The Road Between

by Courtney Peppernell

The Road Between is poetry well-lived.

Poetry for the soul that walks a fine line between losing yourself in the world and finding yourself again, often in the smallest of moments. Courtney Peppernell, author of the internationally best-selling poetry series  Pillow Thoughts delivers another collection of prose and poetry that asks the reader to look deep within themselves and heal the ache.

The Road Between is the journey you take from the shadows to the light. Settle in, lose yourself in the pages, and find the strength to come back home.
 

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, LGBT, Romance, Queer, Contemporary, Ebooks

304 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 2017

About the author

Courtney Peppernell is an acclaimed best-selling author from Australia, celebrated for her inspirational poetry collections, including the beloved Pillow Thoughts series, Watering the Soul, I Hope You Stay, Time Will Tell and more. With over two million sales worldwide, she continues to lead the forefront of today’s poetry genre. Courtney spends her days writing and working on many projects with her beloved dogs and chickens in tow. She hopes to continue exploring expression and the art of healing through stories, novels and poetry for years to come. Stay tuned for the latest releases from Courtney and her team!

Reviews

[Hirdesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review soon,

[Beatrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Andrews McMeel Publishing for ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After being underwhelmed with Pillow Thoughts, I think Courtney Peppernell's writing improved in this book especially on its arrangement. It flows smoothly and some of them are heartfelt and profound. Honestly, I'm still not a fan of the ones in paragraph form. Overall, this one is good.

[Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review coming soon.

[Ray Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is the first book I read from this author and it was surprisingly good.
This is a poetry collection that talks about self-love, queer relationships, and healing. Most of the poems are written in prose but they are just as beautiful as the others.

I lost the count of how many poems I bookmarked because they truly resonated with me. This author style is easy to follow and like I said, it talks about topics I don’t see quite often, so I’m sure I’ll be picking her other books up as soon as I can get them.

I wish could made justice with my review but Poetry is a genre I’m slowly getting my hands on. And I’m just glad I came across The Road Between because it was everything I ask for.

[Lavinia Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty & emotional
just like me

[Julia Sapphire · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars

I enjoyed her other collection Pillow Thoughts more. I think this is still a good collection and would recommend it to poetry lovers. I really love the way the sections were divided in this and how she brought nature into the story as well. This is also an LGBTQIAP+ collection as the relationship is about two girls. It is own voices if your wondering about the representation. It was harder for me to connect with this collection because it was a female female relationship. I could not personally relate so some poems I didn't have a deep feeling with the descriptions of women and things like that. I think if you are apart of the LGBT+ you would quite enjoy this. There is still some beautiful poems in here but I personally felt a disconnect with this one and felt myself loving Pillow Thoughts much more.

[Trinity Irwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give "The Road Between" four stars because I absolutely loved and was entirely captivated by about 70% of the poems within its pages.
The other 30% was in my opinion a little too much forced rhyme and sounded a bit too much like what I see on every "trying to be relatable and poetic tumblr post."
BUT, that's only 30%.
The majority that I really loved though, I TRULY adored.
Peppernell really reached deep and brought some heavy feelings to a written word.
Some were so simply sweet and others were so complexly severing.
I thoroughly enjoyed.


I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book Via NetGalley.

[Tina]

DNF @ pg 75 according to my app.

I just wasn't feeling this type of poetry.

[Madi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I enjoyed pillow thoughts tbh. There were some hard hitting poems and the lack of Dr. Seuss sounding poems actually improved the experience. Not to say those aren't wonderful but they get kind of irritating. Will probably include a poem from this book in each vlog this week.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5/5

[Anuja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't decide between 3 and 4 so I'm going to settle on 3.5 stars.
It's a good book with great content. But this one didn't get to me like other books of Courtney that I've read.

[Karolyna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, this book was ok I guess (literally what 2 stars mean lol). I didn't love this book, nor did I hate it, but in all, I'm not entirely sure how I felt about it. The, um, "theme" of the poems were kind of all over the place, and I found that like 95% of the time, I wasn't relating at all with what Courtney was trying to describe. Also, what the hell is going on with poetry these days? Modern poetry today is a hit or miss man. Either a poet is constantly talking about love and heartbreak (that's all they seem to talk about these days) or the poet has some severe issue where they can't stop pressing the damn "enter" button. Like dude, you can't just write a phrase and then press enter every time you write a word and call that poetry. That's a god damn sentence man. The other thing that pisses me off is when poets write just one sentence that's supposed to be inspirational. Like dude. I'm sorry but that's not poetry in my books.

On the plus side (since I just seem to be shitting on this book, sorry), there were a few diamonds in the rough that really spoke to me. Like there were a few poems in the beginning of the book and towards the middle/end of the book that really touched me and I really related to it. Example:
"You are not defined by the stage you are at in life. Just because
you are unsure of where you are heading doesn't mean you
don't know who you are inside."
This really spoke to me since I'm kinda feeling that way presently, but in general, most poems that spoke to me are because they relate to things that I am currently going through presently and how I am feeling right now.

But in all, I wouldn't say I absolutely hated this book. Yes, it wasn't my favourite, but it wasn't all around terrible; it was ok/fine/not completely painful. This book is great tho for people who have a thing for today's modern poetry and who are totally into "poems" where the poet hits the "enter" button every 2 seconds like a chicken pecking the ground furiously trying to get seeds. (Like wtf is the matter with you man, does money rain down on you everytime you press enter? Because I don't see any other reason as to why you would need to press enter that many times.....)

[katherinareads · Rating 3 out of 5]

i loved how each chapter was a part of a big journey home. how we learned through ache and pain all roads lead home where love and warmth is found. and that sometimes, home's a person we never thought we would find.
i did find it quite dull and too slow at times. a little bit repetitive as well.

[Eliza Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it when poetry books are sorted into sections that tell a little story. This book was such a beautiful read

[Cherlynn | cherreading · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually liked this collection better than her earlier works, including the Pillow Thoughts series. Not only were the poems more relatable, they came across as more heartfelt and raw. The author's writing has also matured and her craft has improved; I didn't get 'pop poetry' vibes.

[Ariana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally posted on: The Quirky Book Nerd

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

Courtney Peppernell has quickly become one of my new favorite authors. This was yet another beautiful collection that truly spoke to me. Peppernell has a great talent for creating short and deceptively simple poetry that has a much deeper underlying meaning. Her striking prose flows perfectly, and each line packs a strong emotional punch. This particular collection is about the journeys that life presents all of us. Specifically, these poems deal with the process of finding yourself again after becoming separated from it along the way—how we have to carefully piece ourselves back together until we feel whole.

The theme of finding oneself is something that, at this time in my life, really speaks to me. I’ve definitely been taking this exact journey over the last few years, feeling like I had lost touch with myself and trying to figure out who I am and what I need in my life. I’ve been feeling a deep need to settle into and truly come to terms with every aspect of myself. It’s this sort of work that I can connect to very easily—that makes me feel more confident in who I’ve discovered that I am and what love means to me. Peppernell’s words are wonderfully profound and they deeply touched me.

I always think it’s fantastic to see more LGBT+ work coming into the the literary world. Even though many of the poems that focus on love deal with a romance between two women, I believe these poems will speak to anyone, no matter their orientation and how they love. Love is love—it is a universal subject that can touch the hearts and souls of all of us. I’ve already gone ahead and purchased her two novels and I absolutely can’t wait to read more of her work.

[Elysia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this poetry collection on a whim whilst book shopping (yet again), and I am so glad that I did as I absolutely loved it. I read this collection in one sitting, and the book is filled with so many tabs marking pieces that I loved. The collection is set out in chapters that deal with healing, mental health, identity and love, and in many of the poems, the narrator directly addresses you in a calm, supportive tone of voice. I'll definitely be revisiting this collection in the future.

[Floor Loïse · Rating 1 out of 5]

this style of poetry just appears to be something that I don’t enjoy, however hard I try.
I bought this book because I’d seen good poems from Courtney Peppernell, but alas, I didn’t like it.
I did however notice how much she liked writing each piece, which was kind of the only thing pushing me towards even finishing the book.

[Skylar McMahan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The poetry in this book read a lot more like a tweet or a tumblr post. There were a few gems in the book, but I found myself wanting it to end. The poems were most often cliche “you’re doing great, I’m proud of you” types and that’s just not really something I am into.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yesssssssss.

At some point, I will make this an intelligent review.

[Isaiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.

I got an ARC in return for an honest review on NetGalley.

I grabbed this book because I had loved the cover of the author’s other book on NetGalley, Pillow Thoughts. This book didn’t have a cover that would have grabbed me. Seems too much like a classic adventure story which isn’t really my speed. I was just going book happy.

The book itself is ok. There was nothing remarkable about it to me. It felt like a bit of a let down compared to the other book. The poems didn’t hit as hard for me. They were a bit more timid. They were still well written and impressive, but lacked the emotional punch. There were more poems that were just slightly off, like there was one about being FtM that struck me funny. I always get a bit weirded out when an author writes from the perspective of a trans person when they are not trans. It was done very nicely here, but it felt too pretty. Someone going through that scenario isn’t that at peace with it generally, of course everyone varies. It just felt disingenuous for the author to tackle that subject for a single poem and then move on.

The love poems got much more mushy and the longing poems lost their edge, which I can only hope means the author has found love and that is where her emotions took her.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Courtney Peppernell's voice is like a lighthouse guiding hurting people home. She does not candy coat life's challenges, particularly as they pertain to being a lesbian in a world that can sometimes be both unsupportive and cruel. While acknowledging that the judgement and harshness is there, she does not dwell on negativity, but instead on love and possibility. This book is a love letter to young women who are searching for acceptance and looking for their place in the world. It is, by turns, both realistic and hopeful, both joyful and sad. I highly recommend this book. It's frank and tender, and it should be on the shelves of every library, so young people of all ages can feel free to be themselves and know that someone out there accepts them exactly as they are.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Gv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read and sweet, with some very cool poems, with interesting themes.
It felt a bit repetitive to me (especially after reading her other books) and also... too much about romantic love for me (just for me, I am sure it can be great if it is something that takes up a huge place in your life, but... imagine if more than 50% of the poems were abt quantum physics and you are not a quantum physicist... it gets a bit long.)
Still a cool book to read when needing warm and hopeful poems.

[Saeda Marwan · Rating 3 out of 5]

She wanted to say something.
To tell you about the things inside her heart and
her mind.
But she kept it all a secret,
watched as life went by.
She slept and dreamt of your lips,
she sat and stared at the wall.
She counted all the days she leapt forward and all the ones she’d fall.
e world kept going, the buzz of the traffic outside,
and she stayed in the closet until all the parts of her died.

[Sara Jovanovic · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

It is quite obvious that this was one of Courtney's first pieces of work. And while I do love the topic and appreciate the commentary on various issues in society nowadays, this didn't do much for me as a whole collection. Courtney has matured in her newer works, and I think I'll still rather stick to something like her newest release with Zack Grey than stuff written like this one.

[Kassy Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a few pages had me rolling my eyes, some lines I feel are a bit overused. But I found a overwhelming sense of security and acceptance from this book. Never felt so validated in my life. Will definitely be purchasing more from this author.

[elsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 :)

[Munaya Al salhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

On word, BEAUTIFUL!

I mean I don’t have the words to say anything else about it. It’s fills your heart and soul and make you feel about everything!

[Sena · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars.

[Serene Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soooo good! Definitely the same level as Pillow Thoughts!