The Moonflower Monologues is a wonderful piece of art that blends poetry and visual art into a heartwarming and moving collection. It focuses on topics such as love, wisdom, growth, change and friendship.I love how complex feelings are shown through simplicity and meditations that complement the poems. The poems are also completed by visual art throughout the book. It always makes the book a complete piece of art and ties everything together. It enhances and reflects the different themes of the poems. I truly loved this poetry collection and can only recommend the book.

I would love to thank Andrews McMeel Publishing, Tess Guinery and NetGalley fot this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed most of the poems in here. The author talks about growth, the Moon and femininity.
Here are some of them:

Love needs no crowns,
neither mentions nor accolades.
And most of the time, you’ll find
that love—

Love is brave.



They say there’s no such thing as “the one”—
but there is only one you.



A walk where summits are invitations for glorious reflections and
brave shouts of testimony—honoring all that has been. Be sure to stop,
drink, and make an occasion of it—with your words, your stories, the
clinking of vessels, and songs. Breathe in the clean, loving air, and ex-
hale—large and long. Gather all your creative fire and let light burn in
your hands.



May your yes be yes
and your no be no,
from the ends of your braids,
to the tips of your toes—

Nobility.



I speak of the moon (much):
how she glows,
her phases,
her beauty,
the way she lights up the darkness,
her talent for reflection.

She’s a night-chaser,
heart-racer,
moving the ocean tides,
sending me half-crescent smiles,
enticing my waning heart to rise.

But it’s not her who takes my breath away; it’s the hands that fashioned
her so. I like to think that she was placed there just for me, all so she
would reflect something tangible about my maker. . . .




And there are so many more in this collection, so be sure to check it out.
4.25 stars for this gorgeous collection!

This is my second book by Guinery, and just like the first one. This was a really pleasant read, the poetry was short and sweet. Very well written.

A beautiful collection that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys the more modern take on poetry. I found myself relating more to certain pages, but I think that's the norm with books like these. It was most certainly one of the better written poetry collections I've read in recent years.

I received an eARC copy from Andrews McMeel Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

From the beginning until the end of this poetry collection, I felt loved. I cannot tell if it was me, something I lacked at the time I read it, or if these words were shooting out some invisible pulling strings, yet I felt loved and appreciated for being there and holding a copy of these poems in my hands.

Some of the verses were too short and slightly repetitive to portray well the idea they carried all the way; nevertheless, they flowed well, bringing light, kindness, hope, and genuine warmth. A more balanced expression and less underwhelming poetry would have made this collection bloom.

''May the shadows not hold you; may they grow you.''

Unfortunately, I didn't connect with this book in any way that I would have liked to. Some poems didn't even make sense to me, her writing style isn't really appealing. The Moonflower Monologues' poems overall lack depth and are pretty forgettable.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an e-arc in exchange of an honest review.

Before reading Tess Guinery’s newest collection The Moonflower Monologues, I didn’t know anything about night flowers. I didn’t know that there were even such flora in existence. These nocturnal beauties, these children of the moon, bloom only under the cover of night, illuminated by nought but pale slivers of moonlight. Because they bloom only at night, they cannot be pollinated by the usual insects. Bats and moths, then, being nocturnal creatures themselves, are primarily responsible for pollinating these fragrance-heavy flowers. These flowers, as you can see, easily lend themselves to metaphor.

In The Moonflower Monologues, Tess Guinery illuminates for us a simple but complex truth: It is only in our darkest moments that we see what we are truly capable of, that we become who we were meant to be. Truthfully, we can only become the best version of ourselves after having been through the kind of reflection and introspection that she details in her book. I must admit, I read this collection through one of the darkest periods of my life. Having survived COVID-19 and been forced to live with my own limitations after the fact, I really needed something bright and beautiful to pull me out of my malaise. I needed, as one of my favorite authors Cheryl Strayed has said before, to be put in the way of beauty.

Part of putting yourself in the way of beauty more often than not requires getting out of your own head and admiring the wonder of creation around you. It requires you to do the deep and laborious work of excavation, to get at the truth of the wonder of life. What is that truth? For me, and I’m sure for Tess Guinery as well, it’s love.

This was really an enjoyable read. Each page filled with beautiful words and illustrations. I loved this book more because it's easy to read

Amazing book, loved reading this. Some of the poems resignatedwith me on a personal level. I'd give this book 4 stars 🌟

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

3 stars

I will say this, the author is the type of person that I would like to be when I grow up:
An artist turned author, creative director, wife, mother of three, graphic designer, social media consultant, painter, and the list goes on and on. check her insta and website.

Sorry sorry back to the book, this is my first poetry book in 2022, and the message is quite beautiful,

some of the poems I like, some others are repetitive. I guess is because I'm more used to the classic ones. and I expect for poetry to be long enough to tell me a story in a way no ones sees it.

A great book filled with poetry in varying lengths. Each page is embellished with beautiful doodles. This book includes themes of women, family, nature, life, and more.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves contemporary women's poetry. While it's not a devotional it does include prayers and references.

I received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars
This is a lovely collection of short poetry and simple lines of inspiration.  I loved the simplicity of the cover and the little flowers throughout the book. It creates a certain power to the words. Also it seemed very fitting to the poetry the book contained.  I found the poems simple yet inspiring and motivational.  I saw it as almost a day a page motivation poetry on self love and feminity and also the simple pleasures in life. I especially found inspiration and connected with the poem called Made Whole on page 156. The poems throughout were light showing the beauty in the small everyday things we do and see. I read the book and felt like it was aimed to be part self love and part self-help.
Many thanks to the author and publishing team for putting together this lovely and inspiring collection of poems.

The above review has been posted on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/the-moonflower-monologues-by-tess-guinery-andrew-mcmeel-publishing-3-5-stars under the name ladyreading365

There are a few poems that expand over half of the page, that’s when the writing is at its most enjoyable.
There is a lot of potential. Also, the drawings are cute.

This falls into the trap of ‘insta poetry’, they’re just 2-10 word sentences, sometimes with a line break. I wish she had expanded and put more time into giving the four word sentences more life. It felt shallow and done multiple times before. Most of it felt like an instagram caption or a tweet. I would feel like I had been stolen from if I had bought this, with all the free space that was left on the pages.

I read over 30 poems of this book and not a single one made sense to me... I just didn't understand them or some of them were literally those one-line quotes off of tumblr.

I really enjoyed the previous collection of pems by TG and so was looking forward to reading this but it just didn't hit the mark with me sadly.

Poetry is very subjective and im sure there are others out there who will enjoy it.

Thank you for the arc.

This is a lovely collection of poems. I kept the title on my phone to dip into slowly and enjoyed it over the course of several weeks, and it always brought joy to my day. The book itself is beautiful too, full of beautiful line illustrations that complement the poems. I highly recommend picking this one up in addition to its sister book, The Apricot Memoirs.

This was a nice collection of works about strength and growth. I'm not a huge poetry gal, but decided to give this a shot. It was really beautiful and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed The Moonflower Monologues.

This was an enjoyable book of poetry work. I felt like the works included in this book were very focused on the topic of motherhood and the idea of God/a god. I am not in the stage of life where motherhood is a focus or a thought for me and so while I appreciated the work and the subject matter of the poems, they did not draw me in or connect with me as I wished they would have.
There is some truly stunning work included in this book and again I feel like motherhood in particular stuck out to me in all the books writing on femininity.
Truly a deep and emotional piece of work, but not one for my time of life.

Thank you to NetGalley who provided an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The best way to sum up the heart of this collection is perseverance, hope, love (beyond romantic), God, and womanhood.

Starting with God, there are a fair few poems that speak of prayers and a connection with God. As someone who is agnostic, these poems did not speak directly to me, but they were not the central focus of the poetry book, and I could still appreciate the poems for the structure, rhythm, and rhyme that the author does so well. I believe this book would speak to those who are particularly religious, but it can also touch those of us who are not.

The most prominent themes seem to be perseverance, hope, and growth, in all aspects of life. So many of those poems touch on different topics like womanhood, motherhood, and more, but at the core were those three themes, and it makes for a really wonderful and elegant read.

This author clearly has talent, and I was super impressed by the love and emotion that come through the pages. Each poem felt like a Nick Drake song, touching on nature and the elements. It felt floral, much like the cover, and it did not disappoint.

My one hesitation is that, as we see so frequently today, there are quite a few poems that are singular sentences, or only a few words. I understand the appeal, because why else would poets like Rupi Kaur reach such substantial success? However, I felt it sort of muddled the poetry this poet can accomplish. You go from reading a poem with beautiful personification, metaphors, and similes that fill your heart with hope and light, then you get several poems that feel like an Instagram poem. Something you will find in any modern poetry book. Worded and reworded a thousand different ways with the same sentiment.

I know it sells, but I think this author could have managed to find success without it. They are very talented with their words, making each line feel lyrical. There were several poems that I noted because I want to go back and read them specifically, to never forget those poems, because they felt THAT monumental. What I like about them is that they are not so complex that you have to sit and dissect them to understand their message, but they are also not so simple that they take no effort. The longer poems find a perfect balance, something that I think almost anyone could enjoy.

Overall, I think this is a poetry book worth reading, and I will be recommending it to others.

A collection of poems written with so much emotion, empathy, and strength.

There were some poems shorter, while others were entire eulogies, but I enjoyed every page.

Even if I had access to an online format, I can not say that I could not see how much work was put in the entire atmosphere of this book. From the colors that were used, to the fonts, illustrations, even the tone was so delicate when needed and stronger in some parts.

Beauitful!