Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

    "... try never to lose sight of how utterly precious you are, because the world will keep on forgetting. you deserve to take a break. you are worthy of your own time..."

    I discovered Amanda Lovelace's poetry late last year, but I fell in love with it immediately. Her poems are full of uplifting and inspiring messages. Her poetry is always so relatable, and this collection is no exception.

    I didn't connect to every poem, but the ones I did was such a deep connection it was as if she was in my head. The fact that there's another poet who has felt the same things I felt always amazes me and makes me love the poems even more.

    The artwork throughout the book was adorable, and it definitely added to the poems that the pictures accompanied. I adore artwork, especially in poetry books. It adds to the experience of reading of them and makes everything more beautiful.

    I also love how simple her covers are. That's part of what drew me into her poetry in the first place. There's just something about simplicity that's just as entrancing as all the pretty, complex covers that are out there.

“think of your life like a first draft that’s forever in the works. with the right words, with the right editing, it can always be improved upon”
- nothing is so definitive that you need to decide it’s doomed.”

I really don’t know how Amanda Lovelace does this, how does she just know exactly what I need to hear. As always, her words are filled with so much meaning and so much compassion. Her poems are just the support I need to make it through this crazy world we women have to step into day in and day out. Our feelings/ my feelings are not only validated they are voiced, and I appreciate it so much.

I highly recommend everyone and anyone (seriously men too) pick this book up!

Thank You to Amanda Lovelace; ladybookmad and Andrews McMeel Publishings for the digital ARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Unlock Your Storybook Heart is a lighthearted and easy read. The pieces address different aspects of personal development and self-love in a storybook-like flow. None of the poetry left me with any heavy feelings, but in the same respect, none of the pieces really stayed with me. I believe this would be a great book for middle/high school/college-age readers.

Thank you, NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for allowing me to preview this beautiful work in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this addition to the collection! It had some poems that I didn’t necessarily relate to but that didn’t make them any less special or beautiful.

Every time I read Amanda Lovelace's words I want burst into tears. Tears of happiness and being seen by the work. This is the final book the her "you are your own fairy tale" series, and this one might just be my favorite (and that is saying a lot, because "shine your icy crown" left me in tears as well.

I'm not sure how Amanda is able to know exactly what I need when I need it, but she always does. The shear number of quotes that I took down, show how much it touched me. The entire concept of the first part of figuring yourself out is something that everyone can relate to. The words and the phrasing used reach such a deep place.

I don't want to ramble, but this was amazing and I cannot wait for her next collection.

I love Amanda's poetry and i was extremely happy when NetGalley accepted my request.

The first thing that surprised me at this book are the illustrations. She always has beautiful little drawings that can express the poems better, but this time, the book is starting with two cozy pictures that made me smile at 7:30 am.

A always find myself in her poetry, she talks about things everyone goes through. In this one she talks about books, new beginnings, about love and pain, about loss, patience and humans. She tells stories through her poems.

At page 32 it's a poem that i felt with all my heart, so beautiful and real.

I found this book inspiring and real, like every of her books. In the end, it's all about moving on from the bad things in life and discovering new chapters.

I have read every Amanda Lovelace collection so far and this is another wonderful anthology. Her poems just tend to lift your heart and spirit just when you need it.

I've read every Amanda Lovelace poetry collection so far, and this one has been, for me, the weakest one. Don't get me wrong, I still liked it, but the poems are starting to sound pretty similar, and the topics don't vary much. Although, I'm still going to continue reading her. It's one of my pleasures in life.

Will there ever be a more magical phenomenon than a case of Right Book, Right Time? I don't think so.

I've been along for the ride for all of lovelace's releases, with a couple of them having reached far into my soul to rearrange a few things. This last installment of You Are Your Own Fairy Tale has firmly joined those titles than I feel the most connected to.

I had to pause multiple times to put this down and walk it out. I find so much kinship and sisterhood in lovelace's words, and this one didn't pull it's punches.

It is so magical to feel seen and heard in a perfect stranger's words. To feel validated and respected and understood.

I can't wait to add this one to my shelves and to see what else Lovelace brings to the table.

I like Amanda Lovelace's poetry. I find it soothing to read and listen to. It encourages me to heal and self love.

2.75

This poetry collection by Amanda Lovelace is the third instalment of the "you are your own fairy tale" series. And this is the seventh poetry book I've read by Amanda Lovelace. It has three parts and features beautiful illustrations within, and also displays a list of TWs right before diving into the books content.

Overall, I really enjoyed the illustrations quite a bit but I did not connect with many of the poems within. I feel like poetry can be such a personal venture and just because I didn't connect well doesn't mean that it will have the same impact for others, and may actually be quite cathartic for the reader. I found that there was a fair amount of redundancy that just left me wanting a bit more range and exploration than was provided. I'm glad I read it because there were a couple of standout poems that I am going to note in my journal that deal with grief I found truly resonated with me.

CW: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Child abuse, Confinement, Self harm, Death, Eating disorder, Queerphobia, Grief, Trauma, Sexism.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher/author for providing an advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 rounded up. If you enjoy Lovelace's poetry, then you're going to enjoy this newest work. It's got short poems, longer paragraph poems, and sweet artwork, combining for a sweet, cozy aesthetic. If you need a little inspiration to follow your own path in the form of poetry, this would be a good book to pick up.
Thanks to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the e-ARC!

i've been trying to get into poetry a bit more and amanda lovelace's name is a very well known name within the genre. she's great at piecing together those parts inside of you that feel like only you feel them, making you feel not quite alone anymore, but still a bit special

i loved the way it was split up into parts, including the books and the lists. it didn't always feel like poetry, at least not in the very traditional sense, but more like advice, and it was words that i needed

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I always enjoy Lovelace's works and this one is no different. I found it inspiring and helpful because I read this while I was feeling down. It gives great reminders about self love and the importance to self care. The structure of it was a little disorienting closure to the end and was a bit heavy handed on the message BUT I appreciate the message either way. I liked that Lovelace goes over a bunch of issues that people struggle with on a day to day basis (disordered eating, OCD, homophobia, sexuality, etc). I also liked how this was a bit of a love letter to their partner which was sweet.

I'll continue reading Lovelace's works for as long as they keep coming out.

This poetry book is simply gorgeous! I love how Lovelace makes me feel SEEN! The illustrations are gorgeous and I am so glad I now have a physical of this one for my collection.

An absolutely beautiful collection of poetry. There are such wonderful words woven throughout these pages, that makes you feel like you’ve read a little bit of magic.

I loved unlock you storybook heart. It was a beautiful new fairytale and gentle, powerful encouragement for women to be themselves and find themselves. I loved the theme of green throughout, since green is generally a theme for hope, but also with the talk of magic, it reminded me of Tinkerbell. This collection of poetry is about moving on from the bad things in your life and the words that have cut you down, and finding it in yourself to get back up again. It's now among my favorite Amanda Lovelace collections, and I can't wait to purchase a physical copy once the book is released!

Thanks so much to the author, Netgalley, and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the gifted advanced e-copy of this collection in exchange for my honest thoughts. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner } All of my reviews can be found on Instagram @Tackling_TBR and on my blog at tacklingtbr.home.blog

TW (from the book): eating disorders, mental illness, self-harm, sexism, queerphobia, death, grief, trauma, and possibly more

It should not be any surprise at this point that I loved this collection. While sometimes difficult to read based on the subject matter, Amanda Lovelace's collections are my favorite for this type of poetry. It isn't the more traditional sweeping, lyrical poetry that people might think of first when thinking of the genre, but it's just as meaningful and a bit more approachable as a read.

This might be my favorite of Amanda's collections that I've read so far. And I've read all but one or two of the collections that have already been published. The Women Are Some Kind of Magic trilogy helped me a lot when I was younger and needing help getting through some of the emotional baggage that I wasn't quite ready to unpack yet, and it helped me when I was a bit more ready to go through it all as well. And the You Are Your Own Fairy Tale series really feels like what I have needed each time I'm reading them.

The stories in this collection really felt like they touched my heart while I was reading them. While there are, as always, some pretty major trigger warnings for this collection, I would say that if you are able to read it without being in an unhealthy place emotionally, then I would absolutely recommend it. I think it is a great read. And again, if you've been wanting to dip your toe into more poetry but you're maybe intimidated or don't know where to start, this could be a really easy and approachable way to try it out.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A short lovely read.
Not the most complex poetry, but still enjoyable.
I found that I couldn't relate to a lot of the themes anymore, but they would have really struck me if I had read it as a teenager. About 1 in every 10 pages resonated with me, and even then I felt like the idea was there but the execution was a little elementary. Not bad, just not very profound.
The second half of the book picked up and I adored the LGBT representation and pretty much every poem that referenced the author's knight.
Overall I feel like I am not quite the target demographic for this style of poetry anymore, but I remember enjoying it very much as a teenager who hadn't quite found her place in the world.

This wasn't my favorite from Lovelace and I was a tad disappointed. This felt a little like a self-help book which is fine but I came into this wanting poetry and not advice about how to love myself. The advice was great but still, this just felt so different from Lovelace's usual style. Overall I would still recommend it because I did enjoy it but fair warning that it's definitely different from her previous works.
I appreciated the themes, but I couldn't help but feeling that something was missing here. Amanda covers familiar topics in a fresh and original way, which was always the case with her previous collections, but I felt a bit detached from her writing in this one. Maybe it's something about the topic, because this felt like a self-love manifesto instead of a careful character study.