Tread carefully. **

Synopsis: unlock your storybook heart is a collection of narrative poetry themed loosely around The Beauty & The Beast. This is the third book in her poetry series called you are your own fairytale. In this collection, topics such as eating disorders, mental health, trauma, grief, queerphobia, and more are explored.

Review:
Things I loved -
* I loved how the poetry is themed, but Lovelace isn't afraid to veer from the traditional story and add commentary about her life and experiences.
* I loved that many of the topics within this collection are incredibly relatable and easily understood. It's easy to connect to content that is easily digestible, which isn't often the case in poetry.

Things I didn't love about the book -
* In previous additions to this series, I found there was a more uplifting, albeit superficially inspirational veneer, but I didn't find that in this one, which makes it less memorable.
* The collection didn't feel as well put together in this one. Although I did appreciate that she attempted to interject more on her explorations of grief in terms of losing her mother, it made the collection feel more sporadic and less organized.
* The poems were more specifically about her life, which made some of them harder to relate to.

Audiobook Review:
* Lovelace's voice was monotoned throughout the entire collection, which is normally fine in a poetry collection, but as this was a more narrative collection, more vocal inflection would've helped me, as the reader, stay focused on the collection rather than falling asleep.

Rating: 2.5/5 (My rating is only in relation to her work and not comparatively to the work of others.)

Overall, I didn't enjoy this poetry collection as much as others I have enjoyed from her. Because the audio/reading experience was only about an hour long, I don't regret reading/listening to this collection, but if I were to recommend her poetry, this collection would not be the one I would recommend.

I wasn’t expecting the amazing journey Amanda Lovelace took me on in her newest book of poetry called “unlock your storybook heart.” I’m a big poetry buff and enjoy reading a few poems at a time and then putting the book aside to contemplate, BUT I found this compendium of poetry to be so compelling in its storyline & storytelling that I couldn’t put it down. I ended up reading it in one whole sitting, which I hardly ever do with a poetry book. BRAVO!

I haven’t read the first two in this series. However, it’s not needed to understand or to enjoy this volume. But I do intend to circle back and read the other two because I enjoyed this one so much with its poetic and creative storytelling. It definitely kept me engaged and interested.

I liked that the poems worked together to tell an overarching story - a modern fairy tale with twists of inclusivity, feminism, and being true to yourself.

There were also a lot of poems that I bookmarked and highlighted to refer back to as standalone pieces of encouragement. The author knows how to speak with her words and get through to us readers who are struggling with mental illness, loss, death, and feelings of uncertainty.

Would I recommend? (Reason for rating)

5/5 Stars: I highly recommend this book of poetry based on its ability to keep the reader engaged in a creative storyline that is not only inclusive but encourages talk about mental health, death, eating disorders and being true to one’s self.

It also shows that there are needed realistic alternatives to fairy tales and gives a great storyline for one that is real, enjoyable to read, and has quotes and parts that one can look back on for reflection and guidance.

Thanks to Netgalley, publisher and author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Listened to this as an audiobook over the weekend--While I find a lot of value in things that the author says, the trilogy of these poetry collections has become a bit repetitive. It feels as though there is not enough variety between the topics within the stories. I think there is a variety of topics the author could potentially write about relating to feminism and growing up, but I didn't find that variety throughout the collections.

On it's own, however, I really enjoyed this piece. Some young girl out there will find a LOT of value in this, and I personally will be gifting it to my little sister.

Reading Amanda Lovelace's new collection of poetry is a trip down memory lane of a place I wish I was from. Beautiful and lyrical.

i’m genuinely mad that i haven’t connected to any of these poems. the subjects are very relatable, but this feels more like something i would read on one of those self-help pages on instagram. that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but i maybe had higher expectations.

the collection follows the same “feminist”, “you’re your own saviour” patter all lovelace’s previous works featured as well. i wish we finally saw something new, something fresh, but nope – it’s repetitive. i have to give credits where credits are due – this one has a lot more paragraphs than the rest, which was nice to see. however, it didn’t really work for me as a lot of these written parts weren’t that impressive. truthfully, it read like advice rather than poetry.

the art pieces featured in this one were really pretty – they fit the book very nicely. i truthfully didn’t really get why the collection started with this princess as a main character and ended as a love letter from amanda to her partner. maybe i just don’t understand what this book was trying to do, but it seems like it wanted to do a bit too much and it didn’t quite land on any of those things. every subject covered was only touched on a surface level and then we quickly moved on to something else – which makes this collection severely underdeveloped.

thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. "unlock your storybook heart" is yet another wonderful read by Amanda Lovelace. At the very same time it was also very empowering and inspiring, it pushes you to be yourself and embrace yourself, to be kind and not take things for granted. This book was very authentic and comforting, it felt like a warm hug by a good friend. Amanda Lovelace is known for her raw and strong style and she used it in these poems in a very fascinating way.The never-stopping flow of positivity that is still very realistic and absolutely not idealistic by any means makes this book the perfect one to read when you have a bad day. Happiness in "unlock your storybook heart" is discussed not as a process which will someday simply end, but as a constant battle, a path you take, knowing that you should enjoy every second of it, without hoping and thinking about arriving at your destination. The trigger warnings include eating disorders, sexism, trauma, grief, loss of a parent, mental illness, self-harm, death, queerphobia, etc., so please keep those in mind before picking up the book. "unlock your storybook heart" by Amanda Lovelace is an true masterpiece, which I truly recommend!

Amazing collection of poems, loved the way she writes and makes the reader feel special. In this collection she writes about self love and that accepting yourself is more important than letting anyone else make you feel less than you deserve. Will be rereading this one when I feel I'm being hard on myself or need some guiding words. Love her!

Objectively speaking, this was (unfortunately) a pretty meh poetry collection for me. Maybe it's because I haven't yet read the first two books in the You Are Your Own Fairy Tale trilogy (which I still plan to do), but I was expecting something else. I wasn't sucked in and, while I did relate and connect with some the poems, most of them I felt indifferent about.

That being said, there is something about Amanda Lovelace and her writing that I can't quite pinpoint but makes this a 3 star rating instead of 2 stars.