What Their Voices Left Behind: Poems on Hurt, Survival, and Finding Your Own Voice by DORIS NDUNI

This poetry collection focuses on the way people can effect our lives and how their presence and essence alters the way we think, feel and observe. Some stand out poems of this collection to me were: Dinner Table Weather, about reading a room and person's mood and knowing what to expect served up to you. Mirror Lessons, how other people can distort our self view with harsh words that criticize rather than encourage. Report Card & Quiet Child, were two utterly relatable poems, how you become silent and observant of everything around you happening and learn how to go along with getting through. The Family Photograph, how everything can be unseen yet lingers in a frame only your eyes can read the scene knowing the truth within the frame. When Compliments Hurt, about how words from someone supposed to love you, can cut you deeply instead. Hunger, all about the way you crave to be seen and accepted for who you are with no judgement. Weather Report, was such a brilliant poem how our own emotions can mimic the weather. It was such a beautifully written poetic telling of life and the leaving and the aftermath of a relationship ending.

The Weight Of Soft Things by Apple Ram

This poetry collection focuses on the moments that can be heavy, from the weight of judgement and when you meet your love, how the small things feel so big in the way they care for you but also in the way that breaking up after years together is a different heavy weight to carry in the way they can become a stranger knowing all your secrets and also the way you lose a community you existed within happily too. It discusses the way we change and adapt after facing tough situations in life and love and how they impact us long term, especially putting ourselves before others who wouldn't choose us back too.

The Rose Of Winter by Samantha Chang

The title poem of the collection was about the beauty of resilience despite whatever alike a rose in bad weather striving to survive. It was a tender poetry collection of the fragility of life and the depth of grief around us, the feeling of being lonely when not alone too as is a hugely relatable topic these days especially I feel.

My Brain Is A Garden by Morgan Solis

This poetry collection focuses on the way life plants seeds that grow in our mind of thoughts and opinions collected and cultivated over time. Some stand out poems of this collection to me were: Temporary Love, about loving before finding the one who will stay forever. The Things We Carry, about the way things hold us down and back in life and the way they effect us long term too. A beautiful collection of how we grow through life and situations that make us feel deeply, reflect quietly in writing our way through what we face.

The Last Time I Waited for You: Words for Letting Go of a Love Without Leaving Yourself Behind by Matias Sebastian Gemelli

This was a beautiful poetic prose telling of how life remains continuous after heartbreak, the mundane way of life continues but how to you, everything that was your normal has altered. Some stand out poems to me were: The Phone Face Up, was such a relatable poem of hoping, wishing and waiting for the text or call from them that may or may not arrrive. Bargaining With The Past, about revisiting old messages as if evidence to trawl through of when things changed was again, so relatable. Your Name In Other Voices, was another poem of the easy way names can trigger thoughts, feelings, memories and alter your mood. Breadcrumbs, how a simple little sentence, a question, can make you crave more, not receive more nor the proper commitment you desire. Online, about the way digital presence can feed us slivers to stay hooked until no contact becomes solidly and silently the way the connection remains. A real, honest and raw account of life loving and losing the one you adored most.

The Shape Of What Stayed by Cassandra Jaye

This poetry collection focuses on the way that a parent can shape your life, positively or negatively and in this case too, how a narcissistic mother can affect a child growing up into adulthood. The collection also discusses how grief of your beloved can affect you forever in every day life from mundane shopping habits daily to the inevitability of you growing older and aging which they never got to and the future you never got to have together either and the ways life remains the same but altered forever beyond that moment of deepest loss and lingering grief.

Broken Scabs by L.Q. Murphy

Some fun rhyming poetry of ideas of bad things that could happen and ways to heal and adapt from them as well as trying and relying on only yourself in life, trying and failing multiple time but keeping going. The book was also illustrated with simple little drawings to bring each poem more to life vividly.

Poetry Tales Reflections In Rhyme by Bridget Ziana

This collection of poems are reflections of times in life and set over time around the covid pandemic, how it changed life in every way, in work, love and daily living from home too. Documenting life following the pandemic and the aftermath, Here We Are, was a poem which really spoke of how the world witnessed the chaos of the pandemic. Transportation Tribulations, is a poem that will make you laugh, guaranteed about how wild a tube journey can be with a menagerie of characters causing a riot. Over all, this collection is a great mix, lots of longer poems with a lot of great rhyming too, which not always all poetry does or has to rhyme so it was great to read a classic poetry style set in stanza's and verse.

Peanut Butter Chocolate: A Collection of Love Poems by Ezymoney

The dedication alone in this book of poetry was so sweet to read let alone the poetry! Showing such a dedication and bond between two people it made me smile thinking a guy can write so openly about his feelings, to me that is rare and a special thing indeed, Amara I hope you see how wonderful this relationship you two have is sharing time, moments nurturing connection souls aligning thinking alike, truly beautiful collection of poetry!

The Devil's Sister by Kate J. Blake

When vampire Raphael refuses to accompany his sister, Beatrice, to a masquerade ball, as she wants to find her mate, she is put in a position, yet her desire for love wins. However, Leonardo and Darius are two brothers, ruthless in thinking of how to avenge Raphael for their parent's death's caused by him. A book full of twists and turns in the plot whilst being about love and family at heart, the irony of them being vampire's and all that! Seriously for a quick story it was really well set out and flowed easily and Beatrice's handling of her situation so relatable torn between love and family, a brilliant quick read for an evening.