I am not normally the type to read poems, especially not a whole book filled with them. I do appreciate the occasional poem, appreciate the depth and beauty in it, but I never thought myself to be someone who would enjoy reading it in bulk. However, due to the hype and the beautiful cover, partnered with my recent exposure to poems because of my current English teacher, I decided to give this a try.

I will go straight to the point. This book was beautiful. I admit that my standards may have been low, for I have not read many poems, but the wording and the format turned this book into a great piece of art. Her poems were simple enough that you could understand them without long reflection, but they were meaningful enough to make the reader stop and appreciate it for a moment. This was why a 176-page book took me longer than I thought to finish. There were certain poems and lines that just stuck with me. They resonated in my head, bringing into the front of my mind the things I always knew at the back of my head. Lang Leav is able to spot the beauty in life and put it into words in such a way that it makes an impact on the reader. It makes them see the beauty too, even if they can't catch it and reflect on it for too long. Some of those statements of beauty are too big for a single person to grasp onto. Her poems just make you feel everything so deeply, quite possibly the way she feels them as well.

What I really like about this compilation is that it doesn't only have poems, but short stories as well. Stories that are about a page or two long. I just think that this illuminates Leav's writing even more, making her writing style more apparent to the reader. The illustrations go perfectly with the writing as well, giving the book a visual appeal that completes the aesthetic that Lang Leav has set.

There is nothing I can really say against this book, nothing inherently wrong about it. I won't be giving it five stars, though because I feel like there's just something more that I want. I felt like there was something missing in some of the poems, even if a lot of the were truly perfect. To be honest, I'm realizing that there's more potential that could be squeezed out of the author because I read her next book as well. From there, I could see the definite improvement, one poem in particular leaving me with a feeling of melancholy. Because I made this review after reading that, I'm leaving this book at four stars. Comparing this book and her next one, she ha definitely improved. She and managed to improve the talent she already had and polish it into a weapon that places feelings into words.

I highly recommend this to people who are not often exposed to poetry but feel an urge to read it. I think that even those who normally dislike poems would be able to appreciate this. The occasional breaks from poetry into poetic prose is also something that beginners, like myself, will love.