Thank you, NetGalley and author, for providing me with this book for an honest review.

Secrets and gold is a collection of poetry about love, loss, healing, anxiety, resilience, and the pressures of modern life. The classic cover is just perfect to represent this entire prose in this book.

The author's poem covers several topics of vulnerability, love, heartbreak, and being genuinely original. I like that she writes her thoughts through this poem, but I wish it was more organized. That way, we can see the journey she's been through and the end of that journey.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Secrets and Gold is a beautifully written book of poems by a new to me poet, Claire Ellis. I could relate to so much in this book and the uplifting and important reminders Claire echoes in this book relating to mental health. These poems remind you that there's nothing wrong with how you feel, no shame in asking for help, and that we all grow at and heal at our own pace. The book is accompanied by simple but pretty illustrations spotted through the book, which was a nice finishing touch. My favourite poems were Seeking Help, Embers, Stripping off, Tree of Courage and promise #1 - #6. I will definitely be looking our for more poems by this poet in the future.

This is actually my first poetry read and i was not disappointed. Though I have some reservations before reading this, I actually got quite interested in the poetry. At first, the poetry doesn't really sync with me, I couldn't relate to it that much, but as I pushed through until the end, I realized that the latter parts made much more sense to me. I liked the latter parts better than the beginning. The graphics added a distinct feelings, it made the whole reading experience even better. I also noticed that the theme of this poetry is a bit general, sometimes it's about love, sometimes personal growth, and sometimes it's just about life in general. I think it would be much more interesting if the author sticks to one theme and focuses on it. But this book is actually pretty nice so I would definitely love to see the author's other works.

A collection of poems that, with its sincerity, reached my heart. However, there were perhaps too many references to religion and God for it to resonate perfectly. I thought this was unfortunate, however, it is easy to understand that the author used this collection for herself, before writing it for others. It is about love, self-acceptance, friendship, grief...
The poems are short, easy to read, and I think everyone can relate to them, to some extent. I think this collection can make a cute little gift because did you see the cover? it's so pretty.

This was quite disappointing.

To me, the poems were a bit childish and the rhyme felt forced and out of place.

The imagery of the poems was simple but the themes were important but the prose didn't deliver the message of the author.

Thank you NetGalley and Cherish Editions for the chance to read and review this book.

I'm sure that a lot of people will buy this book. The perfect cover will drag them in. The book also has nice illustrations and starts out well with the 'Love Saves Lives' poem. However, after that the smaller poems didn't really inspire any emotion out of me and I started skim reading them and didn't stick around to finish them all.

I do think the author has some potential, but I don't think this collection is the one for me!

I received a copy of this in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

The cover of this book is classic. Simple, but beautiful and eye catching.
I'd never heard of Claire Ellis before this book, but I'm so glad I found this book.

The author showed some powerful levels of vulnerability in these poems. I appreciated that the poems all seemed to be unique and original. They also seemed to cover a variety of topics rather than the typical breakup / heartbreak theme that seems all too common in poetry books these days.

I'd definitey check out other books by this author.

Secrets & Gold was a nice poetry collection, I liked that the poems were genuinely original as you do see quite a few similar works these days that are almost identical to other authors. There was a good range of topics covered and I always enjoy the look into someone’s heart and vulnerability, but I wish the poems were better organised so I could follow a story in the author’s life. I think it could’ve been more ‘finished’ but I did enjoy reading it.
I think a print copy would make a really cute gift & it would definitely be a great addition to a short poetry book collection!

Claire Ellis’s collection of poem is an expression of these thoughts. I like how she writes these poems about the things on her mind. Making it a lot more like allowing these thoughts to come out. Finding that picture and painting it with some secrets and gold.

Thanks to the publishers at Cherish Editions and NetGalley for allowing me to read these collections of these thoughtful poems for a review.

This was an okay poetry collection. Not one I’ll remember, but still worth reading. I’m not a huge fan of so many micro poems in poetry collections, I prefer longer form poems. However, I feel like the words will resonate with many other people. They just unfortunately didn’t resonate with me. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher, for a chance to read and review this book.

Secrets and Gold by Claire Ellis is a beautifully timeless collection of prose that will resonate with those who find themselves drawn to the work of Rupi Kaur and Amanda Lovelace. Themes of loss, desire and belonging are explored in a powerful yet accessible way as Ms Ellis leans into her own journey of faith and discovery. Recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Cherish Editions for an ARC of this title.

I really loved this collection of poetry by Claire Ellis. It reminded of other poetry I’ve read in the past such as Rupi Kaur, Courtney Peppernell and Ming D Liu.

Secrets and Gold is worth the read - especially if you love poetry!

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the vein of Rupi Kaur, Bridgett Devoue, or Amanda Lovelace, "Secrets and Gold" leans into short, social-media-style poetry on themes of love, friendship, religion, and growth. A number of the friendship/romance poems can be read as written either about people in Ellis's life or about Jesus/God—I wasn't sure at first if I was reading too much into those (I've been reading some things with heavily religious themes recently), but some more overtly religious pages make me think this is intentional.

There are some lovely lines, like this from the poem "Grief Is Like Glitter": "Glitter gets everywhere / sparkling, sweet and bitter." Other poems, like "Pity Chorus" and "In Praise of Darkness," provide some food for thought. Generally, though, I tend to prefer poems that make me work for it—maybe it's the English grad in me, but I love being able to dissect a poem and find all its nuances, to think about different possible meanings and how the author constructed each line and chose each word. (It's one of the many reasons I think poetry is so hard to write: the fewer the words, the more each one has to count.) That's harder to do when poems are only a couple of lines or a short sentence long, and at times I found myself wondering what could have been made of some of these poems if connected into longer pieces. Readers who are fond of short and sweet, though, may find this a good fit.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free review copy through NetGalley.

Really lovely poems that highlight mental health and the author’s faith. Would definitely recommend if you’re a fan of people such as Rupi Kaur. Thanks for the ARC #netgalley