I received an ARC of this poetry collection from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
Amanda Lovelace never disappoints me. The illustrations were beautiful, the messages were so important, and it just kept getting better as I went along!
"Less girl-on-girl hate. More group protection spells. "

I have read all of Amanda lovelaces poetry this far and this one is just as great at the others. Everything flows well and there are many many peoms that resonate deeply. I definitely enjoyed this one a lot.

Shine Your Icy Crown is the second collection in the You Are Your Own Fairy Tale. An inspirational collection of poems letting us know that women are their own people and do not need to be pigeonholed by those around them. As with all of Lovelace's other poetry collections, I really enjoyed this.

"This is your fairy tale darling - you're the only one who has to live it, so you're the only one who has to be happy with it."

As I continue to read Amanda Lovelace's poetry the more I love and appreciate her work. I read her previous poetry collection (series) called "Women Are Some Kind of Magic", and her shorter duology poetry collection, "Things that h(a)unt." There is something about how Amanda Lovelace crafts her art. The way she makes a connecting storyline through-out her poetry, the images/illustrations she uses, and just some of her poems that stand out apart from the entire book. I read the first in this series, "Break Your Glass Slippers", and loved it. I saw her newest installment, "Shine your icy Crown" and I auto-read it in one sitting on the same day of seeing of it.
I highly enjoyed the three parts in this collection and with the poet Amanda stating in the beginning best describes her collection. "This collection is inspired by several icy and witchy tales, both old and new, some familiar and unfamiliar, though making this an entirely new fairy tale of its own." The illustrations are stunning and at each new section, I noticed more things then my first or second time I looked at the illustrations, giving me a little magic to her art. My favorite part in the collection was the first section, but on the whole it was beautifully done. I can't wait to see where this poetry series will go, or what the poet Amanda Lovelace with create next.

" Big Sister Says
when other people choose not
to believe in your magic,

you must take it upon yourself to believe in your own magic.

there will be no greater satisfaction
than proving them wrong.

I'm not quite sure how to review this poetry collection, to be honest. On one hand, I related to the themes in this book so much. Most of the topics really hit home for me, which I wasn't expecting.

On the other hand, however, the poems did not feel like poetry to me at all. They read more like pieces of advice more than poems. I understand that Lovelace's style is more accessible than most poetry but I just think it's so bland. As someone who has both studied analyzing poetry AND writing poetry, I just can't get into this style. There is no creative wordplay, no interesting rhyme schemes; there is nothing really to make this poetry stand out among all the poetry I've read in my life. These poems are just plain sentences formatted into stanzas, in my opinion.

Again, I understand that this type of poetry can reach more people and has a different impact on everyone. I'm not denying how important the topics and themes are for a lot of people. I just don't particularly enjoy this style.

So, because I loved the themes and discussions but hated the style, I've decided not to rate this collection. I cannot think of a fair rating that accurately reflects my thoughts.

Also, I think I've decided that this will be the last Lovelace poetry collection I read. I've read four of her other collections and have been disappointed by every one of them. I always know that going into her works, yet I still expect a different outcome. Lovelace's poetry is just not for me I guess.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

TW: self-harm, mental illness, suicide ideation, trauma, sexism, toxic relationships, child abuse, eating disorders, sexual assault

"For every girl who's ever been called a bitch for speaking her mind. So, like, every girl."

Please check the trigger warnings for her books before reading them!

First of all can we talk about the cover?? Simple but stunning!
Also, there are illustrations throughout the book and they're GORGEOUS. Couldn't stop staring at them.

This poetry book was excellent and absolutely what I needed!
Lots of poems about recognizing your self worth and learning to be proud of this amazing person that you are.

I already read 4 of amanda lovelaces books, this being the 5th. I will pick up every book she writes because I simply love her poetry.
This was the perfect book to start the new year with!

"don't be scared to trust, but don't take that to mean that you
need to trust every single soul you meet on your journey --
that's naive, not to mention unsafe, it's good to be on guard
sometimes, for not everyone has your best interests at heart.
get to a point where it's enough for you to have those few loyal
people who stand beneath the tightrope ready to catch you if
& when you slip."
-- minimalism.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So, I wanted to give Amanda Lovelace another try after reading The Princess Saves Herself in This one and The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One years ago and I'm glad I did. I liked Shine Your Icy Crown. It's obvious that Amanda improved a lot. Her poems her are beautiful and empowering. I related to many of the poems and loved the small drawings throughout the book which were done by Janaina Medeiros.
Looking forward to new poetry collections by Amanda and to continues improvement and growth,

No matter how many of her books I ream, I am always amazed by lovelace's ability to reach into my chest and pull out my beating heart.
Another beautiful collection of heartfelt poems, compiled in a new and magical way.
The art work in this was also just *chef's kiss*.

I love this new thematic series, and I think it's such a new and exciting way to approach what feels more and more each day as an oversaturated genre.
lovelace's voice is clear and bright, echoing genuine and heartfelt feeling to any who care to listen.

This book tackled themes that I have personally struggled with throughout my life. The only reason I did not give this title a 5/5 star rating, was because I feel that a few poems were just thrown in there to add length to the book. I have read other books by this author and it seemed that a few poems were not as authentic. I recommended this book to a friend already, though, and ate it up in one sitting. Overall, it was a very touching collection of poetry. I may read this collection again in the future to annotate a physical copy.

Unfortunately, this was not my style of poetry. At. All. I loved the message that the book was portraying but I couldn't get into the writing. I am interested in the author's other collections because they all are about something I'm interested in.

✨ Break Your Glass Slippers


ARC was given by NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

This review is being published before the release date (January 26th, 2021)


Content/Trigger Warnings: Child abuse, sexual assault, toxic relationships, eating disorders, mental illness, anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide, trauma, bullying, sexism


“If I’m with you, it’s because I think you let in more stardust than storm clouds.”


Friends, I love Lovelace’s work and you all know how much I loved the Things That Haunt duology. However, I’m starting to notice a pattern with a lot of these duologies, these trilogies. I always end up loving the first and/or second book, but then the final book seems… lack luster, to say the least. Maybe this wasn’t the right time for this to come into my reading life or maybe it was from the lack of emotions this book didn’t stir. Whatever the reason, I just didn’t love this book the way I thought I would.

Starting with the positives, I’ve always loved the way the author writes. Out of all the modern poetry I read, Lovelace is the one I can connect with the most. I know a lot of readers struggle with this writing style especially since everything is lower case, but I find that it’s smooth read for my own experience. The other thing I really loved about this book was the artwork. The art in these books is always so beautiful and if I’m remembering correctly, Lovelace does all the art. There are these gorgeous forest and crystal panels in this book and they were probably a big highlight for me. And lastly, I couldn’t stop pulling quotes. I’m a lover for a good quote and I was able to pull some many from this book. So that made me really happy.

“Embody the heroine you needed when you were a child, but don’t forget to embody the heroine you need now, too.”


Despite the things I loved, there were a few things that just prevented me from loving this book. My first issue with this book was the lack of the theme. From the beginning this book states that this is going to be centered around sisters or sister relationships, and I just didn’t get that feeling from this book. It started off strong, but then that theme kind of disappeared for me. Tying in with that, there was this vibe of negatively charged vibes while reading this book. When I finished reading this book, I didn’t feel good at all. Most of the time when I read the books by this author, there’s a big shift from the negative to the positive, and that just wasn’t here in this book. The negativity seemed to dragged throughout the majority of the book for me. The other issue I had with this book was the repetitiveness. I haven’t seen many people talk about it, but for me there were sections that felt repetitive to the author’s past work. I was really hoping for something fresh, I was excited for the sibling theme (as I’m very partial to mine) and this just wasn’t it.

Overall, there were some things I loved and then other things I really didn’t like. I think the execution could have been done better and I wish the author would have focused on the actual theme just a little bit more. There’s also a big imbalance between the poetry and prose. There was a lot more prose than I was expecting. I’m hoping for future works we see the balance return. And I still recommend giving this book a chance. Even though this book didn’t work out well for me, it doesn’t mean that will be your experience.

The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

This book centers around two sisters and the fairy tales that little girls read as they grow up. The prince will come to sweep you off your feet and live happily ever after. The book starts with, but what happens after the story ends. Is life happily ever after, probably not. Is life as shiny and romantic as the rescue and marriage, probably not. What Lovelace conveys is "that is okay", find your happily ever after. Will that be without self-doubt and ugly times along the way? Probably not. One of the other topics in the book is about how women are not always kind to each other. I was just having a conversation with friends about how we do not always lift each other up and support each other.

This is the second Lovelace book I have read. In all honesty, I was lost in places in "the princess saves herself in this one", not so in this book. It is the second installment in the You Are Your Own Fairy Tale series. I did not feel as if I missed any content in this book because I did not read the first book in the series. This is definitely one of those books that is inspirational, a take care of yourself and love yourself for who you are. Work on your self care, be a beast, it is okay to be alone with who you are. I definitely enjoyed this book much more than the first one of Lovelace's I read. My rating 4 ⭐.

Thank you netgalley for providing me with a review copy. All opinions are my own.

Another amazing book by Amanda. She is so inspiring and encourages girl power in all of her books and shows us that we can be the own saviors of our fairytale. She takes many tales and makes it her own. Very lovely poems and I am looking forward to her next book. One of my favorite poets ever!

when I was 20 - I was dating a guy that bought me a copy of "The Princess Saves Herself in this One" for valentines. he also bought me flowers and chocolates but thats beyond the point. and while the relationship might not have lasted, but my love for Amanda and her words definitely did.

shine your icy crown reads like a book of advice. many of the poems themselves are titled in the form of a big sister. i like to think that's Amanda talking to us directly. i adored the illustrations and how the full page graphics broke up the book into 3 sections, each with their own glimpse into the story of a princess. while I didn't love all the poems - some of them were a tad juvenile for me - i know that younger me would have needed them. i read this book in one sitting and found myself bristling with emotions by the end.


The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

* I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review *

CW: First of all, the author herself gives a content warning, which is unusual and very welcome. So CW for abuse, sexual violence, family abuse, eating disorders/body dysmorphia, sexism, self-harm, suicide, etc.

So I'm going to preface this review with a couple of frameworks.

First -- I'm a poet who's been in the indie publishing scene a while
Second -- This poet gets A LOT of hate in that world (like Rupi Kaur and other "Instagram poets")
Third -- Social media and internet clout are inventions we use to put people into boxes
Fourth -- If you hate on "Instagram poets" perhaps examine whether or not you are trying to be a poetry gatekeeper.
Fifth -- Poets of all disciplines are allowed to exist and the fact that some poets are accessible and successful at social media marketing doesn't make their work less valid.

So with those five Caveats in mind, here we go!

I requested this ARC specifically because I have seen so many OMG SRS POETS make really unkind comments about this poet and their work and honestly, I was just curious to see what all the fuss was about.

Do YOU get to be the arbiter of what is or is not poetry? No.
Is this poetry simple and accessible? Yes.
Are there more complex works of poetry out there? Sure.
Will a fan of this author pick them up? Maybe?
Is it anyone's job to make sure that people are reading "good" poetry? No!

So I get the critique about it being "Instagram poetry". Every page is pretty and perfect to post a pic of next to a coffee cup or a kitten or a deck of oracle cards or whatever. But here's the thing: that's where most people are, and poetry, even under the best circumstances, tends to be a tough sell. So, congrats, Amanda Lovelace and other "Instagram poets" -- you've figured out how to market effectively and that is just awesome. You're living The Poetry Dream. We don't all have to be starving artists to be considered "real writers" and I'm glad to see poets who are able to live off their work.

But here's the other thing, and omg I'm going to get run out of town for saying this, but poetry doesn't have to be inaccessible or challenging or harrowing or unpleasant to read. Sometimes direct is most effective. You know how I know this? She sells a lot of books.

You don't get to debate someone else's art. She wrote it, presented and published it as poetry, so whether or not YOU think it's good or valid, guess what, it's poetry. You don't have to have a chapbook or an MFA to know that something becomes a poem when the person who made it says it is. As a reader, you only get to decide if you want to read it. Remember that line from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray? “Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”

If I'd been given this book as an angsty teen in the 90s, I would have been STOKED and it would have made me feel like I could also be a poet.

And people (especially girl people, people who identify as girls, or fall outside of the binary) *DESERVE* books that meet them where they are, invite them into the work, and tell them that as readers, as people, as creators themselves, they're good enough. To be honest, the poetry world can be mean, petty, and ugly and it's refreshing to read a writer who so clearly wants her work to go out into the world and DO GOOD.

Sometimes it reads like a journal or diary with sketches and doodles. There's a theme that ties this all together and that theme keeps getting revisited and re-imagined, and that's solid writing. There's a lot of meditations on gratitude and learning how to be present in your body and all sorts of squicky bad feelings that we all feel from time to time. Sometimes it reads like therapy pages. Also ok and very relatable. Sometimes it's like a tarot journal and a grimoire. All valid and honestly things I see in a lot of other "serious" poetry.

The writing feels very real and authentic and it's unpretentious and humble in how it meets the reader and that, too, can be a valuable thing in poetry.

I like her use of ampersands, emdashes, and unconventional typography, viragules, and other poetical devices that tend to get ridiculed by SRS POETS. I like the "big sister says" refrain poems (nocturnes? I don't remember the poetic device that uses the same title across multiple poems) -- these poems are kind, and for everyone who's never had a big sister looking out for them, it fills in something that your heart may have been missing.

she uses the lower case "i" in a lot of poems, which is HUGE pet peeve of mine, but I have to say....in these poems it honestly didn't bother me. That's some high praise for me, because I freely admit I an irrational in my hate for the uncapitalized "i."

There's a lot of magic and tarot references in here and I like that too, I especially like that these poems have the potential to reach readers who might not have otherwise been interested in poetry or magic or tarot, and that those folks might go on to read more. Or not. That's up to them, and THAT, I think, is the whole point of this book (and probably other books in the writer's series and duology, which this book is one part of). The whole point is YOU, the reader, gets to decide what, if anything, YOU want to do next.


The art included in the book is pretty (sigh, and yes, very Instagram-able) and it truly complements the work. There are bodies that are not usually depicted with love, fair representation, or compassion rendered with care and joy, given page space to stretch and just be.

So: have I read "better" or more substantial poetry that deals in fairy tale tropes and tarot archetypes? Sure, probably. But that doesn't mean this one is bad. Just because its entry point is accessible and a lot of its content is universal -- well, for most readers those would all be marks in the good column.

Anyway. I'm rambling. I don't know why this author gets so much hate, except for possibly the fact that she's a successful poet.

I'm going to end it with a quote from the book that I enjoyed & I feel sums up this author's whole body of work:

"Big sister says/ Make them rue the day they underestimated you."

ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Shine your Icy Crown is a collection of poetry and is the second book in the You Are Your Own Fairy Tale series. This is my first time reading Amanda Lovelace's work, and I do enjoy how simple and powerful each poem is. There are beautiful moments in this book, as well as great mantras and advice. Although I love what this book is trying to convey, I feel that it lacks clarity and organization. The poems do not all feel like poetry, and the perspective switches over and over. The beginning starts with a fairy tale style, and then it seems to shift into just advice or quotes, then back to the fairy tale atmosphere. I preferred the fairytale aspect and wish the entire collection was told this way. In terms of feminism, Shine your Icy Crown did not do anything new for me, and it felt more like a retelling of all the other feminism poetry books. I wish these poems went a bit further, or explored one aspect of feminism deeper.

Thanks again to Amanda Lovelace, the publisher, and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC.

Shine Your Icy Crown is the latest poetry collection from Amanda Lovelace, a staunchly feminist take on the idea of fairy tales. In her eyes you are your own fairy tale, there is no need for a charming prince to come to the rescue, you have the power to do what needs to be done and the strength to do it.
The poems may seem sparse but that does not diminish their impact on the reader, and the theme of sisterhood and women supporting and strengthening other women is one that deserves more attention.
I also loved the beautiful illustrations throughout the book, especially the large scale ones dividing the book into sections.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoy that the author is able to write and flow her poetry in such a way that it paints a very vivid and clear story, as well as it's words being emotional and thought provoking. It is iconic in the same way her other work is, though this one fell flat for me a little as perhaps it's been too much of the same now. Once you've read one or two of her work, you've read it all?

I loved this so much! Amanda Lovelace is such an amazing and inspiring poet and I've loved everything I've read from them! This one focuses a lot on independence which I really loved. Im not very good at reviewing poetry but I would highly recommend this!

I think contemporary poetry is not my thing. This collection of poetry is so relatable, and the artwork is beyond beautiful, but it doesn't seem like poetry to me. It is phrases, thoughts, and sometimes even complete sentences. There's no capitalization and an overuse of commas to emphasize pauses. I think some readers will really enjoy this, but to me, it reads like someone's inspirational Instagram account.