This poetry collection was absolutely stunning, I already have a copy on my bookshelf to reread over and over again.

Maybe I am being more critical of this poetry collection because at the time of this reading I had just finished another work that was full of self-love and women supporting women. This other work was very much giving Barbie (She writes in July of 2023). So when I crack open the cover of this work and I do not find self-love and lifting ourselves up, and celebrating wonderful relationships and moving past horrible ones, I'm left with a bitter taste in my mouth. There once was a day I would've loved this collection. It's full of angst. It's full of "I am nothing without him....even though he is the worst thing to happen to me". I used to slurp that up and revel in someone else feeling the same way I did in relationships. But maybe I've grown old (at the ripe age of 26) and I know now that relationships should've feel like that, and all of your past relationships aren't poison in your blood, and you will actually survive without him in your life. Maybe it's that this collection feels emotionally immature now, and I cannot connect with these works. I'm not sure. But this one wasn't my cup of tea.

If you love R. H. Sin and Robert M. Drake and Rupi Kaur, you'll love this, this will be the exact work of poetry you are looking for and expect.

My only two cents I'll add, is that I wish, when I was in that horrid relationship and I wanted to feel as bad as I was being treated, poetry like this gave me false hope that all the abuse and toxicity was worth it. If these other women were writing from the other side and they stayed with their man that treated them like this and all ended well, why shouldn't I see this through? Now I am not, nor would I ever, blame a poet I never met for the reason I stayed in a toxic and abusive relationship. But that confirmation bias of reading a work that someone who has been where you are and made it through (not out because she would never want to leave /him/), why can't I. I wish there had been more uplifting poetry out there about what healthy relationships (with a man, with friends, with yourself) looked like, and less of these angsty ones that told young readers to keep being so mean to themselves for not being perfect. You're not perfect, you'll never be perfect, but you can still love yourselves.

I really want to forgive Cherie for writing "Leave it to me to romanticize amnesia" but idk that I can...

3 Stars (I received an e-arc from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review)

DNF

I loved the writing style in this collection however the format was hard for me to get into. It is a mix of prose and novel format, as well as being very love focused and incredibly sappy. I could see myself reading more from the author but this collection just wasn't my style. On another note this cover is tunning and her raw.

While this wasn’t my favorite book of poetry, I love that it revolves around finding love in yourself instead of searching for it somewhere else. I think it’s so easy to only find your worth in other people but it’s so important to treat yourself with the love and respect that you’re giving everyone else.

this collection of poetry couldn't keep my interest. I was quite bored and I did not like it at all. I was not a fan

*4.5 stars

Firstly, I'd like to thank Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the eARC for an honest review.

I have to shout out the artist of the cover and the interior artwork, Neyha Sofat, who you can find on instagram @neyhaartistry because her artwork in this collection is absolutely stunning! Based on a true story, Confessions of Her is the debut poetry novel by Cindy Cherie. It's a story of survival depicting how one young woman found love in herself, rather than searching for it in the arms of another. This collection of poetry takes the reader on a journey of love and loss, showing how she overcame heartbreak to ultimately, save herself.

Each chapter in this collection was apart of the long painful process that is heartbreak. I felt I was with her with every step going through the pain of being too much for someone who wasn't enough and eventually realising that being who you truly are without editing yourself for others is what we owe ourselves. The right person will cherish everything about us. The emotional impact of this collection was phenomenal. It was written with such honesty and really captured that feeling perfectly. The title is so apt because it really is like a confessional of feelings.

I recommend this poetry collection to readers that enjoy romance but also self love poetry. Anyone going through heartbreak or has been through it then this is the book for you.

I received this ARC from Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 rounded up. Very beautifully written. It was a very quick read. My issue with It was that the timeline was extremely confusing. The author doesnt use names at all in her "dialogue." I found myself wondering multiple times if she was talking about the man she lost or if this was someone after the fact. She also makes reference to things with out giving us the necessary details to make a complete picture. I wasn't sure Sharon was reading half the time. She does have a beautiful way with words though.

Ebook received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

A book with prose and poetry and where at some point you will see yourself in the words of the author.
A fluid reading, I read the whole book in a row, however I liked the poetry much more than the prose parts, I felt that in the larger texts the connection was lost.

Although it is promised to find "how one young woman found love in herself, rather than searching for it in the arms of another" we come to the end with a feeling that there is still a lot of searching for acceptance from the others and that there is a void in the soul.

The best part for me is "I have always envied the rain, / the way it touches so many people all at once."

CW: heartbreak, cheating, insinuating abuse

This was a wonderful compilation of poetry, short stories, and stunning artwork. Cherie has a way with words and they flowed smoothly from one page to the next. The imagery created with the words combined with the raw emotions made this an impactful read to the heart.

There were so many pages that I marked to come back and reread later. It was published yesterday and is one I’ll be getting the physical copy of. I’ll also be reading any and all that Cherie releases in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Central Avenue Publishing, and Cindy Cherie for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I don't really think this read was for me. This leans heavily on prose and, while a quick read, feels quite repetitive after a while. From the blurb provided, I was expecting the writing of a woman who had taken the grief of a failed relationship and found ways to be strong. And while it does have that, about 75% of the prose was simply about being heartbroken and felt like basically no man would measure up to her father? There was also a bit of random reference to religion and the Bible, which seemed more randomly thrown in just because. There is a sprinkle of something we can all relate to, but for me, I feel I would've related more if I'd read this as a teenager/early 20 something rather than someone in their mid-30s.

I just didn't feel the strength that the blurb described aside from a snippet of prose here and there. It is a shame that we only got a small sliver of this emotion, as it seems like a lot of this may have come from a failed marriage? The writing style and emotion came off to me very much like an angsty teenager who had their heart broken, so wasn't surprised to see that Cherie started her writing on Instagram. This will be powerful for some people, but sadly I just couldn't fully connect.

Reading this was a terrible mistake. I was expecting a book of poetry, but this is more of a horrible, rambling stream of consciousness that hurts to read. After reading, “I wear heartbreak like six inch heels” and “My heart is a crime scene for hit and runs” I just can’t.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with an eArc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book and appreciated how easily it flowed. It was a really quick read for me and the poetry and prose used were engaging and relatable. Some of the sections were a hit or miss for me but generally, I really enjoyed all the work and the talent displayed by the author.

I would definitely read work from this author again and I think people will get great enjoyment out of reading and engaging with her work because it is so relatable and also doesn't hold back.

Confessions of Her by Cindy Cherie is a beautiful mixture of poetry and prose that I didn't connect with as much as I would have liked. The poetry: amazing. Incredibly emotive. The smaller segments of prose I enjoyed too; they matched the lyricality of the poetry that injected Cherie's emotions into the reader so they could not only understand, but to feel and experience, what she felt in her relationships.

However, the longer segments of prose, in particular the one right at the beginning, is what severed the true connection I could have made with this book. Though it was long, Cherie did continue to pore everything she felt into it. I think I just would have preferred if the poetry aspect introduced me as its' short and digestible structure would have ensured that none of the power of the complexity of human emotions would have been lost.

Nevertheless, I do think that this is good literature and will recommend it to others. | 3.5 stars

The poems had great structure and substance. Loved her writing, it was relatable and engaging. Would read from this author again.

I was sent this as an ebook on netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful collection of poetry that captures love and loss, overcoming heartbreak & saving yourself. Most of these pages felt like Cindy had opened up my brain and took out exactly how I had felt with previous relationships and how questions about “why am I single” or “why no one has got my heart” make me feel. On top of this, the sections are split by stunning pieces of art that I had to just stop and stare at.

I loved the layout of this. It flows like a story with poems of different lengths connecting the story of love and loss and becoming strong again. I feel like this really empowered women to not be reliant on a man and that we don’t owe everything to men because of our gender.

I will definitely be interested in reading more by this author (I’ve also followed her Instagram where she posts poems up there) in the future and I will be buying a copy of this book ASAP to add to my bookshelves!

Cindy Cherie shows us through her poetry that you can't always have the light of day without having a dark or sometimes balmy night first. It is from a bad relationship that she soon discovers how to heal and to move forward loving herself first.

Cindy Cherie's CONFESSIONS OF HER revolves around love--unrequited, returned, and everything in between. What the description of this book promises is an exploration of how self-love is what empowers women. There were some really beautiful sentiments in this book. However, I do have two main items of contention: that this book is classified as poetry, and that there is a VERY heavy emphasis on love from others.

Some CONFESSIONS OF HER poems are, in my opinion, not poetic. Instead, they read as short personal essays, which was kind of disappointing as someone who loves poetry (especially prose poetry).

This book centers around love -- unrequited and returned. What I kept waiting for (and am still kind of waiting for, even after finishing the book), is the author's realization that self-love is the most important kind. There was really only one "poem" (the last one) that solidified this point. I'm left wondering: where was the build-up to this?

Overall, I did enjoy Cherie's CONFESSIONS OF HER and felt the emotional impact all the way through.

I found a lot of the poems absolutely beautiful and heart wrenching. I couldn’t help but remember the anguish the heart break that I felt not so long ago and that most feel at some point or the other. It honestly really hit me in the feels, while others just left me feeling meh about so much so that I would skim them or just skip them. That doesn’t take away from my enjoyment or do I hold anything again the author. It was simply that some of the poems were just not my thing.

I think that overall this was beautiful and raw. And a testament on how love can truly destroy you and leave you feeling raw and open. So hurt and destroyed that you no longer recognize yourself. It was impactful and i couldn’t help but love this.

I received a copy for review thanks to Netgalley, all opinions are solely mine.

"I collect my mistakes like seeds of knowledge, plant them within the walls of my heart and watch myself grow..."


This book was incredibly beautiful! So many lines spoke to me, and really made a definite impact on me. I could relate to so much of what Cherie was saying within her prose.

The book opens with such pure delight, pure love. However, there is a sense of imploding doom. There is a sense that things are not going to end well. So even thought I was relishing the love story I could just feel the darkness that was about to come next. I was right.
However, the darker chapters were even more emotive and heartbreaking. I particularly like the section 'musings of a wallflower' - where despite the more emotional hard hitting subject matter it was still so relatable and beautifully written.
"They tell me I wouldn't be so damaged if I was a little rougher, preaching of hardness as something I would do well to obtain, that I should spit out my softness and wedge swords between my teeth..."

The arch of the book goes through so many different emotions, just like a heartbreak would.
"My sister tells me I carry a fear of men, I tell her she's wrong, I have a fear of drowning, she tells me it's the same thing"

Despite the heartbreak, I'm grateful that the book ends on a positive and uplifting note. I felt incredibly empowered just reading.
I would love to re-read this book at a later a date to get a deeper connection to Cindy Cherie's writing.

The writing here is beautiful! I recommend for any poetry lover. I recommend for anyone who has experienced heartbreak. It is a perfect example of how one can 'rise from the ashes' of a significant trauma.

Thank you Cindy for writing such a poignant book.

This was a crazy ride through love, loss, and finding love again. True raw and emotional. A quick read and highly recommended. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.