Shades Of Lovers by Catarine Hancock - 2.5/5 stars

Trigger Warnings: Breakups, Unhealthy Relationships, Depreciation

I received a copy of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Shades Of Lovers is a poetry collection depicting a series of relationships throughout our narrators life and her journey to self-love. It is told through a modern poetry format and separated by relationship.

I will preface this review by saying that I don't have much experience with poetry, but I am hoping to change that.

This novel was unique and interesting, but ultimately not my favorite. I liked how it was divided by the different loves that were had throughout our narrator's life, but the writing style - while beautiful at times - was a little lackluster for me. I found myself wanting to be more invested than I was, unfortunately. There were a couple of lines that really got to me, but the overall collection was good but didn't stand out very much.

This was good and I definitely recommend it! Just not my perfect collection.

I DNFed this one. I wanted to like it but it was hard to follow and the format didn't help. While I tried to get through it, it just wasn't for me. On a positive note, the lyrical writing was beautiful which really made me sad that I was having such difficulty following.

Such amazingly beautiful poetry, covering a range of relationships and previous loves, Catarina really covers the full range of emotions as you read though these stunning and often powerful poems. These felt more unusual a style than I usually read, but I found them wonderfully accessible and inviting as you read through. The poet sharing her journey of emotions , honest and raw felt very refreshing in the style the poet chose. Stunning

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

First, I would like to thank the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to read SHADES OF LOVERS, thinking it would be akin to Rupi Kaur's books. In SHADES OF LOVERS, Hancock describes, through poems that range in length, her previous "loves" and how they changed her (and how they ended). It's a lovely idea, which is what drew me to the book in the first place, but unfortunately I just don't feel that this was well executed. There are three main aspects of this book that hindered its storytelling for me: repetitive sentiments with little variation in wording, a significant feeling of "telling" rather than "showing," and a fairly consistent sense that the author blames the people that these poems are about for "breaking" her.

It would seem that this book is divided by past love, with sections of poems dedicated to one past love, and another section of poems dedicated to a different past love. I was so excited to see how the tone of the poems would change depending on who they were written about, but they just all felt... the same. If you lifted a poem from the first section and dropped it into the fourth, I don't think I'd be able to tell they'd been moved. The sentiment felt the same throughout, and with over a hundred poems in these pages, that's a lot of one sentiment to explore.

As I read these poems, I didn't have the opportunity to gauge emotion through the writing; the feelings were told, not shown, which was a huge obstacle for me in getting into this book.

Finally, I felt that SHADES OF LOVERS was really just a big "f*#k you" to the people these poems are about, rather than an exploration of how these relationships shaped and changed the author. Don't get me wrong--I am all for a good heartbreak book (it's kind of my thing, actually), but these poems just felt like the author was playing the blame game rather than celebrating the vibrant woman we assume she's become.

I really liked this poetry collection! I found that the style and format was more modern than I’m use to reading in regards to poetry, but I really like how’s it would flow in a traditional stanza and then move into more of a prose paragraph. I thought that this was really interesting. I also enjoyed the different takes on love and all of the intense emotions that come with that. This was also a quick read and really accessible for people who maybe aren’t use to reading poetry, or who would like to start on the genre. The formatting on the ereader did go a bit wonky sometimes but it didn’t take away from the experience.

This was a very interesting read! Iveread a couple of love poetry collection already but most of them focused on heartbreak and then a love at the end that makes everything you're going through worth it. This one however, includes every love of the author. The good and the bad she learned from every person, what stuck with her, what she thinks about when she thinks about that specific person. The poems are sometimes addressed at those loves as well and she is comparing them to a color that represents their impact on her. It felt like you were part of the authors life and could see her get over some things so she could finally be at peace with her thoughts and her body.

Overall a very interesting poetry book and definitely different from every poetry collection I've read.

4/5 stars

This work was absolutely beautiful. I read it in one sitting and loved every page of it. Catarine Hancock writes of her various love stories throughout her life - the good and beautiful, and the abuse and heartbreak. From her first love to her current relationship, Catarine touches on trust, butterflies, lies, abuse, and, the most overwhelming resonant thing to me, about losing yourself (and your identity) in a relationship and fighting to get that back.

Even for me, an almost 30-year old woman, Catarine's writings bring back those jittery feelings of first love and that pit-dropping moment of first real heartbreak in college.

I will immediately go and add her other work to my Goodreads TBR.

I absolutely loved this! It was so beautifully written! I think that it captures the emotions and feelings really well! I can't wait to read more from this author!

Thanks to #Netgalley for making this book available to me.
This book is a collection of 'poems' and short stories that explore relationships, that is, the ups and downs of a loving relationship.
Personally I didn't connect with the writing, it just didn't touch me as much as I wanted it to because some of the poems were so powerful and beautiful.
I feel that love is different for everyone and rather than these poems making love general and more relatable, it was plainly from the perspective of the writer (which is not bad, it just made me unable to connect to the soul of the writer, we seem to have not a lot in common).
But I did love how passionate the writer is and how explosive her emotions are on the page, you could feel the hurt and loss of every relationship through each poem which is for me the power of poetry.
My favorite part of this book is in "all in a conversation" which tells the story of finding lost love and how painful and hard it is rekindling that love, it seems to be more painful rekindling old love than it is finding a new one.
I hope you check it out.

2/2.5 stars.

This collection of poetry was not for me. While I do not claim to be a poetry expert, I think I have read enough to know what I like and what I do not. And what I do not like is poetry that is just a normal sentence with line breaks. I do not like poetry that is overdramatized and over the top in the feelings.

Hancock wrote in the first couple of pages that people “discredit” her work because of how young she is. And maybe I am one of those people, but I felt like this collection of poetry was something I could find in my own middle school journals. The author is 20 while writing this and it did not feel that mature.

The chapter I had particular problems with was chapter 5. While I have no idea what went down in the relationship she is talking about, it felt like she spent the entire time talking about how great she is and is very defensive about someone having certain feelings towards her that she doesn’t like. People are entitled to their own opinions and feelings. Then in chapter 6 she had a few lines that felt contradictory to what she was saying in chapter 5.

With all of that being said there was a few lines from the first chapter I highlighted because I enjoyed them. Maybe I am the wrong audience for this collection. Maybe it resonates better with teenagers.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC; all opinions are my own. And thank you to Catarine Hancock for composing such an emotive book of poetry.

Wow. I felt so many things whilst reading this: I smiled and I cried. The five stars that I'm giving this book is well deserved. I hope in the future that I will pick up more of the poet's works.

This was incredible.

I wish there was something I could say that was thoughtful and made this poetry collection it’s justice but I find that I fall short.

I think that the structure of this and the colors given to this was incredibly smart. I liked it very much, I think I mostly related to the first love & the chaotic love. Most poems resonated with my past loves and the impact they had on my life, body and mind. They reflected the thoughts that I once had, the not feeling enough, the insecurities that come from basing your worth and love on someone and having them betray you. The emotions of that are brought out when you continue to ignore yourself because you’re too busy trying to heal and be with someone who only brings destruction.

I will say this once more, it was incredible and beautifully done. You can’t help but the reflection that comes after reading something so deep and heart wrecking. You can’t help but be transported back to those moments of happiness, heartbreak and unconditional love. I think that this has something for everyone.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity and a big thank you to the publisher!

Now, I usually find 'love' poetry a little bit pretentious - however this truly gave me 'all the feels'

Hancock's prose is fantastic - she has a way of writing that feels so original, yet is so relatable. I felt like I could relate to all stages of romance, and love within this collection. I really love the way she writes about different relationships and the different way these relationships made her feel. Not only how she felt overall, but how her relationship towards herself changed - depending on the relationship she was in. I found this fascinating. It made me think back to my past relationships and where my own life could fit in with that of Catarine's.

To me, poetry MUST make you feel something - and this book definitely makes me feel! It goes through a variety of emotions - but I am very glad that it ends on a positive not.
I cannot believe that Catarine Hancock is only 20!! Her relationships within this book feel like they could have been a whole life's worth of love and heartbreak.

I will definitely be reading more of her work!!

Just another complete success from Central Avenue Publishing. This is my first taste of Hancock's writing, and it is as heartbreaking but uplifting as I have come to expect from this publishing agency. The eloquence found within the pages of this book hit straight to the soul.

Shades of Lovers paints the colors of different kinds of loves, all the highs and lows, in a multitude of colors that are relatable and nostalgic to some. It resonates within us the reminders and the lessons and the hope of future loves.

I'm really glad I stumbled upon this in my quest to read more poetry. It was beautiful and it was real. No sugar coating. I definitely want to read more of Catarine Hancocks' work.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy.

This is a beautiful collection and I really connected with so much of Catarine Hancock's words. I would definitely recommend this collection to readers of all ages. I especially appreciated the account of first love at such a young age - I remember feeling so deeply in middle school and I would have loved to read these poems.

I received a digital arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


I will preface this review as I alway do when it comes to poetry by saying I think it’s really difficult, and nearly impossible, to rate poetry. I think poetry is one of the purest forms of expression and I don’t belive you can really “rate” someone’s expression of their thoughts, beliefs, and trauma. There are obviously technical aspects to poetry but I think what’s most important is if they can convey the story or emotions they are trying to envoke. So obviously despite having to rate it (because that’s the whole point), I recognize that with poetry a rating is even more subjective to the reader and their experiences than with other genres.



To start off from the very beginning, I love the way the table of contents is itself a poem. It’s a unique thing I haven’t seen done before (not saying it hasn’t been done, just I haven’t seen it before). I like the uniqueness of assigning each person a color and while I liked the format, it did get repetitive since it was the same for each color.



The author talks about the different relationships that she’s had in her life and while doing so, the different kinds of relationships we often experience. There are those that are filled with pain, those that are easy and sweet but surface-level, those that feel unfinished, and so on and so forth.

“Love does not have to consume to be real. You can love and sleep soundly. You can love and kiss softly. You can love and leave quietly. You can love and leave whole.”



The author is young (not much younger than me, but I feel like in this age range, a few years can feel like a lot) and that comes across in her writing, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. You can feel her pain through her writing and a lot of people can relate to her story.

“I can’t tell you how many times somebody has looked at my open wounds and told me that I’m not really bleeding” -age doesn’t mean shit

Many of the poems are about heartbreaks and relationships that happened when the author was a teenager. It’s easy to read these poems as an adult or just someone who has maybe dealt with different heartbreaks and discount this as teenage angst but I think the above quote is true. I think back to being in middle school and early high school and the pain that came with my first heartbreak and how it felt at that time like the world was ending. The author starts with age 13 and as much as later on you know that many of the things you deal with at that age will one day be a distant memory and you’ll be okay, in that moment it feels like everything. So I think it’s important to keep that in mind when reading. The author does a good job at putting all those feelings of first love and first heartbreak into words.



The author touches a lot on self esteem and how it’s hard as a young person to not place your entire self worth in the hands of someone else.

“Because later that night, when I went to talk to self-love, I saw you looking back at me when I should have seen myself”

That’s one of my favorite lines from the book. My favorite poems from the book were when the author wrote about self confidence and loving herself. The poem that begins with “the moment you being to love yourself is an act of war...” is probably my overall favorite from the book. I found it powerful and it will definitely stick with me.



This definitely feels more like the author’s diary, which a lot of poetry is. And that is what makes poetry so powerful and beautiful, but can also sometimes make it not click with everyone.

13-17 year old me would’ve loved this. It’s no longer for me, but that’s okay. I definitely think there’s an audience for this and I applaud the author for putting her thoughts and emotions out there in such a raw way.

I’m giving it a 3 out of 5 stars because while it may not be my favorite, there’s people out there who will love this book.

This is such an amazing poetry collection. I believe it grabs you at the very beginning. I'm looking forward to any book the author decides to publish in the future. Rating: 4/5 stars.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this galley! I liked this book, and enjoyed the process of reading it, but it didn't really say anything new. I think I've been reading a lot of poetry like Catarine Hancock's, and it's vivid, lyrical poetry, but I wasn't really as ready to care as I wanted to be. You could tell that these poems were deeply personal, and it almost makes me hesitant to review this, but I feel that Hancock could do so much more with her poetry. There are moments with extended metaphor and language play that I'm entranced, but then it slips back into styles and statements I've seen and heard before, and I am left wanting more.
Still a great book, and one I would recommend to lovers of modern lyrical poetry.