Category: Book Reviews

#PoetryMonth: I Found My Heart Will Show You the Strength and Heart of a Woman

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

Opening Stacie Ann Green Taylor’s collection, I found salve for my wounds, solace for my soul, and my heart felt baptized in holy water’s dew.

After reading this collection, I am encouraged, inspired, her lyrical words and heart-stopping word choice gave me a new source of power.

I am woman.
I am broken.
I once was bruised.

Yet, thanks to this collection,
my heart has arisen anew.

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#NationalPoetryMonth: Grow, Heal, and Thrive With The Evolution of a Girl by Lauren Bowman

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

The Evolution of A Girl will have you bent, broken, rooting for the flower in all of us to water one another and rise above toxic masculinity, sexual assault, and the difference between love and lust.

These poems empower you and help you see that being born a girl in a man’s world isn’t heartbreaking but a chance for you to grow, heal, and thrive.

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#PoetryMonth: To Walk On Moonbeams by ZombearWrites is a Sweet Taste of Moonlit Poetry

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

ZombearWrites is a clever soul full of vibrancy and wonder but still her words pinpoint a pain only few know: the pain of a heartbreak.

To Walk on Moonbeams is a petite collection discussing the painful and powerful things that make life worth living.

Enjoyed this review? This review was done in observance of National Poetry Month and to bring awareness to rising talent within the poetry community. The Smart Cookie Philes is an American based small business. To order one for your book, do so here.

#NationalPoetryMonth: Toxicity and Resilience Following Heartbreak Result in a Sunflower With Thorns

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

Kleio Mousa is a beautiful sunflower with thorns.

Her poetry is simple yet elegant but her thorns will slice you wide open, sever the vein of your heart, until you find yourself and you fall in love with that person again.

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#NationalPoetryMonth: Beekeeper by Blake Auden Book Review

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

ever have I ever thought to compare the noisiness of love and heartbreak to a colony of bees but Auden does so effortlessly.

His poetry is raw, emotive, and timely, neither sloppy or slimy. It’s free verse instead of rhymed meter.

The Beekeeper will resonate with anyone who has felt the sting of love’s heartbreak, and the memories and processing of letting someone go long after they left.

The Smart Cookie Philes provided this review FREE of charge in honor of National Poetry Month and a low number of content creators who don’t feature poets or poetry books.

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#NationalPoetryMonth: All Things I Should’ve Told You by Shayla Raquel Book Review

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

Poetry is this beautiful snippet into the window of someone’s soul and so is the case with Raquel’s collection.

The short collection offers much perspective into what it means to grieve the loss of a relative or friend, a love or romance that had to end, and the gain of finding hope in a love that wraps you up on both the good and bad days, and even the hope of finding Christ.

One thing is certain

Poetry is a nice

Reprieve from memoir and fiction

But anyone who reads this collection

Will find a new vice

Unraveling

With the ink of this author’s pen.

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#NationalPoetryMonth: Cerebral Fossil by S.S. Baker is Food For Your Mind and Your Heart

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

Sometimes in life, without looking, we find all you weren’t searching for. With a unique cadence and story-telling rhythm Shaye Baker’s Cerebral Fossil will have you engrossed from page one.

The collection was inspired by the tragic event, the author’s unfortunate loss of his younger brother. The poems discuss these emotions and all those associated with life, death, grief, and the in-between.

Can, Can, Can, Tethered, Breathe, Garden District, A Fire Pit Story, and God Hates were my favorites yet the poem I personally resonated with was Seeds to Grow.

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#NationalPoetryMonth: Medicine That Burns by Molly S. Hillery is a dark liquor of life’s hard to swallow truths

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

Hillery is no product of trauma. She is a beautiful rose, rising high above what tried to bury her, end her, and silence her, one poem at a time. She is the voice of those who know the struggle of suffering at the cold, dirty hands of trauma, mental illness, or society’s unmeetable expectations following the divorce and/or infidelity.

“Medicine That Burns” serves you a shot of the dark liquor of life, and helps you come to terms with “not being fine” in a world that glorifies perfection, illusive love stories, but doesn’t want to fall in love with the breaking process of all of us who are broken.

Whether you’ve had you had to mask your pain or survive by masking, Hillery’s poetry will have you drunk on the truth of what it means to live even if the pain still cripples your veins.

You can get a copy of The Medicine That Burns by Molly S. Hillery here and make sure to follow her on IG and wish her a happy book birthday!

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#NationalPoetryMonth: Bare Roots by Molly S. Hillery Will Help You Grow With The Changes In Your Life

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

Poetry for me is an eye-opening experience. You step into the soles of the shoes of another but ironically enough because the human experience is mirrored through triumphs and pain, you will find some of ‘you’ in the pages of Bare Roots.

No matter whether you’ve gone through similar traumatic experiences as Hillery:

  • sexual assault and rape
  • anorexia, addictions, and self-harm
  • depression and suicidal thoughts
  • suicide attempts
  • or overall just feeling like a burden to the people you love.

My favorite piece in this collection was a piece called What They Don’t Tell You In College which poignantly pens the struggle between feeding on the lies they sell you about growing up and adulthood and the reality as painful as it may be, as it is.

Bare Roots will act as new soil and help you water the roots of the trauma so you can start anew, flourish and thrive.

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Hillery’s newest poetry collection will be out this Monday April 19 and it is entitled The Medicine That Burns. Look for my review coming this Monday right here. Pre-order it now and get your copy of Bare Roots here.

#BookishMuses: Sayda Hope’s World of Undead will pull you in

Posted on by The Smart Cookie

When someone says, “It’s a vampire book,” what’s the first image that comes to mind? For me, it’s the angst and sparkle of the skin on Edward Cullen’s torso in the movie Twilight. I was always Team Jacob myself but vampires picked up a cultural trend and popularity in the 2010 decade.

This vampire book is unlike Twilight in many ways but the key ingredient is that it is set in the Victorian era when vampires were seen as angsty romantic suitors but instead as monsters, and people ran in fear of them. In this particular book, the vampires are an army of fierce soldiers commanded to protect the local church from the “untoten.”

For me, this book is a cross between Dracula, 1917, and the Vampire Diaries minus the teenage angst but just as dark. Dare I say it this book will stab you in the heart.

Check out more from Sayda Hope at the links below.