I would like to start off by saying that while I have not read all of the books in the Pillow Thoughts series, I have enjoyed the ones that I have read.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I found this collection to be both enjoyable and relatable; however, it is a bit repetitive. The artwork is also beautiful.

One of my favorite lines
"We belong to different forevers. My heart and your heart were never meant to be together."

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free arc of this book for an honest review.

"Pillow Thoughts IV" caps off the trilogy of books that Peppernell began with her "Pillow Thoughts" book and if I am frank - three books was too much.

While many people love these books (good for you) I believe that the material in book 1 itself was repetitive to the point of each poem sounding the same. Book 2, in my eyes, did no better. With book 3 done and completed, I cannot tell you a single poem from my recollection that stayed with me (not just from this book but from the entire trilogy).

The basis for the collection is in itself interesting, with promising lore of a magical jellyfish called "You" being introduced in the first book. However, this was but an excuse for the word "you" to be used over and over and over again which did not help in the repetitive nature of the book(s). With that being said, there was a magical Fox, or something, in this book (at this point I really don't care) which contributed to the lore here???

Overall, this book (as its predecessors) did not do much for me. If you're looking for an entryway to poetry or are intimidated by the more literary style of Peppernell's contemporaries - then great by all means start and stay here! Love that for you!

If you are looking with something with more substance - eh, I'd say skip it unless you're curious.

2.5/5

i'm having mixed feeling about this book. i kinda love modern/insta-poetry and i have read the previous books in this serie but… i don't know, it's pretty repetitive and i got so bored at some parts. and let's be honest: i'm going to forget this soon. it's not a memorable book.

but also… some of the words really touched my heart. so, that's the reason for the rating.





stuff i liked:

We belong to different forevers. My heart and your heart were never meant to be together.



Things will feel different someday.
Your breath won't catch every time
You hear their name
and see an old photograph
or old message.
You will feel free, healed, moved on.



It's three in the morning, and we are all together in this heartache.



People tell you that you have to have everything figured out or your life won't have meaning. But it's not true. You can be lost and worthy at the same time.



All the memories
feel like broken glass on my skin
but I am shedding every layer
to start again

I have these scars
from the marks you left
all over my heart

You abandoned our love
and discarded
all our plans

People remind me to forget
about you and all the hope
I placed in your arms

But a war isn't won by forgetting
Instead I'll hit back hard
take back the air you stole
from my lungs

And remind myself
homes are rebuilt over ashes.

I love poetry, but sadly this collection of poems wasnt for me.

It felt very repetitive, all the poems were based on the same themes, the only difference that i notice was that the author used different words in each one, thats why i found myself bored on multiple occasions while i was reading it. Another thing I did not like was the way certain poems were written, as if they spoke directly to me, I felt that they were giving me a motivating speech and I really did not like it.

Even so, there were a few poems that I did like, and I really recommend this series of books because I liked the previous books a lot.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

"The stars and colors you see
when you rub your eyes
are called phosphenes.
I wonder what it is called
every time I close my eyes
and I see your face in the stars
and our love in the colors."
Thank you Andrews McMeel and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc.

Divided into 8 parts: 'If your soul is grieving', 'If your soul is lonely', 'If your soul is searching', 'If your soul is whole', 'If your soul needs empowering', 'If your soul needs a breathe', 'If your soul needs a friend' and 'These are for your soul', this collection fails to hit the potential mark- lacking originality, profundity and poetical undertones in the proses which take a huge chunk in this latest addition to the 'Pillow Thoughts' series by Courtney Peppernell.
The collection explores the usual trope of themes that are mentioned in the titles of the section. The affirming reminders missed the essence of poetry and most of the pieces in this collection felt repetitive and far too simple for my taste.

I loved 'I Hope You Stay' out of all works by Courtney and I really missed the essence of her poetry in 'Stitching The Soul'. There were times when they felt like bland quotes but I cannot deny that this collection also holds few of her best pieces yet. I enjoyed the section, 'If your soul is whole', a bit as it beheld the magic that Courtney's works have! The caveat is that it doesn't talk about the main theme of the collection, Stitching The Soul, the way one would expect it to; one would presume it would be of one's existence but it just felt more like one's heart or mind. And I could have taken it any other day but since the previous works solely focused on heart and mind, I expected it to focus and portray the theme differently.

Nevertheless, it is a collection that I don't necessarily recommend but you should consider giving this a shot: it was not for me but it might be for you!

Courtney Peppernell's Pillow Thoughts Series is a collection of poetry, a lot of which deal with love and loss, but that are divided by themes that you can read based on what you need to hear. For example, one of the themes in this collection is "If your soul needs empowering," and I have to say that this was one of my favorites.

Peppernell has a way of making you feel seen and encourages you to continue living the life you want. Throughout the book she reminds the reader that they are not alone, and that we are a part of her. I find that comforting, especially in times like these. The Pillow Thoughts Series is one that you can always go back to when you need to hear/feel/be something.

If you need one of those collections that you can read in your own pace to reflect on, I suggest picking up one of these books.

I love this book just as much as the first three editions. It is beautiful, well written, and addictive. I will continue to read her work.

Courtney Peppernell has been one of my favorite authors of all time and this surely did not disappoint. I loved everything about this series, how the author was able to structure her words marvelously and uniquely with making the readers feel loads of different emotions. Her poems will never fail to leave the readers inspired. Many of the poems from Pillow Thoughts I - Pillow Thoughts IV truly speaks to the soul.

Huge thanks to Andews McMeel Publishing for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’ve read previous Pillow Thoughts and I enjoyed the previous one just *slightly* more. Maybe it’s just me being familiar with the authors poetry. However, that doesn’t mean this book was lack luster! I still enjoyed being absorbed into the wording and verses as usual. Some of the poetry has to be related to the reader on a personal level to enjoy, which is fair. But regardless it provided me a solid read.

Sadly, this poetry book was not for me. I've read all of the pillow thoughts books so far and liked them all, but, unfortunately, this was my least favourite one. Mainly, my issue was the presence of repetition. Many poems conveyed similar messages which made the reading experience a bit boring in my opinion. I still found some poems in here that I loved, but overall I just didn't enjoy this book that much. However, I would still recommend the Pillow Thoughts series because I really liked the previous books and think other people may not at all be bothered by the repetition in this one. Looking at the series as a whole, I think it brings across many beautiful and meaningful messages that many of us may need.

I received a e-arc by Netgalley, thank you for that.
It’s was really good book. I know now that it’s my type of poetry. I really love the writing style. I need to read the rest of the collection now

I really liked previous installments in Courtney's Pillow Thoughts series, and I knew this one would be no exception. I always like how she divides the book in different sections, so you can basically read the poems based on your current mood.

In the similar manner to the entire series, this one too is about grief, loneliness, but also healing and finding hope in the most unsual places. My only complaint is that it sometimes felt a bit too repetitive, but still a great poetry collection. It was inspiring and I really needed to read some of them at the current moment.

It's a shame this series has come to an end, although I'm sure Courtney's next works will not dissappoint.

Thanks to the Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me with eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t read all of the books in the Pillow Thoughts series but I’ve enjoyed the volumes I have read. This is my favourite volume in the series. It still niggles me that the poems don’t have titles, but that’s my thing and doesn’t detract from the quality or enjoyment of the poems. This collection is split into different themes sections such as if your soul is sad. The poems on offer are both personal and intimate yet have universal appeal. Each poem spoke to me. I enjoyed the time I spent with this collection.

This book was beautifully written. I loved the other pillow thought books as well and this one was no different. This author has a way with her words to come off inspirational and endearing.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This piece is unique and innovative in its form and concept. I really enjoyed my time reading this and felt moved by the content of this work. This explores the most important emotions and relationships in life and how to deal with each situation as a broken or whole individual. The author goes deep into the emotions that everyone experiences but are seldom dealt with so explicitly. With the aid of gorgeous illustrations, each section of this work deals with a new topic. Each topic touched on leads back to the importance of loving yourself and others, and how our relationships come to define us. Even the relationship we cultivate with ourselves. Courtney Peppernell did a great job of forcing her readers to come to terms with difficult things while validating them and letting them know they are loved and cared for.

I AM KINDER IN MY BLOG-POST. I'm not sure I'm the best to review this book, as I haven't read the previous books in the series, so I can't know if it's holding up to her other work. The illustrations are lovely, and there are some nice texts in here.

I will say I feel all the ideas are watered out. There are at least 50 poems trying to say "you deserve someone who loves you" and another 50 saying "you deserve to love yourself." That would have been fine if it was said in 50 original ways, but there's a lot of repetition and a lot of "didn't I already read this poem or this exact phrasing twenty pages ago?" It feels a little like the narrator is trying to say the same things in a hundred different ways to fill out the book, instead of taking the best 1 or 2 of those hundred re-formulations of the same message and making it one strong poem . I also think there are some cliche's like the many poems with some sort of moon metaphor like the moon shines even when it's only a half full (51) and the flat out repeated "the way the sky cherish the moon" (69,173). I think this book would have benefitted from being a lot shorter, because there just isn't much originality here and a lot of reformulations and a general feel that no-one edited this, and a more compressed book would have been better able to capture the best formulations and weed out weaker repetitions.

Even though I enjoyed some of this author’s previous works, I’m sorry to say it wasn’t the case with this one here. It kind of felt a bit repetitive, like the same two or three messages were all there was in these poems. That's why I found myself bored on multiple occasions during the reading experience.

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and author Courtney Peppernell for providing me with an ARC of the novel Pillow Thoughts IV!

This collection of poetry was just beautiful! I haven’t read any of the prior installments, but that didn’t hurt my reading experience at all. I loved that it’s divided into sections that you can read based on what you’re feeling like that day. The hope and encouragement sprinkled throughout were wonderful, and I can’t wait to grab the rest of this series.

Thank you again to those named above for the chance to read and review this novel!

I had very high hopes going into this book because of how much I loved the other one that I read and lets just say that this book did not disappoint. Just like the other this book had all of the things that I originally loved but as well as a bunch of new things. I loved how yet again each poem felt like it was written about me specifically and the fact that each poem didn't have a title made it much easier for the reader to relate to it. The author made the poems vague enough that I felt a lot of people will be able to see specific messages in it but not to vague that you aren't sure what she is trying to write. I love how each book in this series really speaks to me but never feels redundant or repetitive. This is one book that I feel that every person should have in their house as a perfect coffee table book. One that you can pick up whenever you need a pick me up or to just review the beauty between the pages and one that you can show to everyone you know. What makes this book ever better was a lot of stories lose meaning the longer the series goes one and this is one series that I feel just keeps getting stronger. I was sucked in as soon as I started the book and I couldn't go anywhere until it was finished. Great read and I hope to read much more from her in the future. This is also a book that poetry loves will adore because of the beauty in it, and I feel that non poetry lovers will enjoy as well because it isn't the standard stanzas and rhymes. This is a book that I will talk about forever.

For the broken hearted, for the ones who miss someone, for the ones who love love songs. This is it.