I wanted to really love this one, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I do like Jessica Honegger's story of grit, influence and faith woven into her being as she fought for the things that mattered to her: her adoption dream, and the seemingly happenstance start of her Noonday company. 
I have been scared multiple times as a mother, and as an author. I've jumped in anyway. I understand needing to let people into your life, and the need to stop comparing our own demons and faults against someone's perfect life....but we do anyway. It's just human nature. What I didn't need was someone looking like Jessica (she's beautiful) cheering me on as my inner monologue talked myself out of not comparing. Perhaps, that's just me and my outsider perspective. Or my introverted self telling Honegger's words to 'calm down and take a breath.' 
There was quite of wisdom here in her words though, and I have no doubt that there are others who yearn for that type of enthusiasm and can do spirit embolden them to step out of their preconceived circles. 

​​***I received an advance reader copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I am not required to write a positive one. These thoughts and opinions are my own.***

JESSICA HONEGGER is the founder of Noonday Collection, a fair-trade jewelry company that partners with artisans across the globe to create unique and hand-made pieces of jewelry. She and Noonday work to empower women from a wide variety of communities and cultures to create their own, thriving businesses by partnering with Noonday as an artisan or ambassador. Jessica lives in Austin with her husband and children.

Salome and the Battle Poems is a poetry collection that explores the weaponization of art to heal and protect the body and soul of the oppressed, the mentally ill, and the disempowered. Salome is a biblical figure, mythologized here into a radical symbol of women’s liberation and empowerment. The collection is divided into three sections: vengeance, tenderness, and photosynthesis. This structure reflects the process of overcoming, the alchemy of transforming righteous rage and suffering into power and true healing, and the precious raw love at the center of it all that we must protect and nurture at all costs—no matter how deeply it’s nestled between anger and armor.

This was quite a read! The imagery, the pacing, and for compelling words strung together like this: 
Call it sin.
Call it slut.
I'll take the head and call it even. (Salome)
Or this
& every morning
I strip the lonely 
from my longing arms
and stra the warpaint on
my grieving, grinning face. (the Alchemist)
Although, I have several favorites, this collection packed a powerful punch and I loved both the journey and the empowerment that came from it. I'll be on the lookout for more from this poet! Well done, Tyler Rose Mann. 

​​***I received a copy in exchange for an honest review. I am not required to write a positive one. These thoughts and opinions are my own.***

Tyler Rose Mann is an internationally-based multidisciplinary artist. Born in Brooklyn, NYC and raised in Mount Vernon, New York, she currently lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand and spends her time writing, painting, and volunteering with causes that promote environmental sustainability and human rights, with a focus on women’s issues. She has discovered power and healing in art, and hopes that her words can be lifelines for the wounded and weapons for the disempowered. Visit www.tylerrosemann.com to watch her live performances, explore her visual art and nonfiction writing, or book her for a commission or show.

​Through the eyes of a monster or a warrior. Beneath the soil where evil lives or across the sea in different lands. Against a force that none can win or held by a lover's hand. Each adventure begins with you, guided by a Mad Lord's rambling. The debut collection of Poetry and Short Stories by Lord Huey.

The ramblings of a mad lord was a fun read with its twists and turns, haunts, and even sighs. While I appreciated his poetry, it was his short stories that I loved! Author, Logan Hughes did an excellent job painting a picture for you within a small window and within each short, I hoped for a continuation but was satisfied with each ending. What a debut!

SPOILER: My favorite was 'the child' since I have that weird and disturbing fear that my children may one day turn on me....or maybe I just watch too many zombie movies and children are the best and worst zombies. 

​Logan Hughes is a writer and photographer from Miami, FL, currently traveling the USA researching and gathering inspiration for his next publication. Writing under the name Lord Huey, his self-published “Ramblings of a Mad Lord” is a collection of short stories and poems that takes readers on an adventurous discovery of the struggle between good and evil in our own minds. After a life altering event, he decided to redirect his lifelong passion for creating intricate worlds filled with history, adventure, philosophy, and inquiry into human nature back from developing games to his childhood passion: writing. Making it his purpose and joy in life, it inspired his motto “Creare Sine Metu” or “Create without Fear” which is the driving force that fuels his work. His photographs serve as inspiration for his written creations, offering a beautiful, sometimes mysterious, backdrop to his stories. You can learn more about Lord Huey, read his blog, connect to him on social media or sign up for emails about new and limited edition releases via his websitewww.lordhuey.com

The mermarium is a place where mermaids are exploited for entertainment and profit. This novel in verse tells of four connected stories of sisterhood, love, and the difficult choices of four mermaids who experience the mermarium in its evolution from neglectful aquarium to rehabilitating rescue center. The stories within are of mermaids who love men, mermaids who love mermaids, and mermaids who love freedom.

The Caged Creature Chronicles tell the stories of mythical beings trapped for the sake of human entertainment.

I absolutely loved the stories that poet Amanda N. Butler crafted here. Four mermaids in this space of depravity and greed and brokenness, and each creature manages to find some strength within themselves to survive. I've never read a verse novel and now I'm not sure why, but it was captivating in its simplicity and packaging. And in its' effortless style, Butler hooked me (pun intended) within the first few lines. Quite imaginative and emotionally captivating.
​I can't wait for more mermaids!!

​Amanda N. Butler started writing poetry in 2005 and never stopped. She is the author of chapbooks with Dancing Girl Press and a microchapbook with Origami Poems Project. Her poems have also been published with Haikuniverse, Hedgerow, poems2go, and others. She holds a BA in English and an MBA in Marketing.

Jessica Mehta is poet who writes without shame about body, race, and belonging. There's both an unflinching boldness and an unexpected tenderness to the way she treats the rich cast within these pages — the ghosts of past selves, lost loves, and departed family. Constellations of My Body takes readers on an open-hearted journey through life's fires asking what we inherit and what we make ourselves, what it means to be native, to be other, to feel lost and, ultimately, to belong.

I read this on the road, and the expanse of the open horizon, the bouts of construction sites along the way, was a perfect setting for all the stories written here. Jessica Mehta is harsh in her observations about love, loss and life, in general. Her brutality in her words gave me pause in that perhaps I look at life in my own naive way. But I liked her honesty. I liked that Mehta was able to speak her truths, her bitterness, and questions - and perhaps answers -  to an overall purpose. Which begs the question, what is our purpose, if not to survive one overwhelming event after another and celebrate life, in all its darkness, and grittiness. Some of us are made with tenacity, with a poet's keen sense of observation and this need to write it all down. 
This collection of musings, facts, travels, and a life lived is richly woven in this haphazard beautiful tapestry of words. 

​***I received a copy in exchange for an honest review. I am not required to write a positive one. These thoughts and opinions are my own.***

Jessica (Tyner) Mehta, born and raised in Oregon and a member of the Cherokee Nation, is the author of ten books including the forthcoming Savagery by Airlie Press (poetry), Drag Me Through the Mess by Unsolicited Press (poetry), and You Look Something by Wyatt MacKenzie Publishing (literary fiction). Her previous books include Constellations of My Body by Musehick Publications (poetry), Secret-Telling Bones by The Operating System (poetry), The Wrong Kind of Indian by Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing (literary fiction), as well as the poetry collections Orygun, What Makes an Always and The Last Exotic Petting Zoo by Tayen Lane Publishing. Jessica authored the business book 100 Ways to Make $100k with Your English Degree, which has been featured on numerous podcasts including JenningsWire and World Outsourcing Solutions.

Twitter:
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 Website: ​https://jessicamehta.com/jessicamehta.com/