“Love & Misadventure” Review

Happy New Year! I’m back with another book review, and this time it’s Lang Leav’s poetry collection “Love & Misadventure!” Here’s the summary from goodreads so we have an idea of what it’s about:

“Beautifully illustrated and thoughtfully conceived, Love and Misadventure will take you on a rollercoaster ride through an ill-fated love affair- from the initial butterflies to the soaring heights- through to the devastating plunge. Lang Leav has an unnerving ability to see inside the hearts and minds of her readers. Her talent for translating complex emotions with astonishing simplicity has won her a cult following of devoted fans from all over the world.”

Okay….I admit that doesn’t exactly help, so let me try breaking it down for you. The collection is split into three parts—Misadventure, The Circus of Sorrows, and Love. The Circus of Sorrows is the longest section of the three, with Misadventure coming second and Love being the shortest one.

Misadventure definitely felt like it was supposed to be—an accidental trip into a wild adventure, hence the name. All of the poems in that section definitely encapsulated the overall title of the section and vice versa, and “A Toast!” which is the first poem in that section definitely helps to spring that feeling of misadventure into motion.

When I read The Circus of Sorrows and the first poem in that section, “Circus Town,” I thought that this section of the book was going to try telling a story through its poems. I was slightly disappointed that there wasn’t as many circus motifs as I was hoping there would be, especially given that the section is literally called The Circus of Sorrows, but there is definitely a lot of angst in a good number of the poems, so it succeeded in the ‘Sorrows’ part of the section for sure.

Going into the last section, Love, I thought that it was very, very sweet. There were definitely some sad poems, but there were definitely some heartfelt ones that were, in Leav’s style, short and to the point.

Overall, I noticed a ton of rhyming in the poems. This gave a childlike feel to the poetry, which worked with some of the more playful poems such as “A Dangerous Recipe,” but it occasionally felt lackluster in more serious poems such as “That Day.” Comparing this collection to “The Universe of Us,” I definitely feel like there was significantly more rhyming in this one and overall feels like a more playful collection compared to the other. This is not necessarily bad, but if you’re looking for more somber poems, “The Universe of Us” is slightly better at this.

Overall, I’m rating this one 4 out of 5 stars, mainly for the lack of circus motif I expected in the second part, as well as the rhyming in some poems being a double-edged sword.  Even better news, for those who like to read their books in public? It’s definitely safe-for-work, compared to collections such as “Dirty Pretty Things!”