I loved the raw brokenness of this book. I love how the author described a broken heart and then how it is put back together again. Although this book is about a love relationship, I believe it could also be used to describe any relationship that goes wrong for whatever reason.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.

This was not good. It was trite. There is nothing about this book that makes it any different to the million other basic observations that get passed off as poetry that get published except that the author managed to convince the publisher to let it be over 300 pages.

McCullough writes of love like an old friend, with heartache and healing mixed it. There is a real honestly in the way that she views the world but also what I hope is optimism that love will find a way to us somehow, we just have to experience a bit of pain first - a sentiment that I both relate to and harrow at.

I saw a lot of reviews calling the poems repetitive but there are only so many ways you can write about heart ache and, in my opinion, each poem drives that point. Sometimes pain is just pain. Sometimes we have to repeat ourselves and say the truth over and over again until it stops hurting so much.

This book of poetry was less poetry and more everyday life advice you hear from your family and friends. I found it to be highly repetitive and very similar to many other poems and quotes you see on the internet. There were many times I thought I was just reading self affirmations.

While relatable to someone who has suffered heartbreak, I felt like I was reading a young woman/teen girls personal diary about a boy who she can’t stop thinking about.

There were some pieces I did very much enjoy, but I found the book and layout of the wording to be confusing since there were no titles or suggestions on where one piece finished, and another one began.

I’ve received this book via Netgally and Andrew McMeel publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Glass Hearts and Broken Promises by Kayla McCullough is a collection of poetry about heartbreak and healing. It focuses on breakups, moving on, and self-love, and it does so in a very straightforward way.

When I first saw the description for this book, I got really excited because I love poetry that balances between pain and healing, so I was looking forward to the way it could help me feel seen and understood. However, the pain of the past is the biggest focus and the depth it goes to when it comes to healing is quite surface-level. The writing is also very simple and it reads more like a diary or a letter than poetry, which can be a good or bad thing, depending on your reading preferences. I would prefer something deeper & more detailed because it didn't bring me a lot of value like this. A lot of the messages were things I already knew, the writing was too plain for me, and it mainly gave me only negative emotions.

If you like the thought of reading something that feels like a friend is talking to you about their breakup and how they're healing from it (and how you could heal from yours), I think you're going to like it. If you like descriptive poems that are more abstract, this is definitely not for you. I think it could also work really well for people who haven't read a lot of poetry before.

Even though this wasn't really a collection for me, I do think it could bring a lot of value and advice to the right readers. If you're struggling with heartbreak and you want some insight into letting go and learning to love yourself, pick this up!

I adored this collection and found myself relating to a lot that the author went through. She writes about unrequited love, how it affects us in all sorts of ways, and the struggles with healing. I really liked how there was a good variety between short and long poems and quotes as to not over or underwhelm readers.

The writing style made me feel like she is an older sister telling me what I need to hear in a way that says, “I see and feel your pain because I’ve been there and we’ll get through this.”

This may be a better fit for young adults or beginners as the writing reminded me a lot of Amanda Lovelace and Lang Leav. May not be everyone’s cup of tea but I really saw myself in her words.

After leaving high school, I kept a diary for a couple years because I was so heartbroken and lonely I didn't know where else to say it. Once, after several sleepless nights, I decided nothing else would convey my pain quite as well as poetry, and so of course I had to write a poem. I was 19, painfully naïve and inexperienced, writing in a language I wasn't really fluent in, drunk on tiredness, and hadn't written poetry since my high school literature teacher had us write one (1) poem when I was 15.

And yet somehow, that awful, trite, clumsy poem still sounded more like poetry - and a lot more heartfelt - than anything I've read in this book.

<i>Glass Hearts & Broken Promises</i> is a very modern collection of poems in that it has no rhymes, no rhythm, no titles, and barely any punctuation. And that could have been fine! Some of my favourite poems ever are in free verse! Anyone who's ever read any poem Mary Oliver wrote knows free verse can be done well.
Here, however, it served absolutely no purpose. It didn't create any ambiguity and the line breaks didn't highlight anything or make it more poignant. There was no assonance, no rhythm created by line length or repetition - I even struggled to find a single metaphor, anaphora, oxymoron, or literally any other literary device.
The language used was neither flowery nor vivid, and every poem was instead one worn-out cliché after another. For example (and I believe these two lines have their own page) :

"it’s okay to let the tears
wash you clean"

To add insult to injury, the collection clearly does not believe in titles, and so you just go from one page to the next without knowing where (or if?) one poem ends and the other begins, which I found very confusing and frustrating.
But! I hear you argue. It could have all been one long poem, right?
Well, if that was the intention, it also fails, simply because there's usually no continuity between one page and the next, and the random line breaks don't help it feel any less disjointed.

None of that can amound to poetry. Whatever this book is, it's certainly not poetry. It has none of its hallmarks, and because it's so full of clichés, it's not even moving. It's poetry only because it's being sold as such. In reality, this is simply a diary with strange line breaks and a meandering style (for a diary).

I would have been disappointed if that had been as bad as it got, but I might have nonetheless found some pleasure in that strange, sweet pain you get when reading about someone else's pain (or someone else working through their pain?)
But even that was impossible, because I felt absolutely nothing.

I firmly believe that for poetry to be profound and touching (or for any writing at all to be emotional, actually), it has to be specific. Don't tell me you miss and grieve for someone you've lost - tell me that she was constantly wearing mismatched funny socks but you can't remember a single one of them, that you used to sleep face to face and holding hands, that though you've lost the photography, you remember the image: her trying to drink two different drinks from two different glasses through two different straws - that it was your doing and your choice but sometimes you still wish you could sit through one more boring class with her.

<i>Glass Hearts & Broken Promises</i> does none of that and it is a dealbreaker for me. There are certainly a lot of words associated with vulnerability (pain, broken, grief, miss, etc.) but they're all used so plainly that it's impossible to feel the full weight of them. Language that we're used to is language that becomes purely utilitarian and loses its punch. And that's the only language that's used in this book.

I have two more (comparatively minor) squibbles with this book.
First, some words are outrageously misused (especially "trauma" - never mind that that's entirely telling and not showing). As an example:

"It wasn’t the breakup that hurt the most. [...] It was looking
at our pictures and seeing exactly when you fell out of
love with me—that moment documented for all to see. [...] It wasn’t the
breakup that hurt the most; it was the <i>trauma</i> that came after it."

(Really? Trauma? For context, she doesn't describe anything actually bad, just as painful as hinted at by the sentence about the pictures documenting their falling out of love.)

And second, some lines just don't really make sense. The logic is entirely missing, or at least a big enough part of it that I can't follow.

"sometimes people leave people
not because they’re not in love
but because the love they existed in
was never love at all"

If what they were in was never love at all, then... they weren't actually in love? I don't know, this one confuses me.

I will allow that I've never experienced heartbreak specifically over a romantic relationship, and that I tend to favour nature imagery, when what little imagery there is here has more to do with modern life in cities than nature. That might have affected my reading experience, but can't account for all of my displeasure.

Glass Hearts and Broken Promises
By Kayla McCullough
Thanks you to Netgalley for a copy for an honest review
This was a nice book of poetry, a quick read.
Rating: 3 stars

This book came to me at a time I needed it. Going through a friendship breakup can be just as emotionally painful as a romantic relationship. This book really helped me work through some of the feelings I was feeling. Thank you, Kayla.

So, I have a Pinterest board that I specifically save poetry and quotes to because I like them. While reading this poetry collection, I could not help but notice that many of these quotes felt oddly familiar to me. I even went back to my Pinterest board for reference, and it really seemed than many of the poems in this collection were eerily similar to writings I see on my board.

I'm not going to say the P word because maybe it's a coincidence and I'm overthinking this all, but it really felt like the author went and read a bunch of angsty heartbreak poems on Pinterest, rearranged the words, and made this collection.

If this is not the case, and I'm simply hallucinating, then to that I say, other poets have written about heartbreak before and been more relatable to me, or I believe their poems were a little wittier and a bit punchier compared to this collection.

There were several poems I did like in this book. I think the author has potential, but this collection was not my favorite collection in terms of poetry.

Received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, I feel like this was a nice book of poetry, but it was repetitive and I felt like in some sections I was reading the same thing over and over again. I did like the language and the two parts the book was split into. I think this is a great book of poetry for beginners or those who haven't read much.
The cover is beautiful!

While I found the poetry beautifully written it became at times a bit repetitive. I think I would have enjoyed it more if there was just a little less.

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

Someone broke her heart badly. And while I did feel sorry for her, and she did elicit some emotion from me, a lot of times the sheer amount of how much time and emotion she put into being sad about it was too much. Not that I think she should just "get over it", but she wrote 300 nearly identical poems wallowing about it. That's excessive.

It had a few genuinely good lines or poems, and I could maybe see if you were going through a break-up, maybe reading a poem or two a day would be nice (??). But overall, it was over 300 pages of short choppy poems that were mostly essentially the same thing. And the overall theme was you should love yourself first, and love yourself more. I don't agree with that. Should you love yourself enough to stay out/get out of abusive relationships? Yup. Obviously don't let yourself be hurt, and abused, and ridiculed and whatnot. Find someone that loves YOU. But the whole point of being in love, of truly loving someone, is that you love them more than you love yourself.

They left their phone charger downstairs and you're both comfy cozy in bed? Go get it for them.
Only one ice cream bar left? Offer it to them.
They need a kidney? When's the operation, doc?

Love that you're putting yourself first isn't real love at all.

Poetry, simple and heartfelt, youthful and maturing throughout.

Part I: The Break
Examining first love - from falling to heartbreak. SO so relatable. Very vulnerable and emotional.

Part II: The Mend
Pulling yourself together after a break. Beautiful and you can see the struggle.

This was a great read and would be applicable for teenagers/young adults too. Even more so, I wish I had read this after my first heartbreak.

Thank you, Andrews McMeel Publishing, for the advance reading copy.

I feel that you would enjoy this poetry collection if you are looking for one at beginner’s level, if you have read and love short simple writing and if you love the themes covered in collections by Amanda Lovelace.

I do feel this collection will be perfect for young adults.

Glass hearts and broken promises review

I find it so hard to critique poetry as it really is the revelation of one's heart song. This is no exception. There is no denying that this work by Kayla McCullough is straight from the heart and soul.

The cover is perfect! It really speaks to the whole idea of growing up, learning, breaking, and rebuilding. The colours and artwork solid, symbolizing a new found stability through the lessons that were learned throughout the book.

I did struggle slightly with the formatting, lack of capitalization and punctuation in the acknowledgements and the letter to the reader and would recommend that the author either choose to keep everything in poetry format, or edit these two pages so that they are formatted in proper sentence structure and paragraphs.

Part I: The Break
The poetry starts of incredibly strong. It's giving slam vibes and I would LOVE to see this performed as spoken word. You can really sense the self awareness of the author and the journey they had to take and the strength that it took to pull themselves through treacherous waters and dark times.

Through these pages I'm struck with thoughts, of memories of my own heart break. The bravery it must have taken the author to lay out her heart like this is incredible. I stand with you and feel in my core that I have stood here right along side you this whole time. Through this work I feel like every syllable is relatable.

The intrusive thoughts, the raw emotion, selfless acts, and coping mechanisms. This is everything. Truly this book could be the very best friend of every young girl out there feeling broken and alone. To know that no matter how dark things get we truly have all been there.

Part II: The Mend

The wisdom brought forth here is imperative. Nothing is sugar coated. It's cold hard facts, it's raw, there's such a deep level of understanding. It's simply beautiful. When picking up our pieces and flying them back together with the half sticky tape and chewed pieces of him found lying around, the most infuriating thing is when somebody tells us what they think we want to hear. These prose are what should be said to us instead.

I am so enthralled by all of this I just want to hug the author. When this book is released I want to buy a billion copies and send it to all the girls around the world, wrapped in poetry with a tag that says, "do not open 'til you need me most". I am so in love with all of this. I stick with what I mentioned before, I would absolutely adore seeing this performed.

My only criticisms please take them lightly. I found it to be a little lengthy and slightly repetitive. Rearranging the order your poems are in could add a crescendo effect. Start lengthy and from heart break one and the closer you get to the mend the shorter the poems to provide the reader with that sense of panic and pain and agony. Then in the mend work your way backwards short poems to long with the crucial lessons that you learned asking the way. Watch your grammar and spelling. I noticed a few small errors in this respect. Over all though this work is incredible, I am in awe and cannot wait to see future works from you. Brava!

This was very well written poetry that instills hope in those who may be struggling. I read it in a day!

I was really excited to read this, the premise sounds wonderful! However, it does not come in kindle form and I was unable to open the document from any of my devices to read it. Sounds like a beautiful poetry collection though!