Thank you #NetGalley for the review copy of #breakyourglassslippers

This is somewhat of a retelling of Cinderella, touching on themes and ideas that most women have experienced firsthand. This doesn't go into quite as much depth as I'd expect out of poetry. This book does have illustrations between some of the poems, and I think this content would be perfect if printed on top of pictures - kind of like a picture book for young adults or adults.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am becoming more of a poetry fan lately and break your glass slippers is my first introduction to Amanda Lovelace. I wasn’t disappointed! A lot of these poems are positive affirmations that I hope to add in my daily life. I felt free and lighthearted while reading this collection even though a lot of the poems touch on serious issues such as self-worth, body shaming (and positivity), relationships, sex, and friendships.

I’d recommend this for most of my millennial and older Gen-Z friends because it felt very current and relevant to young women’s issues.

Inspirational - but is it poetry?

Book Review: break your glass slippers by Amanda Lovelace
Genre: Feminist poetry
Publisher: Andrews McMeel
Release Date: 17th March, 2020

I had to read this twice before writing a review and I'll probably come back to it time and time again. There's a reason my shelves are already stacked with Amanda's books. I love the messages that she promotes in all of her poetry books, but this one specifically is something all women need to hear.

Self-love and realising your worth are the prominent themes of this collection. Amanda juxtaposes the destructive ideals imposed on women by society with constant reminders that YOU are enough.

Every woman will find a part of this book that they can relate to in some way. For me it was, literally the first poem:

"there is a girl who
sings only when
every window
is shut.

like most girls,
she's been learning
the trait of silence
since birth.

everyone
underestimates
how important
her voice is,

& the greatest
tragedy of all is
that she does,
too."

This idea of staying quiet because you don't feel your 'voice' or your opinions/ideas are important is all too real for me. It's something I am currently working on.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and as mentioned, I find myself coming back and reading Amanda's books - like I do with a lot of poetry. However, I personally do not see this book as poetry in the 'traditional' sense. The themes covered are dealt with on a surface level; there is no depth to these 'poems'. I find myself longing for more exploration of the ideas. I searched for metaphor, that most of the time wasn't there, and was disappointed that the title metaphor (break your glass slippers) was not a continued motif. Although, pretty - the structure adds nothing to the meaning of the poem. I just love the complexities of 'traditional' poetry, that I hope this format of modern poetry does not become the norm.

In no way do I want to take away anything from what has been created here. For me, break your glass slippers, is more a book of inspiration, reminders and bursts of powerful prose. It is very quotable and covers important themes and ideas.

A lot of modern poetry seems to be following this 'trend'. What do you think about it? Is it poetry or is it something else?

Break Your Glass Slippers by Amanda Lovelace was truly something special. I’m a big fan of Amanda Lovelace’s poetry and have read her other books. This book was stunning with beautiful imagery that kept readers engaged through the end.

This book was stunning including the illustrations that were throughout the book. The colors, the details, the simplistic of everything made this even better.

This releases on March 17th! Don’t miss it!

Special thanks to Net Galley for the advanced copy and a chance to review!

Thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC!

I love everything about this book! The poems are so empowering. It's my favorite so far written by this author. This time she really touched my heart. I agree with every page.

And also, thanks for the trigger warning. That's very important. :)

This is the first poetry collection I've read by Amanda Lovelace. I tend to actively avoid mainstream modern poets, which only makes it more surprising that I can say this is now one of my favourite poetry books. The author takes inspiration from the classic fairy tale Cinderella to tell a very real, all-too-relatable story of a girl trapped in a toxic relationship. The girl is infatuated with her boyfriend, who doesn't love her nearly as much, and struggles to find identity and self-worth outside of the relationship. Even for someone like me who's never experienced that, Break Your Glass Slippers was refreshing and sometimes, eye-opening. It discusses mental health and the importance of finding your own "magic" without needing a significant other or any kind of societal approval. Overall, I wish I had read a couple of the poems in Break Your Glass Slippers by Amanda Lovelace years ago, but am happy with buying the book once it releases.


I also review Break Your Glass Slippers on my Youtube channel ('Opalescent').

This was my first Amanda Lovelace book and after reading this, it certainly won't be my last! I'm not a huge fan of poetry/verse type things but I really enjoyed the story and empowerment in this one. I also really connected to this one and loved the emphasis on self-compassion and self-care form the fairy godmother and the latter parts of the book, especially in these uncertain times where stress is high! <3

I love Lovelace's work and this latest collection of poems is no exception to that. Her poems are always such a battle cry for women to rise up and take ownership over their lives. I often feel inspired by her poems and I think she does a wonderful job connecting a younger audience of women to her work.

I recommend this for anyone who's read and loved her past work, but for anyone who's looking for a twist on fairy tales.

I read "the princess saves herself in this one" back in 2016 and I completely fell in love with Amanda Lovelace's style and, if I'm completely honest, I think that book made me change my opinion about poetry books. Even so, I didn't read the rest of "Women Are Some Kind of Magic" books, I don't know why, but I did read "to make monsters out of girls" and it made sense to me perfectly again because I was in a very bad place.

Sadly, I didn't feel any connection with this book. I love the concept, and, for some reason, I love Cinderella (Disney's Cinderella), but I felt nothing. There are a couple of verses I liked but not enough to feel the same way I felt with the previous books.

There are illustrations that fit with the poems, there are illustrations that are repeated several times, but what's worse is that there are some blank pages, which makes the price of the book insane. I think they could've tried more poems or even different illustrations to make it better.

The only reason I'm giving this book an extra star is that I can see a personal evolution in Lovelace. I'm pretty sure that she's transformed from a queen into a fairy godmother whose magic spells are actually these words specially created for broken hearts and desperate souls. Respect!

I fell in love with Amanda Lovelace’s poetry last year when I read the witch doesn’t burn in this one and the princess saves herself in this one. So when I saw that Lovelace was not only coming out with a new collection but that it was available on Netgalley...let’s just say I hit that ‘request’ button faster than Cinderella fled the castle at midnight. 

This collection is similar to the women are some kind of magic series and carries similar themes, but mostly focuses on relationships, as they begin and end and all the messy bits between. 

Unlike Lovelace’s other series, however, these verses are accompanied by gorgeous monochromatic illustrations. Like...tattoo-these-on-my-body-right-now beautiful.

I can’t say I didn’t have high hopes for this collection after loving the other books I’ve read by Lovelace so much.

But I also can’t say that they were all met…

"Break Your Glass Slippers" still had a lot of the elements that I loved so much about Lovelace’s earlier work: her ability to tell a full story from start to finish through verse, her creative use of the different pieces of a poem, and her feminist themes and inspiring moments. 

But it was missing the amount of literary allusion that I thought it would have, especially for a collection that focuses solely on one very well known fairytale that had, in my opinion, presented plenty of opportunities. 

And, more so, I couldn’t help feeling while I read that many poems felt too familiar. Not that they were carbon copies of other parts of Lovelace's work, but they were too similar to feel as fresh and meaningful as I wanted them to, especially considering that this is the start of a whole new series. 

I rated "Break Your Glass Slippers" 3.5 out of 5 stars and would still recommend to fans of Lovelace's other works.

Thank you to Netgalley and Andrew McMeels Publishing for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Much like Lovelace’s other books, this collection of poetry speaks heavily to the female experience. I really valued the comments on fat phobia and loving your body. For fans of her work, this new collection of lovely.

I received a Advanced Copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This was my first time reading Amanda Lovelace and I'm not sure that it works for me. I'm not sure that I would have classed this as poetry, more aphorisms and pithy quotes, but they seemed quite heavy handed, and without nuance in places. I liked the theme being tied together by the back and forth between the narrator and the fairy godmother, but it read a little bit like a series of facebook quotes on pretty backgrounds.

Amanda Lovelace is one of my favourite poets of all time, and this collection is definitely the best I’ve seen from her yet. The twist on a classic fairytale for those of us who grew up with them and still chase those happy endings was incredibly executed. The pacing is lovely, the messages poignant, and I cheered at the end. Mandatory reading for anyone who feels a little “less than”.

I have been staying away from this collection for almost a month after getting the book because I was trying so hard to calm myself down...and not wanting to lose my sanity while reading it. Because I knew I would freaking love it!!!
And yes, how can I be wrong when it comes to Amanda Lovelace's books!
And....

I absolutely love it!
Her books get me. Too real. Too deep. Too raw. Too freaking liberating. Too damn lively. Too damn empowering as always!

What I totally didn't expect was the amazing colourful illustrations! Bonus point alert!

This collection talks on themes of body shaming, women being rivals of women, what defines a family, love and relationships, acceptance, feeling invisible and unworthy, being alone versus loneliness, standing up for oneself, mixed feelings and overall, as always, it's about hope and getting stronger, more independent as a person and most importantly, being kind to oneself.
And about the illustrations? Oh, it gave me all the magic feels; the fairy tale feels and how I used to see everything during my childhood days and how different the real world actually is from the fairy tale world.
What I do not understand:
It's the trigger warnings given at the beginning of the book (like with all her books!). And there's a whole lot of it there!
I do not see the point of giving such trigger warnings as I do not get to read any of such in any of the lines in the contents.
I feel it is rather unnecessary and it might put some readers from reading this amazing book.

Thank you #NetGalley for the copy of #BreakYourGlassSlippers

I love Amanda Lovelace's books and I wish I were able to read and review this one. I'm sure I'd love it but I can't seem to view the file at all. No app I have will let me open it.

Absolutely a must read - Amanda Lovelace does not disappoint, and I look forward to as many books as she cares to gift us with.

Amanda does it again! A beautiful collection of poems that are not only relatable but empowering. She has this special way of creating poems that hit the hard truths but also show the power of overcoming challenges.

Not much I can say about Amanda Lovelace that fans of her don't already know. She's an extremely talented author. Break Your Glass Slippers quickly became a favorite of mine. It is a female-empowering book with a message of self-help and a trigger-warning in the beginning, which I appreciated. It is a reminder to women that they are enough and how important self-love and self-preservation really is. Her Cinderella-themed words made this book extra special for the young princess in all of us. Reminding us that we don't need a prince to save us, we already possess all the necessary tools to save ourselves. "No wand necessary."

"fairy godmother says:
you are not a thing
that can ever be
claimed, conquered,
or irreparably ruined
by someone else's hands
he may like to think
he wields that much power,
but he doesn't."

200,000 years since modern humans evolved and I live in the same time as Amanda Lovelace adapting fairytales to explore their moralistic essence through poetry!

Retold through poems, Lovelace explores the well-known fairytale that every girl grew up with: Cinderella. As the first instalment to 'you are your own fairytale', 'break your glass slippers' is about overcoming those who don’t see our worth, even if that person is sometimes ourself. She adapts the fairytale to address: in the epic tale of one's life, we are the most important character while everyone is but a forgotten footnote. Even the prince.

One can already imagine how epic of a collection this would be! Narrated through various characters like Ella of Cinders, Prince Charming and Fairy Godmother, each narrator speaks through the rightful tone that connects with readers on an emotional level! It is so important for women who grew up listening to fairytales that suppress women into the stereotype of 'damsels in distress' waiting for their princes and knights to come and rescue them from whims of those who are evil.
She talks about realising our self-worth and loving ourselves so we can gather our courage to move on by our own to explore the right kind of love with the same magical touch the fairytales hold, even though they do not talk about half of what Lovelace does. This is an ethereal collection meant to resonate with one's soul in the right way possible!

I loved all the poems and all of them made sure to caress my heart; the illustrations accompanying them felt so nostalgic and made my reading experience so profound! I cannot wait for the future collections in this series and I hold a tiny ember of hope that it will explore all the traditionally known 12 fairytales! I will not be surprised if this turns out to be her best work!

Recommended: This is an important collection for young girls and older women alike. Anyone wanting to explore a new type of collection can pick this one, as long as you love poetry and fairytales...!

"I am my own God damn fairy tale."

"Break Your Glass Slippers" is a collection of powerful poetry on womanhood intertwined with the classical Cinderella story. Don't be deceived by Amanda Lovelace's choice of simple words, they express something so painful and powerful that I am sure every woman can relate to them at some level.

"There is a girl who
dances only when
every curtain
is closed.
like most girls,
she's been learning
the trait of invisibility
since birth."

The existential suffering of our gender is equal in all cultures, all around the world. We consider it like an isolated issue, that our culture and society is the worst of all but women suffer more or less equally in every part of the world. You encounter abuse, violence, toxic behavior, body-shaming, sexual harassment and trauma everywhere regardless of geography. Lovelace touches those buttons with balanced pressure. I really liked the short poetry and her manner of expression. The fact I selected this book for Women's Day created the expected effect.
At times, I felt as if she was a little too angry or felt too much resentment and the poems are the channels she poured her melted heart out, and I hear her, loud and clear.