Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

What you'll find here is shallowness disguised as depth. The target audience seems to be young, lovesick teens who are unfamiliar with complex, emotionally rich material. It's simplistic, dumbed-down sentimentality (read: unearned emotion) geared for mass consumption. If you're a 15 year old going through a breakup and need a cathartic cry, ok, go for it. I guess I can see the appeal: it's junk food. A yummy fix, like stuffing your face with a Big Mac when you're really hungry. Feels decadent for all of five seconds, then you're still...unsatisfied. Because it's lowest common denominator material. Every page has a brief thought from the author, coupled with a photograph. A few examples: - Photo of a building and the line: "It may have just been a moment to you, but it changed every single one that followed for me." - Another black and white photo: "There are a million things to do. But none as important as lying here next to you." - Another entire page says: "Don't talk to me like you know me. Talk to me like you love me." - Another page: "I know there was something before you. I just can't remember what it was." - Another: "All I ask is that you let me spend forever feeling this way, before you take me." And so on. It's full of these "sweet nothings". Cheap Hallmark sentiment that gets cloying really fast. The litmus test is simple - try saying these things out loud, in real life: "All I ask is that you let me spend forever feeling this way, before you take me". *wince* You know what? Let me try! I'll compose one of my own, right now: "The things I miss the most are the ones farthest behind me in the rearview mirror...and farthest of all, in the unbridgeable distance, you." Slap an artsy cityscape onto my insta-corny creation, print it on glossy paper, and...ta-dah!! Give me a book deal! This is the re-birth of the Harlequin romance novel, just disguised for a hip, millenial audience in the form of bite-sized tidbits that, thanks to the sleek photos, may seem profound. To say nothing of the author's gimmicky pseudonym, "pleasefindthis". Do I sound cynical? I'm a total hopeless romantic, but most of the ideas expressed within are mindless, trite, clingy, or cheesy. The good news is there's real romantic and erotic poetry out there....from Neruda and EE Cummings to WS Merwin and Rilke and even super-accessible ones like Mary Oliver, among many others. Go for the actual poets who understand their art form. Challenge yourself to read substantive material. It's so much better than the thin, vapid junk produced by wannabes who can't be bothered to go beyond well-worn cliches. Conclusion: it's disposable sentiment that requires no effort from the reader, and gives back almost no reward...unless you're pubescent, or enjoy saccharine sentimentality. One reviewer here nailed it by saying that this reads like teenage text messages pretending to be poetry. (disclaimer: there are plenty of teens with oodles of emotional depth, but you know what I mean...)