Member Reviews

A collection of poetry that brings you back to your first love - the sweet beginning, the love that's supposed to last forever, the breakup and end of your dream, then eventually moving forward. It will bring you back to that time in your life.

It may be helpful to someone going through a breakup to know they are not alone. The ink drawings and simple short poems come together in a charming book.

The audio, narrated by the author, did not have the delivery that I had hoped. This was a chance to bring life to her poetry in voice.

I would recommend that you read the poems on your own and bring your own feelings & voice to them.

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My Greenhouse is a collection of sweet short poems in which Bella Mayo pours out her different experiences with both love and heartbreak.

I enjoyed the concept of each poem, and the representation of the greenhouse in regards to her past was a really nice touch. But to be honest, it was kind of not that deep. I do however understand and appreciate the author’s intentions to touch souls and inspire other women, and some parts were truly beautiful. I think what put me off was mostly the robotic tone. Given the fact that the author is the one narrating, I expected more intensity of emotions. She is telling her story through these poems after all. I just couldn’t feel her soul in them.

Overall, it was a nice experience! Thank you for giving us the chance to listen.

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Not a huge fan of this one. I enjoyed the beginning tap though I felt it was corny. It got weird in the middle but I ended up liking the ending

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I would like to thank NetGalley and Andrews McNell Radio, Andrews McNell Publishing, for providing me with a free e-ARC audiobook of My Greenhouse in exchange for a fair and honest review.

My Greenhouse details poetry based on Mayo’s first love (and heartbreak). While I’m not one to read a lot of poetry often, this title stood out to me since I have been hearing so much about this book. Since I was always one to listen to poetry rather than simply reading it, I was willing to give this book a try.

If I was just reviewing the poetry itself, I would have loved My Greenhouse. Mayo really encaptures all the feelings of falling in love for the first time without making it too cliche or cheesy. You can definitely tell that she has a gift for writing.

However, with the audiobook itself, my main critique was that I didn’t feel like the words on the page matched the emotion/tone provided by Mayo. For most of the book, it almost seemed she was talking in a nonchalant, monotone-type of voice. There were some moments during her narration where you do get to see her emotions displayed in her words, but it only captured into brief moments.

My Greenhouse as an audiobook was fine. It’s a really quick read (only an hour) for anyone new to audiobooks or needs something to listen to while traveling. Mayo did a good job with pacing and transitioning into a new chapter. Though it was hard to notice her transition from poem to poem, you could pick up when she’s transitioning poems after hearing a couple of them.

Overall, I thought that My Greenhouse was a good book. While I don’t think I would buy the audiobook version, the book and concept itself is great.I look forward to seeing what other work Mayo produces.

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My Greenhouse is a collection of poems about love and heartbreak. Its a collection of the author's thoughts and feelings.

I respect this authors intention and feelings however this just was not for me. It felt very surface level and I didn't gain anything from it. I'm sure it has its audience just not for me.

The author is the narrator which is nice but I feel she was a little monotone? The audiobook wasn't a very enjoyable experience. Maybe reading it physically would be better.

Overall I didn't enjoy it but that doesn't mean it's bad. The only thing I can compare it to is Amanda Lovelace so if you enjoy her poetry I'd try this collection out.

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My Greenhouse by Bella Mayo is supposed to be a collection of poems about first love and heartbreak. All I saw in it was a jumble of thoughts from a teenage girl over a bad relationship. The emotionless reading was dry and boring. It was more like reading a journal than poetry. I did not enjoy it at all. To me it was just a mess of unorganized thoughts.

Thank you NetGalley & Andrews McMeel Audio, Andrews McMeel Publishing for the audio book eARC version of this book.

#MyGreenhouse #NetGalley

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This is a sweet and thoughtful collection, emphasized by the lovely narration from the author herself.

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"This battle, you giving 10%, me giving 90 it can't last forever, I am getting tired"

This poetry collection is a journey through the first relationship of the author explored through the eyes of a 15 year old, reflected on as an adult! The poetry collection has 5 parts taking the reader from the initial stages of a crush to the last dregs of heartbreak. This is poetry book for hopeless romantics, especially younglings!! As I am neither young nor a romantic though I enjoyed and empathized with the words as I always do, I did not really feel them or relate to them!!

TW: HEARTBREAK.

Many thanks to Netgalley and RB Media, Recorded Books for the ALC of this book

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This is a good concept, but the execution is lacking.

Although the book summary describes this story as a journey through the evolving phases of love, it’s really a list of types of love. I also think this should be categorized as YA, because the work demonstrated a much more shallow or simplified description of love and relationships than what I would expect in a poetry book that I would find categorized under adult fiction. Specifically, her descriptions of love are cheesy (i.e., “Choose me or lose me,” lots of “baby” and things like “pretty girl”). They’re also general (i.e., the small-town love who showed her his town and kissed her on the forehead- Neither of those things are even remotely exclusive to a small-town boy.).

I think that this strategy would have worked better had the author had chosen depth of love typologies over quantity, because it’s clear that she’s writing what she thinks that type of love would have been like, not how it actually is in practice and experience.

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Poetry if something I am now getting into and have a couple books that I choose for daily reflections. This book would definitely fit into my favourites. The works of poetry are written to be short and sweet, meaningful and resonate with the reader. I found the poetry focused more around young/new love, but this was beautiful and reminds the reader what that new love feels like. The poems all have an appropriate title and flow.

The author did a great job! This was an audio book eArc and the author/narrator was wonderful. Very clear intonation, pace and emotion. 4-stars and would purchase for others!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the audio book eARC version of this sweet book of poetry in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

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My Greenhouse is a poetry collection written by Bella Mayo about heartbreak, falling in love, loss, healing, and more. I love poems about these themes and am constantly craving more of them, and I really enjoyed this one. I listened to the audiobook which is narrated by Bella Mayo herself, and I would definitely recommend you listen to it if you can. It adds a lot of emotion and intensity to the poems and Bella Mayo's voice is lovely. I always love when authors narrate their own books, it makes it feel more authentic and real, so it added to my experience reading it.

The poems are really simple and straightforward, which isn't my favorite type of poetry writing style, but it's great if you're someone who likes simple and short poems. They still resonated with me strongly, and I related to many of the poems. Overall, I really enjoyed it and will be reading other poetry collections by the author if there are some. So if you're looking for some poems about heartbreak and healing, pick this one up!

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Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the concept of My Greenhouse a lot. I respect the poet’s journey, but this collection was not for me. I do struggle a bit with contemporary poetry, so this could just be a little off for me. I was expecting something similar to Rupi Kaur, but this was a bit more basic. It felt a bit at times like stream of consciousness.

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This was a really sweet and beautiful collection of poetry. It felt soft and beautiful, and pretty straightforward. I enjoy the emphasis on the earth and the environment.

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I thought the poems were alright, they have potential and some of them were really good.
But they didn’t hit me with emotions, they were way to straightforward for my taste and I didn’t think they were very poetry ish. They were also very cliche, and is something that has been seen before.
I also didn’t like the way she read them up, I didn’t feel the emotion that should have been in them and I just didn’t like her voice and the way she read.

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My Greenhouse - Bella Mayo

Loved it! Lovey dovey poetry has something magical about it and this heartfelt story was great to listen to.

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So this is a poetry book I saw and bought solely because of the cover. Just being honest here; it’s true.

Essentially this is a book that delves into the stages of a toxic relationship (so trigger warnings for that). I personally didn’t relate to this as I’ve never been in this situation, but I know a lot of other people will.

Personally, the audiobook wasn’t my fave, though I typically read poetry physically so it’s my fault there. But I would give the audiobook a chance.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ALC in exchange for an honest review

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My Greenhouse was a heartfelt look into the author’s life. Each section offered new insights and revelations about her experiences and about love in general. I found myself highlighting many of the quotes (or jotting them down as I listened to the audiobook). I loved that the author narrated her own poems because the topics were so personal and it made listening to this book feel like an extended and heartfelt conversation with a friend.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

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I started and finished this one in one sitting, because its very easy to listen to. That being said, I didn't much enjoy it. It all felt very simple/juvenile and that made more sense once later in the collection she talked about sitting outside his HS. This is definitely aimed at a lovesick 18-year-old. The biggest problem I had though was that the author read it as if she had no emotion. I LOVE poetry read by the author because I feel like it gives you a genuine look into what/how they were feeling when they penned it, but unfortunately, you get NONE of that with this audio collection. Overall, it was pretty forgettable, unfortunately.

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The artwork for the cover is beautiful! It gave me a good feeling going into the book. However, I didn't love it. It felt forced for me, like it didn't quite flow right. I liked the progression of the poems and how they told the story, but the poems themselves just weren't for me.

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I am not a huge fan of poetry, but I have been slowly trying to incorporate more poetry into my collection. This collection was easy to listen to, as I had the audiobook version available to me. It showed a lot of emotion and I can tell the author put her heart and soul into it. It was a delightful listen!

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