Introspective, powerful and thought-provoking.

"Coffee Stains On My Books" is a beautifully written collection of poems focusing on the complexity and fluidity of human emotions. These poems cover a broad range of themes including relationships, heartbreak, motherhood, artistic expression, grief, and re-discovering oneself.

My favourite poems from this collection were the ones that focused on the realities of relationships with others and oneself; the hard work needed to maintain a loving bond, and the brutal realisation that sometimes life doesn't work out the way you had planned.

Some of my personal favourites were:
⁀જ⁀➴ Second Class Train Ticket
⁀જ⁀➴ The Aftermath
⁀જ⁀➴ Coffee Stains On My Books
⁀જ⁀➴ Banalities

Poetry is so incredibly personal, and even though I didn't resonate with some of the poems in this book and found a few a little bit repetitive, I was able to appreciate the beauty and emotion poured into each and every page.

Thank you to NetGalley, and Stefania Lucchetti for gifting this eBook in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this poetry collection. I loved that all the poems were in both English and Italian, as well as the consistent connection to Greek mythology. I thought the writing was really beautiful.

Nothing hits harder than life, and this poetry collection does exactly that.

"The soul does not have a storyline, and neither does poetry, which serves as its language".

This collection of poems, compiled in the midst of life's disorder and events, does not follow a logical order, but evokes the fragility of life and words, how much our thoughts corrupt us, and how mythology, although sometimes unknown, intertwines mysticism and reality as evenly as poetry and life itself.
The presence of simultaneous translation takes us much deeper into the fact that, despite linguistic barriers, experiences are not so different.
Just as it is sometimes difficult to see ourselves reflected in other people's thoughts, words unite us, intertwine us, making us seem more similar than ever before.

"The meaning of life is life itself".

Thank you, NetGalley and Stefania Lucchetti, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A beautifully powerful collection of poetry that focus on introspection, learning about oneself, and emotion. The poems use the poet's life, literature, and oftentimes Greek Mythology to help the messages resonate with the reader. There were many different poems which stood out to me. I highly enjoyed this collection and would love to read more of Stefania Lucchetti's poetry in the future. It was great that this is a bilingual collection with both English and Italian used side-by-side. The illustrations by Gianluca Biscalchin went along perfectly with the poems.

My favorites were:
- "Aphrodite"- I particularly love the last verse of this poem.
"But know, dear mortal, you cannot possess me
for I am wild, bold, and freedom obsessive.
I’ll vanish when your heart ceases to sing
with the authenticity true creation brings."

- "Second Class Ticket"- An absolutely beautiful poem and one of the best.

- "Coffee Stains On My Books"- The poem that the collection is named after is definitely one of my favorites. It's funny how much a stain on something so precious can tell a whole story. One that will make the owner remember something from the past.

- "Ariadne's Yarn"- Probably my favorite of the Greek Mythology poems. I love Ariadne's story from mythology and this was such a great poem.

- "Hades"- This is one of the most interesting pieces from the collection. Greek Mythology will always draw me into a story or poem. I like how she draws upon the mythology in all of these poems to write her lines of verse. Stunning!

- "Athena"- This has so many powerful lines. I love the last 6 lines of the final verse.
"Will they love the woman inside me,
or will I remain
a fallen goddess
watching my armour,
now useless,
rusting away in a corner?"

- "Penelope's Web"- Penelope is one of my favorite characters in Greek Mythology and I enjoyed this poem.

- "Blue Notebook"- I love how the last poem in the collection used the notebook she talked about at the beginning. Such a beautiful way to end this collection. As a poet/writer myself, I have many notebooks from my past that hold such significance to me.

This is a collection that I know I will read from in years to come and I highly recommend it.