I loved this collection; it was a soothing read. I also adored the cover art, and would love to see the image as a poster/framed decoration for my reading room!

After having read all four volumes in the Pillow Thoughts series, I found this final installment to be the most boring and more repetitive than usual. Despite being divided into eight segments, Pillow Thoughts IV felt like the author preaching the same thing over and over again.

The author also comes across as having very unrealistic ideals of love and romance as well as its ups and downs. It's either all-consuming passion and soulmates or drowning in darkness and hopelessness. What about the in-betweens and day-to-days and simplicity?

This was a beautiful poetry collection. I have enjoyed all of Courtney Peopernell’s poetry collections and this one was no different!

Get cozy grab your cup of tea and indulge yourself in this beautiful book. The cover says it all “Stitching the Soul” this installment offers a balm for healing our beautiful souls.


Thank you netgalley for the eARC

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

I have loved each edition to the Pillow Thoughts series,

The pictures are beautiful and the poems even more so. However if I’m being honest this was the worst book in the whole series and I found myself just wanting it to be over, but I had to get to the end as I love this author.

The poems felt very repetitive and the book almost rushed which was disappointing

"Sometimes I look at you, and I wonder who made you feel like you weren’t strong enough to face each and every day.

I wonder who made you feel as though you weren’t smart enough to go your own way. I wonder what I can do to show you that you do not need to seek shelter in other people’s acceptance. You do not need other people’s permission to begin. There is a perfectly good home within your own skin."

This was another great poetry book and I loved many of the poems! It focuses a lot on self acceptance and advices on how we should live with focusing on ourselves than what others think as well as some relationship issues specifically about breakups. My only problem is that sometimes it feels a bit repetitive but was still great.

Overall, I enjoyed reading through this and here are some of my favorites! (I hope it's not much though and really had to cut down a lot since I had around 70 :D )

"We hold ourselves back sometimes, probably because we are afraid of the outcome. But life is about taking risks, jumping, even if you may fall. If you stay stagnant your whole life, you’ll never grow into your full potential."

"Live with intention. When you have purpose to seek things greater and more meaningful in life, you find your heart beats a little faster."

"There are different types of sadness, and they all bring such a deep feeling of loss. Of not knowing how to heal and how to recover. The long nights filled with wondering why me and how to rebuild a bridge that has burned to ashes. But someday the nights will get easier, and you will be able to find the joy in things again. Someday you will look back on all the nights you felt so lost, and they will hold meaning for all the new things you have found."

"If there are days
you feel as though
your heart is too soft
and sensitivity is all
but a heartbreaking curse,
remember how important
it is that your heart grows
with every song, smile, and touch, because softness is not a curse but rather a beautiful gift
from the universe."

"Sometimes sadness is feeling like you are too complex for someone to love you. And so, there are moments I want to take you in my arms and whisper that you are not your past.

That your scars are not definitions of who you are or how long you can last. To reach for you when the walls feel they are caving in. To remind you a new day is coming and you can start again."

"The pain changes you,
it makes you grow in ways
you could never imagine.
But so does love and healing.
Recovery is a battle,
no matter how great or how small.
And even if you have these battles for the rest of your life,
you are still here to fight them, and for that you won the war.
You are never alone
in the things you feel,
especially the sad things.
Sadness was made
so the soul could learn to heal."

"Grief really just wants to be loved. It hides in the corners of your soul that feel the most vulnerable. It dreams of a moment you will reach out your hands and let it be held. It gathers in the folds of your sheets and asks to be nurtured.

Grief knows that ripping yourself apart isn’t going to heal the wounds. It is just an ache that needs a place to go. Grief is just a friend needing to be reminded it is not alone."

"I am still trying to understand how we can think so highly of someone else and so little of ourselves. So, when it feels like every breath leaves a bruise and your hopes are set on the love returning, just know that I wish I could hold you when the darkness feels too great. I wish I could comfort you and remind you the sun will reappear. I wish you could see that all the scars are a reminder; you will survive the ache."

"One day, grief wrote me a letter. It said, “All I’ve ever wanted is the best for you, for you to be patient when I am relentless.”

It said, “I wanted to teach you to be compassionate, even in the moments when I don’t seem fair.” It said, “I wanted to remind you that it is impossible to live a life without me.”

It said, “Sometimes I will be heavy; often I will be small; and other times, I will make you feel so empty, it will feel impossible not to fall.” And then it said, “I want you to know it is not because I don’t love you or that I don’t want you to win. It’s because I need you to know that without me, you wouldn’t let anything else in.”

"We will always think of things that break us. But remember to think of the things that make you whole. When you find a passage in a book that speaks to you, a funny comic online, a sunny day in a big city, or the smell of fresh air in a small town. The butterflies you feel for someone who turns your world upside down. Think of the things that make your heart burst with love."

"People fear those who stand up for themselves. The people who fight day in and day out for the rights of the vulnerable.
They fear the people who fight the chains. So, continue breaking them."

"It’s not always about telling yourself that you are fearless and radiant and brave. It’s about acknowledging all your faults and not despising yourself for them."

"You are surrounded by people who are trying to mold you to fit an idea that they perceive as beautiful. You will be expected to smile instead of standing up and fighting harder than most to be a leader. But you were born strong. Never let the world take away your voice."

"Let every moment that pains you make you stronger and kinder.
The trauma is yours,
but you are not the trauma."

"Don’t make your body the enemy. It is your map, your home, your canvas, your certainty. It deserves to be told it is beautiful, even on the days you notice every stretch mark and scar. Your body is the vessel for you soul; it is an entire earth of your being."

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.

Pillow Thoughts is one of my favorite poetry collection

Every time i read on of this books i fall in love again and the prose is so beautiful. One of the things that i love about these books is that they are divided in section and you can read them depending on your feelings.

I love every single one. Thank you so much Netgalley for give me the chance to read it♥ Definetly is one of favorites of the year

It doesnt support or open after I download the pdf version of it. It's also not showing in my shelf in netgalley and I cant open it to read

Please look into the issue and if you can send me the pdf in my mail ID- taniagungunsarkar@gmail.com

I cant read the book from here. Please look into the issue

Beautiful and poetic. I like this experience. It was great. The author has a poetic writing and really good ideas. I recommend this book if you like to reflect on things or just relax and drink some tea while reading this one.

Such a fantastic collection of poems and emotions. Courtney Peppernell evokes such deep and wide ranging emotions with her words. I started with the first Pillow Thoughts books and cannot wait to have a physical copy to add to my collection.
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review such a lovely book.

This is the final installment in the Pillow Thoughts series. This collection of poetry is about healing the soul, through grieving, empowering, and recovering.

Most of these poems are spoken directly to “you.” Often the “you” is the speaker’s former partner. The technique of speaking directly to the reader brings the reader right into the poetry. It made me feel more connected to the poetry, since it seems to be speaking to me.

I loved the comparisons to nature. There has been a lot of nature imagery throughout the series, with the images of the jellyfish, the fox, and the owl. There were some poems that compared the soul to nature. You have to weed a garden to make plants grow, just as you have to look after your soul to keep yourself well.

The parts about grief were quite moving. Though we don’t like feeling grief, it is a part of life that we all have to go through. We can’t have good moments, if there aren’t bad moments to compare them to. These poems say it’s okay to grieve, but you must move on after.

Empowerment was another important theme of this collection. Empowerment can heal the soul by encouraging you to keep going. It’s important not to judge your success by the success of someone else. This is so difficult to do, because we want to be the best we can, and it can be discouraging when someone else has what you want. However, everyone has different skills and works at different speeds, so it isn’t fair to compare yourself to other people.

This is a beautiful poetry collection.

Thank you Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I always see Courtney Peppernells books and have been wanting to read one of her Pillow Thought poetry collections for a while as I think the covers are beautiful.

I enjoyed this collection although I found some parts a bit repetitive. I ended up reading this over a period of a few weeks to savour it a bit more.

The language and imagery was beautiful and I can see me dipping back into this collection.

One word stuck with me on this reading journey: SUPPORT
I can't express how grateful I am that I've come across this book, especially in these trying times.


Many thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Full review is on my blog, read2live2read.wordpress.com

I am so in love with Courtney Peppernell's writing, and at this point I am guaranteed to pick up every book she publishes. And this one does not disappoint--full of beautiful language, thoughtful words and heaps and heaps of hope, it is a book to read and come back to many times, that will never fail to make you feel something.

Confesso que adoro ler poesias antes de dormir - e às vezes ao acordar - e esse novo volume de Pillow Thoughts me acompanhou durante algumas noites e algumas manhãs.

Unable to download before archived as my tablet was damaged and I had been unable to afford a new one until recently. Apologies.

I wanted to read Pillow Thoughts and I found this book on Netgalley!! But too bad I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would be lol it's kinda repetitive. I finished this book but I don't feel like finishing it at all phewwww

Well, this was a big flop for me. I didn't even finish the book. It was way too repetitive and melodramatic. Every page was just saying in other words what has been said on the previous page. Very disappointing as I enjoyed the first book.

I enjoyed the messages in the poetry collection as well as the author's style but there did seem to be some repetition in the messages that made it feel like some of the poems were very similar. Still, I really enjoyed the language used and the phrasing, which gave a lot of the poems a great flow. All in all it is a solid poetry collection and I would definitely pick up more of the work by this author.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

I read about 25% of and just wasn’t getting into it. Given how personal this collection is it just felt wrong to continue to read the book when I knew I wasn’t going to like it.