This poetry collection was absolutely stunning, I already have a copy on my bookshelf to reread over and over again.

Shades of Lovers is emotional, enchanting and highly relatable.

The prose rolls across the page, taking the reader on a ride that feels personal, like the author has pulled parts of our own personal histories and put them on the pages.

I really, really enjoyed this collection of poetry. I have been reading a lot of poetry recently, but this one definitely stood out to me the most. The theme was something I could relate to so easily, and each poem is very well written.

This collection of poems from Catarine Hancock is raw, vulnerable, and seems almost unfiltered by copious edits, more like a volume of her heart's cyclical thoughts rather than any carefully considered lines. It's filled with fluctuating emotions all told through the lenses of different colors, one color per each of the lovers Hancock documents here.

This was a beautifully crafted work full of emotion and hurt. The writing evoked feeling and explores the reality of relationships in all their glory. It really showed how well the author can convey thoughts and moments that reflect so much as well as so many different themes. It was inspiring how the need for self love and reflection was described through the beautiful poetry. “The moment you begin to love yourself is an act of war” lines like this one were so powerful and raw. The poetry really allows the reader to take a journey through the authors experiences, which I loved.

Shades of Lovers is one of the most structured poetry anthologies I have read. I really liked the subject matter of these poems, it make me reflect on a lot of aspects of my life taking me completely into the story of the book

First of all that cover is so beautiful and instantly made me fall in love.

I find it very hard to rate poetry on a star rating. These poems were so heartbreaking and real, I would defiently recommend this to others.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me a free copy to review.

Firstly, I'd like to thank Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the eARC for an honest review!

Poetry is always hard for me to rate and review, but I found this collection heartbreaking and relatable.

I would recommend this poetry collection to those who enjoy poetry about love and also enjoy YA ( although there are some trigger warnings). I really enjoyed it and read it in one sitting , but I don't know if it is one of my favorites.

I received an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.




The gorgeous illustrations on the cover of this poetry book drew me in and so I had to request it.

However I believe it expired in the NetGalley App before I had a chance to open the pages so sadly I was unable to read this book.

Poetry is always hard to rate and review for me, but this book is very heartbreaking and gives perspective into personal struggles and well worth the read.

Firstly, I'd like to thank Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the eARC for an honest review!

Again, I was pleased to see the trigger warnings at the beginning of the books! This collection is separated into six chapters that each focuses on a different relationship and there are patterns throughout, such as the 'relationship status' and 'words of advice' poems but I really loved the last longer piece of each chapter that was written like a letter to each ex. The first chapter, Ruby Red, literally felt like it was written for me. Every detail was the same, even the age! I couldn't have related to anything more. I loved how the author validated every type of love at any age.

There was so much reflection and honesty. A lot of poetry about love and heartbreak only focuses on the other persons wrongdoings but I loved how there was acknowledgment of her own flaws and mistakes. The amount of feelings that I felt while reading this book was unbelievable and I feel like I want to buy a physical copy just so I can go back a read it again and again! There are a mixture of short pieces and long pieces, mainly poetry but also some prose and they are all equally as good.

I would recommend this poetry collection to those who enjoy poetry about love and also enjoy YA. I really loved it and know that it will be a book I come back to time and again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a nice little poetry collection, but personally for me it didn't feel like anything revolutionary. I enjoyed the reading experience but it just felt very 'samey' to other poetry I've read.

such a beautiful collection. I read it first when it was self published and only loved it even more re-reading it now. Hancock has such a beautiful way with words.

I really liked the subject matter of these poems. I loved the autobiographical nature of them. They were very raw and you really could tell a sense of heartbreak. I really liked that Hancock was very realistic and open about herself and how much she has grown over the years but also how she hasn't and how she has held onto her pain and resentment despite knowing she shouldn't. I also liked reading about her tempestuous relationship with her writing as it again just made her feel all the more real and made you sympathise with her. I really resonated with Ocean Blue and it was hard for me to read because in the way that it was a harsh truth to connect with.
Hancock has a really interesting writing style and that's where it fell down for me. Every poem swaps between a more traditional freeform poetry kind of vibe with stanza etc. and then it will swap to a paragraph of structured prose, almost in a style of a letter, when she is directly addressing her past-boyfriends. While I understand why it was important for there to be a change in the style to show her changes and realisations, it wasn't my cup of tea as I prefer poetry that sticks to a more formulaic scheme. Another big peeve about this for me that almost made me DNF was the fact that the 'i's' were never capitalised. Also, there were no capitals at the start of sentences which I found really distracting and it verged on painful for my eyes to read as it made it a lot harder to process and compartmentalize each sentence.
Overall, I could appreciate some elements of it but ultimately the formatting and writing style let it down for me.

I am someone who usually enjoys books written in verse, and also poetry.
But this one just didn't sit nicely with me.
Perhaps it was because I couldn't get into it, but it could've also been the way it was written (not the format, but the words themselves).
Either way, I, unfortunately, didn't end up enjoying this one.

Okay, I really enjoyed this. I found each poem to be raw and passionate, the author shared some of her most vulnerable moments for us to read. I could feel her pain, sorrow, joy and love through each poem. I loved it.

I've got to say, this was very well done. I connected so much to some of the poetry, heartbreak and hurt. It was highlighted so much with what I connected with and what was brilliantly written.

I can definitely recommend this book as one of the better poetry collections I've read.

This poetry collection is an honest exploration of love and the many ways it can manifest. The author bares her heart in her beautiful prose.

my thoughts
*cracks knuckles* *references goodreads updates*

*sips the now available pumpkin spiced frap from starbucks*

– first impressions –
okay, let’s dive right in.

First things first, I want to shout my love to the world for this stunning COVER (!!!). Just look at it! I was scrolling through NetGalley’s poetry section when my eyes saw this beauty, and I IMMEDIATELY requested this book. The cover drew me in and the synopsis finished the deal. SOOOOO shouts to Divyani Jaiswal for creating the cover for this collection. It’s beautiful. Period.

SECOND !!! The book starts out with a TRIGGER WARNING so fucking PROPS to Catarine for that. Trigger warnings, especially in poetry (where emotions and experiences tend to be particularly highlighted) are something I don’t often see included, at least for a lot of the books I’ve read. I personally find them to be very important, so thank you to Catarine for including one.

٩( ᐛ )و

– content –
And now for the actual content 🙂 I really enjoyed reading this collection. I was sucked into each of Catarine’s relationships, and I could see and feel how they impacted her life and her following relationships. I loved the poems a lot, and there was some slight variation in format, which was nice and refreshing as the book progressed. The collection is very ~internet poetry~ but that happens to be one of my favorite types of poetry despite the critical hate it sometimes receives. I find it to be very relatable, personally, and beautiful to read. Catarine’s poetry is very similar to Amanda Lovelace in style and formatting, so take that as you will.

The collection is split into six sections, each referencing a love in Catarina’s life. They are titled: Ruby Red, Ocean Blue, Primrose Pink, Stormy Gray, Golden Yellow, & Emerald Green. The colors reference the title of the work, Shades of Love, very clearly (because, colors––duh) and do a good job of reflecting the experience Catarina had with each of said loves.

There were some reoccurring poems that are seen throughout this collection that I haven’t seen in other works (and because of that I immensely enjoyed it) that are featured in each section.

– sections based on a boy: I already touched on this, but it breaks up the collection nicely and you can tell the difference in emotion for each love

– words of advice: advice she learned from each relationship

– poems to herself on self-love: a note on the evolution of her self-love during each of her relationships and how it changed, for better or worse

– end letters: at the end of each section, she wrote a letter (mostly goodbyes) to each of the boys from her past relationships, reflecting on her current thoughts and feelings and her wishes for them in the future

– things that remind me of you: a cute (mostly)* list of things and moments that remind her of each relationship, again, for better or for worse

– scenes: CUTE (mostly)* little scenes representing each of her relationships. It really does a good job of introducing the boys and their interactions

Another point, most of the relationships Catarine describes are from her high school years, as she is currently 20 years old. BUT, it absolutely does not come across this way. Quoting directly from my goodreads updates, “it seems much older and yet ageless at the same time; it could be anyone, any gender, any age.” Yeah 🙂

*note: one of her relationships was VERY TOXIC, hence the mostly* on some of my comments

– critiques –
Honestly, I don’t have too much to critique on this work; I really enjoyed it. I think at some times the poems didn’t feel much like poems, but phrases broken up into short lines in free verse, much like many internet poetry poems. Also, there was one poem in particular that I didn’t like, as to me it came across as a toxic way to look at a relationship that wasn’t passionate enough in her opinion, but that was a one-off. And as I mentioned before, not necessarily a bad thing, I couldn’t help but relate Catarine’s poems and writing style to poets such as Amanda Lovelace and Rupi Kaur. Basically, I feel like I’ve seen some of this before, but luckily I really enjoy it.

wrap up
So this completes my review for Catarine Hancock’s Shades of Lovers. ٩( ᐛ )و I do recommend checking out this book if you think you’d like it and I recommend it to anyone who likes internet poetry. Overall:

rating = 4 stars

Dieser Gedichtband ist in sechs verschiedene Abschnitte gegliedert, die jeweils eine Beziehung der Autorin zu einem Jungen/einem Mann beschreiben. Die Partner wurden dabei mittels Farben anonymisiert: ruby red, ocean blue, primrose pink, stormy gray, golden yellow und emerald green. Jeder Abschnitt enthält mehrere Gedichte, welche das Kennenlernen, den Verlauf der Beziehung und die Nachwirkungen in poetischen Worten wiedergeben.

Mir hat sehr gefallen, wie reflektiert die Autorin ihre Beziehungen beschreibt. Jede wurde anders von ihr wahrgenommen, manche haben sie sehr verletzt und fast zerbrochen, andere wiederum haben sie heilen lassen und ihr etwas Selbstvertrauen wiedergegeben. Der Vergleich mit den Farben hat mir ebenfalls sehr gefallen, da die Partner hierdurch greifbarer wurden. Die Gedichte in "Shades of Lovers" erzählen von der Liebe in all ihren Facetten, von Vertrauen und gemeinsamen Erlebnissen, von Schmerz und Verrat und schlussendlich von der Erkenntnis, dass man zuerst sich selbst lieben muss.

Dass die Autorin erst Anfang Zwanzig ist, mindert weder die Sprachgewalt ihrer Gedichte, noch deren Tiefgründigkeit und Weisheit. Ich bin gespannt auf ihre nächsten Werke und vergebe sehr empfehlenswerte 4,5 Sterne.


In English:

This volume of poetry is divided into six different sections, each of which describes a relationship between the author and a boy / a man. The partners were anonymized using colors: ruby ​​red, ocean blue, primrose pink, stormy gray, golden yellow and emerald green. Each section contains several poems that describe the meeting, the course of the relationship and the aftermath in poetic terms.

I really liked how reflective the author describes her relationships. Each relationship was perceived differently by her, some hurt her very much and almost broke her, others let her heal and gave her back some self-confidence. I also really liked the comparison with the colors, as it made the partners more tangible. The poems in "Shades of Lovers" tell of love in all its facets, of trust and shared experiences, of pain and betrayal and, ultimately, of the realization that you have to love yourself first.

The fact that the author is only in her early twenties does not diminish the linguistic power of her poems, nor their profundity and wisdom. I am looking forward to her next work and give this volume of poetry a very recommendable 4.5 stars.