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.

i am sad that this is the last in the trilogy, but i thought it was a beautiful ending to a powerful series. (plus i know there is more to come from amanda, so it's okay.) this collection gave me hope for the future and offered more advice than their previous collections. if that's your cup of tea, this will be a great read for you!

A fan of Amanda’s Lovelace poem books, this was a must on the TBR pile. It has the same style with which the author accustomed us to and for sure every reader will find at least one or two poems they can relate with.
I find her writing having different meaning each time I read the same poem.
It is such a nice exercise to provide to those searching personal development and those who are familiar with the Therapy Cards. It can be related as well with the NLP exercise when a quote can give you the answer you were searching for but never took the time to listen and see that the answer was there all along while you were searching for it in other persons.

I’m so grateful to have been given an advanced reading copy of this book.
I’ve always loved Amanda Lovelace’s poetry, it’s relatable, motivating and makes me feel warm and fuzzy and like I can kick butt if I want to. Her poetry often uplifts girls and shows them that they can grow from past experiences and reach for the stars. This poetry book felt a little slapped together. It seems possibly shorter than previous books, and definitely less thought out. Some poems seemed incredibly unnecessary and just random sentences rather than poetry. Overall I was disappointed by this collection and didn’t find a single poem really stuck out to me which is a shame.
However, just because it wasn’t for me doesn’t mean someone else won’t adore it so I would still recommend that my store stock it.

Honestly I hate that this is the last in the fairytale series. I have loved every single one of these. I have been so emotional during them. This one just gives me such inspiration. It’s so honest and real. Thank you to Netgalley for providing this ebook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is the third book in Lovelace's feminist poetry series; however, you can read this installment independently without having read the others.
I think the concept behind this collection of poems is important in that it's meant to override the traditional fairy tale concepts and societal structures around love that we grew up with. It's great that collections like this exist to help empower people to be their authentic self instead of what they have been conditioned to be or feel pressured to be.
I love that the book outlines the trigger warnings for the content contained within and I hope that other authors start doing this on some level as well.
I didn't love this one. I don't have anything really critical to say, it just read more like a self-help book instead of poetry. There were a few poems that I really enjoyed but for the most part, none of them really resonated with me and others felt more like paragraphs in a self-help book on how to love yourself. Everything was just "okay" to me.

Amanda Lovelace feels like an automatic read for me, even though I know she's not for everyone. What I was hoping to get with this one I don't feel I got. I wanted poems so simple and beautiful and painful that they break your heart, and instead, I got a book of generalizations about men and pages I quickly skimmed through.

I was pretty disappointed at how unremarkable this book was. I wouldn't recommend others purchase it, but if it was available at their libraries it might be worth a read.

Amanda Lovelace never disappoints! Loved this and as always, I walk away from one of her books feeling inspired but also feeling understood. Like someone out there totally understands how I feel some days. Loved this collection - loved her honesty and her imagery and loved the overall whimsical approach.

This was my first attempt at reading poetry, and I really enjoyed it! I have several other physical Amanda Lovelace books, but have yet to pick them up. I read this one while I was on a lunch break at work, and it really helped to make me feel grounded and seen. The topics are so relatable, and the writing just beautiful. I will definitely be picking up my other poetry books going forward!

Thank you NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the free ARC.

I read some of Amanda Lovenace's works before, but I think this is my favourite one. I really liked this collection, I it was a great end to the series. I loved more the first part of the collection because I could relate more to the poems. They were simple, heart warming and inspiring. I like the way Lovelance empowers self-love. She also reminded us once again that we are always enough and that we can do it all by ourselves.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you SOOOO much Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review Amanda Lovelace’s new release prior to its March 2022 release date.

I’ve been following Amanda Lovelace for years now and have adored every single one of her poetry collections. I am so happy that she has another one coming out this March! (I pre-ordered it in the fall, no joke)

Per usual, Lovelace makes me feel all sorts of things, and one of the biggest things I feel reading her poems is empowerment. Her poetry is so real, and so raw. It doesn’t beat around the bush. It shows the hard parts of life, and the even harder parts, while also encouraging you to push through and keep your head up because it will get better.

Not only are her poems phenomenal (and I am not a poetry person so that says something) but she always has the sweetest, most humble personality.

I loved this (of course) and can NOT wait for her next release!

An absolutely joyous collection about the discovery of love. For one more time, Lovelace has proven herself capable of writing both aching and heart-warming poetry and she is one of the rare contemporary poets whose writing connects to me this way. I am sad that this is the final book in this series, I am excited to see what Lovelace will do next.

Many thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with this advanced copy. Review is to be cross-post on Goodreads closer to publication date as requested by the publisher.

First off, I would like to thank Netgalley, the publishers, and amanda lovelace for gifting me a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

unlock your storybook heart is the third and final book in her feminist poetry series "you are your own fairy tale." This collection of poems is about being so lost in the idea of being perfect that you miss out on life and forget to find your true self.

This is only my second book I've read by this author. I don't typically read poetry, but I really enjoy that about this book. Poetry is a very personal style of writing, and unlock your storybook heart almost reads like a self-help manual by throwing in the author's thoughts and experiences. I didn't personally agree with all the insights/lessons that were being talked about, but I was able to connect with some of it. The art work is absolutely beautiful, simplistic, and fits with what is happening throughout the book. Overall, I thought the book was okay. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.

❗Check the trigger warnings