I’ve never been disappointed in an Amanda Lovelace book and this one was not an exception. They just have a way of writing that speaks to my soul in a way that I always look for in poetry. If you haven’t read any of her books, you definitely should!!

Summer 2021 (August);
~ Netgalley Arc

Thank you to Amanda Lovelace, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and Netgalley for this free arc for an honest review.

I am so pleased to have gotten the chance to early read Amanda Lovelace's newest poetry book (as I've gotten the chance to read a few of them on here before). This newest one plays into the dichotomy of women through the dichotomy of the darkness and lightness both in Persephone herself *and* between both herself and Detemer & herself & Hades. First and foremost, always, I love that Amanda's books begin with the trigger warning list and the reminder to take care of yourself always.

The poetry as always is stunning, and several of these pieces touched me. I loved the duality switching backgrounds, between the rolling spring of the Spring Goddess and the flame and darkness of the Queen of Hell. This poetry, as always is about owning your power, your insight, your independence, and the abandonment of all things that cling unhealthily to us. I would advise to book to many, and already have several I'm thinking of gifting it to.

I saw Amanda Lovelace’s new book and immediately needed to read it. I flew through it, like all of her poetry it reads like a story to me and is moving.

This speaks to a few darker topics and I love there is a page of trigger warnings at the beginning so you can decide if it’s the right time for you to read.

The book was also so beautiful with illustrations and I plan to pick up a copy as soon as it’s released October 5th!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the eArc in exchange for my honest review.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I want to preface this by saying I don't usually read poetry however the collection's exploration of female duality really drew me in.

The paintings of wildfire and flowers made reading the poems a particularly beautiful experience. The alternating strength and softness of femininity explored resonated with me and I was surprised at how many of the poems I loved.

My favourites include:

*what's it like to be so bold?:* a commentary on the double standards between masc and fem.
*herself.* the strength in self belief
*he's never wanted someone so much.* feminine duality
*show them who's queen.* a self explanatory title

I would recommend this for people who are new to poetry but would like to explore femininity in different forms.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Andrew McMeel Publishing for an advanced reader's copy.*

I would like to thank Netgalley and Amanda Lovelace for an advanced reader copy in exchange of an honest review. This collection of poetry talked about many different topics like abuse. I appreciate that unlike the majority of authors she listed all possible trigger warnings before the book begin. However, I feel like that is the bare minimum for poetry that talks about so many triggering topics. Amanda Lovelace is one of my favourite poets for multiple different reasons. I love the formatting and creativity of the execution of the poetry the style was done where I could pick it up at any time to enjoy and not be lost. This some of the best poetry I have read this year. One thing that I found utterly annoying and useless was the same two illustration pages rotating between every poem. It ended up being more of these pages then actual poetry which annoyed me. At the end of the day the poetry that was included as very high quality. I loved this collection by Amanda Lovelace and cannot wait to read more of her future work and truly believe that her poetry will become a classic in many years to come.

I love the theme of this collection: exploring how women are often equal parts soft and fierce. Some of the writing is dark, and Lovelace includes a trigger warning in the beginning. Several poems spoke to me, and I’m inspired to read her prior collections.

Ultimately, this is a 3 star for me because some of the poems fell flat and seemed forced… and either didn’t fit the theme or contradicted it. But overall, I enjoyed this collection and knocked it out in one sitting.

I went into this with no expectations because I haven’t read anything else by them.

Some of the poems really resonated with me or took me back to things I’ve overcome. There’s a strong sense of power and independence in several passages. I wasn’t totally blown away by each page but a few of them I read 3 or 4 times because the words hit me so hard.

There are trigger warnings in the beginning of the book and I would advise reading those first. There are some pretty heavy topics.

I honestly have no words for Amanda. This books is a true hymn to Feminism. I felt every single word in my heart. I just want to congratulate her on this poetry piece — it's truly magnificent. I wish people begin to realise how much we suffer as women. This book is a great opportunity for people to educate themselves on it. The only downside for me was the illustrations. Although they're beautiful, they became repetitive. Rating: 5/5 stars.

I’ve read every single book by amanda lovelace and I will keep reading all of her next books.
The style is very modern and many of the poems (if not all of them) critique society in a beautiful way.
Although I was very disappointed by the art throughout the book, the writing is intriguing and inspiring.

Esse livro foi uma surpresa muito feliz. Há algum tempo eu fiquei saturada dos livros/poemas da amanda lovelace - especialmente porque eu ia muito ávida para qualquer coisa que ela escrevesse, então, depois de algum tempo, acabei enjoando e não li mais nada. Assim, Flower crowns and fearsome things foi uma grata surpresa para uma fã que estava afastada. O livro é lindo, fiquei maravilhada com as ilustrações que se intercalavam com os poemas, essa estética combinou demais! E os poemas continuam maravilhosos. Acho que um tempo afastada me fez voltar a gostar da escrita dela. Apesar dos muitos gatilhos (previamente sinalizavam) que sempre estão presentes nos poemas da autora, também encontramos palavras de superação, aceitação, e que nos incentivam, de certo modo. Também é muito bom encontrar referências nos poemas.

3.75 stars

I really enjoyed this collection of poetry from Amanda Lovelace. I tend to forget how raw some of their poetry is.

I had about 8 favorite poems/poems that stuck out to me in this!

Will definitely tell friends that I know enjoy poetry to check this out when it comes out.

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

Before I start, I must say that I am a huge fan of Amanda Lovelace, and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to read this book. I have absolutely loved it!

'Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things' is a book of poetry that talks about women, abuse, sexism, love,... It talks about many topics and the author writes it in a way so beautifully written. It talks about death, cheating, trauma, and misogyny, too.

I found really interesting the way the author talked about some topics, like the body image, how we perceive and love ourselves, the sexism inside many regular things we are used to do usually. The author writes about death, and how we see it, how ephemeral is life, how it catches off our grasp like sand between our fingers. Are we ever going to achieve all the things we want to before everything ends?

I highly recommend you this book, whether you're a fan of Amanda Lovelace or not, if you're a fan of poetry, you're going to absolutely love it!

#FlowerCrownsAndFearsomeThings #Netgalley

This book is lovely. I like reading some of Amanda Lovelace's poetry. It's kind of like reading a poetic message. Also, as these poems can be told about so many things.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with a digital copy of this book.

This book was beautiful to say the least. I usually dislike flowery writing and most poetry, but this author has the ability to touch me with her words like no other can. The empowerment of women in all of her books is what I wish every author would aspire to do. I can't put into words how much I love her poetry. If you haven't ever read something from this lovely author, please do. You won't be disappointed. I'm pretty sure that I will pick up every poetry collection that she'll write, because her writing is just stunning

I thought this might have been suitable material for 12th Grade students as part of our discussions about gender equality/women's rights etc., but the topics here are a bit too edgy and risqué for teenagers. That said they would certainly appreciate the length of the poems as well as some of the takeaway messages of inspiration, which would likely become mantras to be routinely posted across social media ...
The male of the species is painted in a rather grim light in these poems, deservedly so it might be argued. Yet this poetry collection lacks some balance in getting the empowerment message across to an audience such as teens, while not alienating men by tarring them all with the same brush.

Thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This is the first poetry book I have read by Amanda Lovelace and it was fantastic! I read this in one sitting and found all of the pages enjoyable. The illustrations were beautiful! I really loved how the poems were so relatable and current with the times. The one about the mask may be my favorite. I would recommend this to any woman looking for a great poetry book that will make them feel empowered.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this collection! Thank you Amanda Lovelace for adding a comprehensive trigger warning list at the beginning of her book- I really appreciate when an author does this.

I really love poetry and have been reading a bit more of it over the last two years. This collection started out strong, and I began marking some of my favorites. After a while, I began to feel less empowered. Some poems felt like power ballads and some felt.... very submissive. Though I appreciate the balance, it took a bit away from the empowerment.

Once again, Lovelace doesn’t follow through when it comes to the premise. This poetry book is all over the place, where the subjects (i.e., « i » and the different « shes ») change constantly without any consistency. Apart from a reference or two, this has nothing to do with Persephone or her myth. We get more sayings and tweet-like short passages that we’ve heard countless times before. While reading those, I thought it’d be at least more interesting to see the passages in an essay format, but the ideas barely scratch the surface. It would’ve been great to approach the themes from a new angle, but nope: same old same old.
I would love for the author to dive into the themes she explores multiples times and truly explore them. I think there is potential, but it is unfortunately wasted in this collection.

Out of Lovelace's more recent poetry collections, I enjoyed this one a bit more than I thought I would.

The poems had a little more fierceness to them than her previous fairy tales series, and I was appreciative of that from a reader standpoint. The short form style is not exactly my favorite but I was able to enjoy my read thanks to my interest in the theme about Persephone.

The two poems that stuck out to me were "will i get to do all of the things I want to do" and "marked".

⭐️ 3 / 5


Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

I finished the whole thing in less than an hour, and I enjoyed each line so much. As a young woman, many of these poems fill your heart and make you feel powerful and understood. Amanda was able to capture and deliver so much emotion through her poetry, and I could definitely see the parallels between the poetry and the figure/persona of Persephone.

The downside of this book however, is how vague and similar to almost every Pinterest / Tumblr quote most of these poems are. Sometimes, what was written as a poem could easily be a sentence. But at the end of the day, it was still an enjoyable and powerful poetry collection.