Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Allie Michelle has stumbled into the realm of instagram poetry in a way that feels lacklustre. With more time to wade through some of her work, I think she could have latched on to some fantastic poems that you see tucked away in here, but otherwise it doesn’t feel like anything new or interesting.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for making this available..

The cover art of this caught my eye but I could connect with this book at all. The poems felt very bland and too long. The aesthetic of the book felt too forced and felt like the author was trying to hard to be woke and spiritual.

Also the hand written poems I just couldn’t read properly with the handwriting..

There was one of two good poems that I did enjoy.

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

The title Explorations of a Cosmic Soul gave me a feeling of deep introspection, relying on the observation of one's mental state and, in a spiritual context, the examination of one's soul. It made me curious because I also felt that astrology plays some role in these poems and thoughts. I was hoping for deep, self-questioning, and soul-searching motives that would make me reflect on what I read for a long time after I finished reading these poems.

Jumping into this poetry collection with high expectations gave me a harsh landing, proving my assumptions wrong. It felt average, a bit superficial, a sprinkle of repetition; nothing really struck me out as magnificent, memorable, or eye-opening.

Another thing is the handwritten notes - a thoughtful detail to allow us to see the process of writing, thinking about, rethinking, contemplating this entire poetry collection. These details would have been more than breathtaking if only I didn't have to struggle often to read them and understand what they say. So, letting my imagination add the missing words and lost meaning, I somehow made it my own. But I am not the author here, so... no, these poems did not work for me the way I hoped they will.

I enjoyed reading this one. Some of the poems offers the reader a chance at self-reflection. I liked the poem 'Patient Pursuit' and read this one several times. I feel like this could be a mantra.

Thank you Andrews McMeel Publishing and Netgalley for sending me an ARC of Explorations of a Cosmic Soul by Allie Michelle, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

These poems were well done and I really enjoyed them! I'm a bit of a poetry nerd so I'm always a little apprehensive about reading poetry ARC's but I saw this one and wanted to know more. The poems felt personal while also showcasing a very creative open experience. The book was very heavy on self-love and introspective which is always very lovely to see a writer experience and then try to inspire others' experience. The layout was well done and it was overall a nice contemporary poetry book.

I really wanted to love this collection of poems. The style and cover are right up my street and I love this kind of collection however the poems didn't live up to my expectations and felt a bit obvious.

Sadly it wasn't my favourite but thank you for the arc.

Die Gedichte in diesem Buch beschäftigen sich in mehreren Kapiteln mit der Suche nach sich selbst, nach Ruhe und Zufriedenheit und dem Wertschätzen der eigenen Stärken. Viele Gedichte haben ein Reimschema, was mir sehr gefallen hat. Gelegentlich wird das Buch aufgelockert durch Zeichnungen von Sternbildern und Anmerkungen der Autorin darüber, wie das Gedicht entstanden ist oder was sie damit ausdrücken wollte.

Ich muss gestehen, dass mich das Vorwort einer Astrologin sehr abgeschreckt hat; so sehr, dass ich das Buch fast abgebrochen hätte. Das Vorwort ist sehr lang und nimmt Bezug auf Sternkonstellationen etc., womit ich überhaupt nichts anfangen kann. Zum Glück haben mir die Gedichte dann aber doch ganz gut gefallen. Allerdings haben mich nur wenige wirklich berühren können. Nach etwa zwei Dritteln des Buches gab es noch einmal einen kurzen Kommentar der Autorin zur Neuauflage, und sofern ich es richtig verstanden habe, waren die folgenden Gedichte neu. Diese Gedichte haben mir deutlich besser gefallen; sie konnten mich eher berühren und ich konnte besser eine Verbindung zu ihnen aufbauen.

Fazit:
Eine schöne Gedichtsammlung, die mich jedoch teilweise nicht erreichen konnte. Daher von mir 3,5 Sterne.


In English:

The poems in this book deal in several chapters with the search for yourself, for peace and satisfaction and the appreciation of your own strengths. A lot of the poems have a rhyme scheme, which I really liked. Occasionally the book is loosened up with drawings of constellations and notes by the author about how the poem was created or what she wanted to express with it.

I have to admit that the foreword by an astrologer scared me off; so much so that I almost broke off the book. The foreword is very long and refers to star constellations etc., which unfortunately wasn't my cup of tea. But fortunately, I still really liked the poems. However, only a few have really touched me. After about two thirds of the book there was another brief comment by the author on the new edition, and if I understood it correctly, the following poems were new. I liked these poems a lot better; they were more likely to touch me and I was more able to connect with them.

Conclusion:
A nice collection of poems, but some of them couldn't reach me. Therefore 3.5 stars from me.

I absolutely loved this poetry book (and I am very picky about poetry). I was able to connect with most of the poems, and I found them reflective and emotional. I loved the little notes in the book, they made the poems (and the book overall) personal and it added a lot to the book in my opinion. This is the first time I've read anything by this author, but I'm looking forward to reading more of her works.

Empowerment Within, Freedom Without
What we fear outside
Already exist within
When we heal inside
Our external fears will lose their power

Rating: 4.25 🌟

First and first, I'd like to express my gratitude to Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this poetry.

This poetry is full of expressing self-empowerment, healing & appreciating every tiny moment of your life. This is the first poetry book by this author I had read and I will definitely pick another book of her in the future 🤍

This book of poetry hit me emotionally. There was parts I deeply connected with and made me think of past experiences. I enjoyed this so much! 5* rating from me.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for this e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a republishing of the author’s poems. This has additional poems, as the author says in their author’s note, which oddly is in the middle of their poems—perhaps to make the distinction between her earlier work and the poems that they have composed since then.

These poems speak about looking outside of yourself and really appreciate how you are part of the bigger picture—how “now” is not the end of the world and there is more to what we are experiencing at a certain time in our individual lives.

The poem I liked best was one that went along the lines of trying to manifest something and that certain thing isn’t appearing. The author states that you can’t possibly know what is ahead and dreams simply change, so at the end of a manifestation, one should add “this or something better.” I love that, and it really spoke to me.

I also really enjoyed how the author had her handwritten notes after some of the poems that kind of explained what was happening at the time or what inspired the above poem.

I definitely recommend reading their poems!!

🌌Explorations of a Cosmic Soul
This is a poetry collection by Allie Michelle that reminds us that each one of us is a cosmic being. The edition that I read was annotated by the author. To me, that was a plus, it felt personal and allowed me little glimpses into the author’s creative process. However, I understand that because the notes are handwritten, they can be a bit hard to read.
Some of the poems are quite beautiful and give off that transcendental vibe that I was expecting from this collection. This vibe was also strengthened by the images of the constellations that appear throughout the book, and in the cover. However, not all poems appealed to me, and that made me lose my focus on the collection quite a few times.

Thank you to @netgalley and @andrewsmcmeel for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

It has been a while since I last read poetry so i wanted to get into it again. This collection of poems was quite enjoyable and inspiring to me. One poem specifically got to me and i thought about it for a while. It was about how we only appreciate this future version of us that we made up in our heads instead of honoring how we are at this very moment. If we only live in the future we will never unlock our full potential.
I enjoyed the author's notes to some of her poems. It definitely gave more depth to her words.
The only thing that really threw me off while reading was the font. It was unpleasing to the eyes and made me wonder why it was chosen. A simpler and cleaner font would have been better.

I appreciate that the author actually rhymes in her poems and it's not another book of tumblr poetry/ space bar prose.

That being said, this book is full of superficial mantra's of love yourself, the world does not define you, deep breathing brings inner peace. But with the title of Explorations of a Cosmic Soul I should have known better than to assume otherwise. Simple and impassive I failed to connect to, or be impressed, with what was written and couldn't force myself to finish it.

I was expecting something different from this book. The font of the letter is pretty, it imitates a typewriter, but it makes it harder to read, and the handwritten annotations along the book are also difficult to read, thought it turned the book a bit more personal. I enjoyed some of the poems, but overall I didn't really like it.. I felt like most of the book was a repetition of itself. Rating: 3/5 stars.

''I am the ocean you tried to contain in a drop but my tides have only grown more wild''

A beautifully written poetry collection. This is the second book I read from Allie, and she didn't disappoint on this one. I would totally recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this before publication date.

I like that after some of the poems there is an explanation written by the author, it makes the poetry feel more personal and not as general as some poetry can feel. I'm not a huge fan of long poems, I tend to stick to the short and sweet style of Lovelace and Sin, but this was a pleasant surprise.

This was a a great poetry book! It took me longer to read than other poetry books because of the internal reflection it instigated. I really enjoyed the imagery and metaphors that the author used. I liked the constellations scattered throughout but I wish there were more graphics that correspond to the specific poems. Overall I would recommend this book and I will be purchasing a hard copy for myself.

Lately I have been getting more and more into poetry, and I really love reading all the thoughts of people who can manage to put them into writing as beautifully as poets do.

The author has great thoughts, and she puts them into poems beautifully. My favourite part was when after some poems, she had some handwritten notes in the book, that explained her thoughts or process, how did she created such a special and magical poem.

I really enjoyed reading it until a point, but after that the poems kind of started repeating the same topics and I kind of got bored. There were some surprises around the end of the book though, that were worth reading until the very end, but some of the poems in the third quarter just were not for me I think. Or because I felt like those topics were alredy explored and explained there was no need to do it again.

Overall it is a lovely poetry book, and I loved reading it, I think you should check it out if you are looking for a special experience with a lovely poetry book.