September Love by Lang Leav: ARC Book Review

^{This is a spoiler-free review.}

^{Expected publication November 3rd, 2020 by Andrews McMeel Publishing.}

My rating:

A book that will change the way you think about love, relationships, heartbreak, and self-empowerment. Breaking the rules, challenging perceptions, and exploring the secret desires we keep hidden from the world.

Beautifully composed and written by international bestselling author Lang Leav, this new collection of poetry and prose will positively influence your life.

September Love captures the magic of each passing season, a pearl of wisdom waiting to be discovered with every page turned. A book that will inspire you to reach for the stars.

^{Thank you to the publisher, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own.}

I was really excited to see this book available as an e-ARC on NetGalley! Lang Leav is one of those authors who I’d heard lots about, but hadn’t had the chance to sit down and actually read anything by her before. So I was thrilled when this opportunity fell into my lap!

“Instapoetry” is a not a novel literary style for me (no pun intended, haha). I’ve read my fair share of it; and I’ve heard my fair share of both it’s praises and criticism. Personally, I can understand both of these seemingly opposite opinions. While I adored Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey, I had mixed feelings for Amanda Lovelace’s The Princess Saves Herself in This One. So I had no idea what I would think about Lang Leav’s style of poetry.

In the end, I feel as though September Love is a solid “middle-ground” collection of poems. There were some poems I absolutely adored… And then there were some that I didn’t get at all. Generally, I believe there were more I enjoyed than the ones I didn’t, so I gave this collection a 3 star rating overall.

I think a big reason so many of these poems didn’t work for me was that men were used as a focal point a lot, and, as a queer woman, this didn’t resonate very strongly with me. Nevertheless, what personally connects with me is very likely going to be very different than other women who have had different experiences than I have, so I don’t include this comment to write off the book as a whole.

On the other hand, the poems regarding love were genderless, and utterly eloquent.

I think Leav is very talented at composing both long and short verse, freeform poetry. It’s been a while since I read a good collection of poetry, and I really enjoyed getting the chance to read the poems included in September Love. I would have preferred a bit more harmony overall between the different poems in this collection, but it almost felt like them not fitting perfectly together was the point.

My two absolute favorite poems from this collection were To The Guy Who Claims My Poetry Was the Cause of His Break-up and Self-Preservation.