I wasn't familiar with this poet going in, but loved the title and cover enough to give it a try.
Opening starts out strong, with sections of the collection that are hit or miss, but ultimately, I totally could relate to most, if not all, of what she'd written. It's not angsty, nor does it try to force some sort of wisdom on the reader, I loved how subtle and honest the poems were overall.

This is a rare book. Written by a young female writer, it contains not only young adult emotional waves, but also a quite mixed poetic expression between puberty and adulthood. After all, quite a number of people are constantly searching, being rebellious, and developing.

The structure of the book also catches my eyes. Each "section" ends with a "Fourteen". It's not a pointless poetry collection, mourning about being fourteen, rather it inspires. As a reader, I could feel the imagination the young writer has, expresses and wrote down.

It's a book for woman about woman topics. It's about college and man. I adore the prose like style as well. I see great potential in this writer.

Received this book from publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The poems in this book are smooth, calm. They aren't loud or in-your-face or trying-too-hard.. But they are so powerful. The way Swearingen-Steadwell paints a scene, captures an elusive feeling in a few words, says such terrible truths with such quiet drama - makes them more potent than a shout ever could. Brilliant.

Poetry is very hard to review because it is so subjective. What I took away from these poems is unlikely to be the same as someone with a different set of life experiences. Those poems that I could not relate to, I did respect the honesty and intensity with which the author wrote. What I liked most about these poems was that the author did not apologize or make excuses but rather bared her soul on the pages in a matter of fact approach. She didn’t ask for sympathy or judgement but simply stated “This is who I am (or was) at that moment. The first poem hit a chord with me (as a parent) as a statement about how fragile and impulsive our children may be while we think everything is ok. It is easy to relate to the poems concerning loneliness and how one can be among a crowd and yet be completely alone. The drug poems were another instance where I could not relate but (again) they were vivid and honest. I didn’t find a lot of hope in these poems but I didn’t find as much despair as I did acceptance. The exception would be the poem about snow cones. It made me feel as if the author finally realized her self-worth and the need to “chase” it. The most poignant line of all the poems, for me, was “The past is a horror story still haunting the present- you just don’t know it yet.” You have to have lived through and survived real pain to understand how dynamic that statement is. This is a short book of poems that I read in one evening. I doubt that every poem will have significance to every reader. They didn’t for me but there were enough to make this an enlightening and deserving read.

Such exceptional talent! Laura Swearingen-Steadwell impresses beyond belief with this collection of poetry! With insightful writing , she boldly asserts her identity evolution!