Shine your Icy Crown (You Are Your Own Fairy Tale #2)

Rayne ♥

Rating: really liked it
❝ her parents screams at her more than they ever told her they loved you. ❞

— disappointment

I CAN RELATE TO THIS BOOK SO MUCH IT'S LIKE THE AUTHOR REACHED INTO MY MIND AND STOLE MY THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES. And though I appreciate what the author is doing, I don't like how they did it.

I gave this book a shot, full well knowing that I despised The Princess Saves Herself, so truly it's my fault. I'm just unsure how this could possibly be considered poetry (it felt more like a book of advice).

All the poems go something like this:

I am a poet, because I use commas, to emphasis a pause, and because I don't like, regular sentences. Also, this book is supposed to make you feel good, so like, here are some uplifting passages, that are the most generic, basic pieces of writing you'll ever read. but like it's because I use lowercase and put '&' instead of 'and', use roman numerals and don't use the grammar and punctuation rules of English literature, so obviously this is poetry. also, princes suck and sh*t, they are irredeemable.

No but seriously, here is a snippet of a poem in the book:

❝ why doesn't anyone want me? ❞

— why? why? why?

another one:


❝ come to the party. ❞

— her friends, trying to include her.


❝ i'd much rather stay at home and read a book. ❞

— her, running away scared again.

another one:


❝ cancelled plans make her sigh in relief. ❞

— now she won't have to fake it.

ANOTHER ONE:

❝ you're too pretty to be single. ❞

— he.

❝ i'm too pretty to even talk to you. ❞

— she.

ANOTHA ONE:

❝ i. drive the scenic route.
ii. take more self-care days.
iii. sing, even if it's off-key.
iv. make time for your passions.
v. let yourself feel joy.❞

—don't waste a single moment.

There is more but I shan't bother you with the details.

I must admit though, part "ii" I did enjoy (only the first 'poem' though). I thought it was cute, not poetry, but still admirable.

I love the message, just not the execution.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a review copy. All opinions are my own.

instagram | goodreads

Olivia (Stories For Coffee)

Rating: really liked it
I found my first favorite read of 2021. I’d highlight my favorite passages, but then it’d be just a neon book. There are so many universal truths woven into this poetry collection, especially truths that I specifically needed to hear and will come back to over and over again.

So proud of my friend for constantly raising the bar 🖤

Reading_ Tamishly

Rating: really liked it
I want to quote so many pages! But let's wait until the book comes out.

Damn. That's what a queen speaks to the other queens.

Seriously, this collection speaks volumes on how women see other women, how we are competing against ourselves and how we are hurting each other.

And of course, there are always douchebags, man or woman. Yes, I love in the real world even though I am being extra extra active online and every single page speaks to me.


So damn genuine and so damn liberating to read something this different and uplifting.


Expect the illustrations to bling your being.

Thank you, Amanda and the publisher, for this amazing advanced reader copy.

Jodie✨

Rating: really liked it
2.75 stars! Not my favourite poetry collection from this author but some of them really resonated with me. Rounded up to three stars.

sarah

Rating: really liked it
“here, sisters make up a large part of the magic. but that’s the case so much of the time, isn’t it?”

Shine Your Icy Crown is the first Amanda Lovelace collection I have read, and while it wasn't my favourite- I would still try out something else by her.

This poetry collection centres on themes of sisterhood, feminism and self-love. While I am all for those topics in theory, I felt that the execution wasn't as good I wanted. My main issue was the fact that most of the book didn't feel like poetry. It was mostly just advice- good advice, mind you- but advice nonetheless. If I was looking for that I would have picked up a self-help book, not poetry. Here is an example of what I am talking about:

" i. drive the scenic route.
ii. take more self-care days.
iii. sing, even if it's off-key.
iv. make time for your passions.
v. let yourself feel joy."

—don't waste a single moment.

This is obviously a personal preference, and if you enjoy your poetry having explicit and unambiguous messages, I think this collection could be good for you! In my poetry I just prefer leaving a little more up to interpretation, having more elaborate metaphors and motifs, and more flowery writing.

my favourite parts of Shine Your Icy Crown were those that actually felt like a fairytale. I had expected the whole collection to be that way, but unfortunately I had to be content with the little snippets we got in between the instagram poetry. I also loved the illustrations, and imagine the physical copy will be absolutely stunning!

Overall, I am glad I gave this a try. I will be on the lookout for other poetry collections centring on fairytales and feminism if you have any recommendations! I am also still hesitantly interested in Amanda Lovelace's first series of poetry collections- perhaps I will enjoy those more!

★★☆☆☆.5 stars

Thank you to Andrew McMeel Publishing for this ARC

Release Date: 26 January 2021

Renata

Rating: really liked it
Oficially I declare myself Amanda Lovelace fan #1 there's nothing this mastermind can write and me not reading it or not liking it?? Even since I checked the books that were going to be published in January I was like wow...A.L. really said let's save Ren's year and she did it!!

I love how she always talks about different things yet always empowers you? I don't know, maybe I'm too biased and I feel connected to another ways with everything she writes.

Here are some of my favourite parts:

“do not plan your life so meticulously that you leave no space for starlight to leak in.- miracles happen only if you let them.”

“I deserve to have good things even if I have not always done good things.- perfection is a lie; flaws are real.”

When other people choose not
to believe in your magic,
you must take it upon yourself to
believe in your own magic.
there will be no greater satisfaction
than proving them wrong.

anything
you're brave enough
to believe in
is more than possible.
don't start small.
begin with
your wildest dreams.
accept nothing less.
nothing.

the only one stopping you
from holding the moon
is in your own two hands
is you
- self-limiting beliefs.

Dannii Elle

Rating: really liked it
"We are not defined by the love our family could or could not give us. we are defined, instead, by the people we consciously become in spite of them - the kindness we show others, the forgiveness we give to ourselves, the times we speak up instead of choosing to remain silent, & the difficult yet necessary apologies we make."

I have read and enjoyed all of Lovelace's poetry collections and this one was no different. I know many struggle to relate to the sparseness of modern poetry and here, as in every anthology, not every poetry will make you feel as intended. For me though, whilst not every single poem was perfect for my specific needs, the collections as a whole felt like being wrapped up in a big, warm hug and being told it was all going to be okay. I felt so soothed by her words that they often brought me to tears.

I feared I would relate to this anthology less so than her others, once I discovered it was centred around the theme of sisters. I do not have a sister and thought that whilst I might enjoy this I would not feel those heart-tugging emotions that her other anthologies have elicited. However, I found this to focus more on the bond between women, and the way they should build each other up, rather than the specific relationship between sisters. A sister can be found in any individual, regardless of blood or gender and the empowering message behind much of these poems attested to that.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Amanda Lovelace, and the publisher, Andrews McMeel Publishing, for this opportunity.

Eva B.

Rating: really liked it
I don't know if there's any other author whose star ratings oscillate from book to book for me than Amanda Lovelace, but I really loved this one. Sure, it's not the world's best poetry, but who cares?

Mina ☾

Rating: really liked it
This poetry book really connected to my soul.

Emma

Rating: really liked it
The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

they slept the way otters do -
holding hands, so as never to lose the other.

-sisters.

I think this might be my favourite Amanda Lovelace's poetry collection. It's such a powerful and meaningful group of poems. I especially liked the first part of this book and overall I really liked how empowering and feminist these poems were.

Naia Pard

Rating: really liked it
I have received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I know that there are feminists complaining about the "mainstream-ization" of the movement. They argue that by bringing it into the pop culture, the feminist gets to be forecasted as a stereotypical girl wearing t-shirts with edgy wording and sporting a hell of an attitude for all the bad reasons.

On the other had, I think that a little pop culture never hurt nobody.
What does that have to do with this poem's book?

In my view this book was a perfect example of an Instagram page that calls itself feminist. There are pretty drawings that follow pretty words mushed together from which you can make a post at your leisure. They are just the properly amount of quirky and reactive.

”she wants a life
Like you see in movies---“

Perfectly safe lines, nothing too problematic. Here is another quote-ish line, with a bit more depth:
”love is not
Always the answer”

The book was designed as a conversation between sisters. I think that it might help teenage girls, if not in life, at least to see a conversation about them.


It was not a bad book.
It was just boring and repetitive and redundant.
But that may be that I have already read some Andrea Dworkin and Beauvoir Simone De.
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giu ‧₊˚✩*

Rating: really liked it
"you are your own empress, you are your own high priestess.
you are your own goddess. your independence will intimidate some -
it might even offend others. let it. that's their own problem,
not yours."


amanda lovelace is growing so much and it shows, each poetry collection keeps getting better and better ♡

alexia

Rating: really liked it
“anyone deserving of you will see that you’re already worth more than any diamond.” i have no words

Garg Ankit

Rating: really liked it
shine your icy crown by Amanda Lovelace is the second book under the "You Are Your Own Fairy Tale" series.

It is an empowering work of poetry.

Most of the verses in the book are worth quoting, so you are better off reading it whole. The illustrations are quite nice too.

Thanks to the author and the publisher for the ARC.

Anwen Hayward

Rating: really liked it
So, this isn't a poetry book. It's a self help book, which is fine, but that's all it is. The words in here don't work as poetry, and I'm saying this as someone who's a fan of short-form poetry in general, a la Nayyirah Waheed and Warsan Shire. There just doesn't feel like there's any real artistry here. The language is overly simplistic and inspirational, exactly like you'd find in a generic book of affirmations, and some of the phrasing is so clunky that I struggled to read the poems aloud. Lovelace uses 'for' as a conjunction a lot (e.g. 'I already have my hands full, for I'm busy saving the world') and it's such an archaic conjunction that it really jarred. I liked a lot of what this book had to say, but not how it said it. It felt very rushed and as though not much effort at all had been put into crafting each poem. It reads like a book of first drafts.

That said, I do like Lovelace's use of poem titles to subvert the meaning of the poem. I thought that was usually cleverly done, although this was popularised with Nayyirah Waheed and Rupi Kaur before her, so I'm not sure I can count it as a mark of specific artistry here. Still, it made some of the blander poems more enjoyable. And when I say 'blander poems', I mean ones like this:

'canceled plans
make her sigh in relief.'

That's it. That's the entire poem. Sorry, but I really don't see any effort or attempts at using language there. It's the kind of thing you can jot down in your notebook at lunchtime in literally 6 seconds, and then never look at again. Here, let me try:

'she said no
because it was more freeing
than saying yes.'

Am I a poet now?

I will say that this is a helpful and beautiful book for young people to have, especially with the illustrations. The physical copy will be a great addition to a lot of young people's bookshelves. Some of the lessons it has to teach young girls are really important, especially about knowing your own worth (although I think that it does occasionally sink into toxic positivity, especially when it advocates an almost entirely self-focused ideology) and I think that if this was marketed more along those lines, more of a self help book or a book of affirmations, then I would be all for it. As poetry, however, it left me completely cold.