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Dragonhearts
“COME AND SEE HOW I HAVE TAMED THE MONSTER THAT ONCE TRIED TO KILL THE GOOD IN ME.”three of today’s bestselling poets, nikita gill, amanda lovelace, & trista mateer come together to weave an empowering tale in their collaborative poetry collection, dragonhearts. through the combination of prose & poetry, the authors use fairy tales & myths to create something that is both timeless & extremely relevant to present-day issues, such as the #MeToo movement, reclaiming your voice, feminism, & the shared power of self-love & solidarity.this book is a reminder that romantic love does not need to be the main plot of your story. sometimes friendship is.(inspired by the bonus chapter in the barnes & noble exclusive hardcover of the 2018 goodreads choice award-winning poetry collection, the witch doesn’t burn in this one by amanda lovelace.)
136 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2019
50 people are currently reading
3250 people want to read
About the author
Amanda Lovelace
35 books7,561 followersAmanda Lovelace is a bestselling American poet who rose to fame through her poetry posted to Tumblr and Instagram. She is the author of the women are some kind of magic series, including the Goodreads Choice Award-winning the princess saves herself in this one and women are some kind of magic.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 138 reviews
January 22, 2019
A beautiful, empowering collection of sisterhood and love. This collaboration of talented poets reminded me of the mystical games I would play with my childhood friend, when we would pretend to be among the fairies and mermaids.
May 2, 2019
A friend in one of my classes gave this to me because really likes Nikita's poetry and thought I would too. It was good.
February 1, 2019
"my spiraling thoughts are keeping me up late. again. i text her & i’m surprised to find that she’s still awake. she texts back to let me know that she’s being haunted too, & how she guesses that means we’re haunted together. for the first time in months, i sleep without needing some source of light. - i am never alone when i have you. by amanda lovelace"
AH I was so so surprised (but obviously incredibly happy) when Amanda, Trista, and Nikita came out with a self published poetry collection together. They are all such amazing, talented people, so to see their work come together like this was inspiring.
It was cool to see their work side by side like this, and their own distinct writing styles really shined through this collection.
I loved the poems so much, and they just gave me such a warm feeling inside- especially the ones about friendship. Definitely recommend it!
AH I was so so surprised (but obviously incredibly happy) when Amanda, Trista, and Nikita came out with a self published poetry collection together. They are all such amazing, talented people, so to see their work come together like this was inspiring.
It was cool to see their work side by side like this, and their own distinct writing styles really shined through this collection.
I loved the poems so much, and they just gave me such a warm feeling inside- especially the ones about friendship. Definitely recommend it!
October 14, 2021
This made me feel good while reading it
I found myself highlighting many parts of Nikita Gill’s poems, so I must say that hers really were my favourite part of this book.
Trista Mateer’s were quite good as well, but I think I prefer her other works.
Amanda Lovelace’s are not my cup of tea. I feel like she focuses too much on how they look on the page (pretty, with cursive and spaces) and ultimately lack depth. But this is just my opinion, I’m not doubting her effort.
Overall, an empowering collection, although some of the poems seemed to fall out of the main theme and were just randomly introduced (mangoes and spanx? what’s up with that?)
I found myself highlighting many parts of Nikita Gill’s poems, so I must say that hers really were my favourite part of this book.
Trista Mateer’s were quite good as well, but I think I prefer her other works.
Amanda Lovelace’s are not my cup of tea. I feel like she focuses too much on how they look on the page (pretty, with cursive and spaces) and ultimately lack depth. But this is just my opinion, I’m not doubting her effort.
Overall, an empowering collection, although some of the poems seemed to fall out of the main theme and were just randomly introduced (mangoes and spanx? what’s up with that?)
August 14, 2019
This is a collection of poems by three poets, but of course I loved Nikita Gill's poems the best.
Also, despite this seemingly have come out this year, it is almost impossible to find a copy of??? If anyone knows where to find a hard copy of this, please let me know.
Also, despite this seemingly have come out this year, it is almost impossible to find a copy of??? If anyone knows where to find a hard copy of this, please let me know.
May 2, 2022
- Most of the poems in this book reminded me of the kind of conversations(silly, serious, motivating & overhyping ones) we would have with a friend/family member who just went through heartbreak and is still struggling with it.
- It's relatable. It has elements of shock, comfort and motivation. But overall the book didn't work for me.
- The book feels custom-made for a particular section of the society; also it feels like the writers are always following a pattern that works with their regular audience(popular patterns) instead of experimenting/ranging out in areas like diction, structure and themes.
"I will not give up the flowers in my heart for stones just because the world is a hard place. The world is only hard because it needs more flower-hearted people." - Nikita Gill
"Never stopped to wonder why my life needed to be great and couldn’t just be lived." - Trista Mateer.
"truth is,
we have control
over very little
in this life,
but we
have every say
in who gets
our love."
- boundaries.
by amanda lovelace
"The truth is, everyone has either loved a monster or been one, and sometimes both. There is nothing more dangerous than the thing that lives inside of you, waiting for love to wrong you, waiting to make prey out of someone else.
We all have it in us to be monstrous and there is still no excuse for monstrosity.
If we want to be the heroes of our own stories, and more than heroic—if we want to be good—we must face down the thing that lives inside of us. Commit to unpacking our anger in empty rooms. Understand our treacherous impulses and act against them, continuously." - Nikita Gill and Trista Mateer
- It's relatable. It has elements of shock, comfort and motivation. But overall the book didn't work for me.
- The book feels custom-made for a particular section of the society; also it feels like the writers are always following a pattern that works with their regular audience(popular patterns) instead of experimenting/ranging out in areas like diction, structure and themes.
"I will not give up the flowers in my heart for stones just because the world is a hard place. The world is only hard because it needs more flower-hearted people." - Nikita Gill
"Never stopped to wonder why my life needed to be great and couldn’t just be lived." - Trista Mateer.
"truth is,
we have control
over very little
in this life,
but we
have every say
in who gets
our love."
- boundaries.
by amanda lovelace
"The truth is, everyone has either loved a monster or been one, and sometimes both. There is nothing more dangerous than the thing that lives inside of you, waiting for love to wrong you, waiting to make prey out of someone else.
We all have it in us to be monstrous and there is still no excuse for monstrosity.
If we want to be the heroes of our own stories, and more than heroic—if we want to be good—we must face down the thing that lives inside of us. Commit to unpacking our anger in empty rooms. Understand our treacherous impulses and act against them, continuously." - Nikita Gill and Trista Mateer
September 9, 2019
i don’t think i’ve ever loved a poetry collection more in my life oh my godddd i don’t even have the words to say how much this resonated with me. i laughed and cried and smiled. it made me feel alive 💖.
July 4, 2019
This was a mixed bag for me. I absolutely adore Nikita Gill as a poet and have recently come to love Amanda Lovelace but I haven't read any poetry by Trista Mateer before and hers were probably the poems I enjoyed the least. There are some poems I really enjoyed within this work but others I could't really connect to. I think I struggled to know what the common theme was throughout this poetry as sometime they just seemed random and didn't seem to connect to one another. I do love that the women are so supportive of each other though and wanted to show that through their poetry, and I adore the cover art for this book it is so striking. I think as a whole the poetry collection just didn't work well for me and I think their voices are stronger on their own. But I will be keeping this for my collection.
"What is a queen without her king?"
I don't know,
but let's ask
Cleopatra,
Nefertiti,
Hatshepsut,
Sammuramat,
Victoria,
Elizabeth,
Amina,
Tzu-hsi,
and the countless other kingless queens
who turned mere kingdoms
into the greatest of empires"
"Honest Facts I have Learned About People
1. We are all 65-70% water.
2. We are all stardust.
3. We all suffer,
but we do no have to suffer alone"
"Your scars are a warning to all future monsters of the hell you have survived before them, every demon you have vanquished, and every battle you have won"
"What is a queen without her king?"
I don't know,
but let's ask
Cleopatra,
Nefertiti,
Hatshepsut,
Sammuramat,
Victoria,
Elizabeth,
Amina,
Tzu-hsi,
and the countless other kingless queens
who turned mere kingdoms
into the greatest of empires"
"Honest Facts I have Learned About People
1. We are all 65-70% water.
2. We are all stardust.
3. We all suffer,
but we do no have to suffer alone"
"Your scars are a warning to all future monsters of the hell you have survived before them, every demon you have vanquished, and every battle you have won"
January 19, 2019
a few poems read a bit weird to me, but overall this was wonderful. such a nice surprise that these lovely people published this. they are all such inspiring poets.
July 25, 2019
Nikita Gill was the only good thing about this.
January 6, 2020
words that would make persephone proud indeed.
July 5, 2021
I moderately liked this as a whole collection, I loved Nikita Gill's poems, she really carried this one on her back. I also enjoyed most of Trista Matter's works here, but didn't quite click with Amanda Lovelace's stuff. I actually mostly enjoyed her other works but I guess in comparison, her style least appeals to me.
Fav lines:
"I will not give up the flowers in my heart for stones just because the world is a hard place."
(Nikita Gill)
"You are simply doing what all galaxies are inclined to do. You are shattering the thing that holds you in. Remember that."
(Nikita Gill)
"I’m in love with my anger / my
war-won body / tense and vicious."
(Trista Mateer)
"On the page there is always a place for us. No oceans to stand in the way. No distance to cross. This isn’t why we write but it’s part of it. A place for our ivyhands to finally stop reaching. Here, we wind our words together until no one can tell our stories apart."
(Trista Mateer)
Fav lines:
"I will not give up the flowers in my heart for stones just because the world is a hard place."
(Nikita Gill)
"You are simply doing what all galaxies are inclined to do. You are shattering the thing that holds you in. Remember that."
(Nikita Gill)
"I’m in love with my anger / my
war-won body / tense and vicious."
(Trista Mateer)
"On the page there is always a place for us. No oceans to stand in the way. No distance to cross. This isn’t why we write but it’s part of it. A place for our ivyhands to finally stop reaching. Here, we wind our words together until no one can tell our stories apart."
(Trista Mateer)
April 15, 2022
I had been searching for a copy of Dragonhearts for a long time. When I finally found one and read it, it did not let me down. In typical Amanda Lovelace and Nikita Gill fashion, along with new-to-me Trista Mateer, their words that express many of my own inner thoughts, experiences, emotions. As I read, I found myself rereading poems that spoke to my heart, or for my heart, rather. The collective and profound wisdom of these women warrior poets always touches my soul in ways I may not have written but have always felt.
January 14, 2026
"I dug into hillsides.
I knocked on trees.
I pressed my palms to the back
of every wardrobe.
I tried for years
to find my way into magical worlds.
Now I just try to weave magic
into this one."
I liked a few of these but I'm over this kind of poetry, I think. I just feel like I've read similar poems a million times before.
Some of these also seemed like messages between friends that did not need to be published.
I knocked on trees.
I pressed my palms to the back
of every wardrobe.
I tried for years
to find my way into magical worlds.
Now I just try to weave magic
into this one."
I liked a few of these but I'm over this kind of poetry, I think. I just feel like I've read similar poems a million times before.
Some of these also seemed like messages between friends that did not need to be published.
February 3, 2019
Heart Eyes Emoji
I felt such a strong connection with these poems. This collection feels like snapshots of my heart, my life, and my friendships. Absolutely love this!
Also, I just gotta say - I see you, lady knights, and mages, and spies! “For Tortal!” was my first ever war cry!
I felt such a strong connection with these poems. This collection feels like snapshots of my heart, my life, and my friendships. Absolutely love this!
Also, I just gotta say - I see you, lady knights, and mages, and spies! “For Tortal!” was my first ever war cry!
February 25, 2019
A lovely collection on what loving yourself, your friends, and all the imperfect wounds made in you may lead to. Some of the poems are vague enough to generalize while others are very specific and both are equally as poignant. You feel understood and empowered - and we could all use a little more of both in this world.
January 24, 2019
Those poems of women empowerment and women love are just beautiful
April 16, 2021
Fue una linda compilación de poemas. Me acostumbré a los poemas de instagram ahre
February 3, 2022
sort of repetitive and a little cliche but some were actually very lovely <3
December 19, 2022
This was a great little collection of poems from some of my favorite poets. I really enjoyed the collaboration and how seamlessly each piece transferred into the next it was really lovely to read.
December 12, 2023
I found this book because I am familiar with amanda lovelace's and Nikita Gill's texts, but I have to say it was Trista Mateer's pages that I enjoyed the most, so that was a lovely surprise!
Read
February 14, 2025DNF 34%
Duh! It was so depressing and I couldn't relate to anything, Alhamdulillah ❄️
Duh! It was so depressing and I couldn't relate to anything, Alhamdulillah ❄️
April 10, 2019
I love Trista Mateer, I love Nikita Gill, (I'm no too fond of Amanda Lovelace's poetry tho), so in theory I should've adored this book, or at least liked it enough to give it 3-4 stars. I'm sorry to say that it just wasn't as enjoyable as I thought it would be. The only parts I did like were some of Trista's poems, everything else just felt like I've seen it before. There was nothing new to be brought to the table. I'm so over the "princess-with-a-sword-fairytale-twist" metaphors like, show me some other words then fire, sword, princess, queen, strong, witch, magic(k), universe, galaxy, etc. I've seen this s**t too many times now, it's extremely overused by this point. It doesn't make me FEEL anything. I'm sure there's plenty of other ways to say "I aM pOwErFuL!!!" And I know they can do it, I've been incredibly touched by Nikita Gill and Trista Mateer's work before, I seriously hope it happens again. But this, this just didn't cut it.
October 4, 2023
I have a love-hate relationship with all three contributors in this collection. There are some collections I’ve loved and wished I had actually skipped from both Nikita Gill and Amanda Lovelace, while Trista’s work I feel just isn’t up my alley of interests.
It was easy to distinguish who had written which pieces because they all have distinct writing styles as well as writing structures. It was easy to know which pieces stood out to me and which didn’t, and why. The structures of the pieces were okay, and fairly readable but not original. You can have all the pretty in the world but if the pieces lack depth, then you don’t have that much to go on to make it stand out from other collections. It was an okay read, but I did find that some pieces seemed to stray away from the themes which was disappointing.
Read more here: https://sincerelyyoursannie.wordpress...
It was easy to distinguish who had written which pieces because they all have distinct writing styles as well as writing structures. It was easy to know which pieces stood out to me and which didn’t, and why. The structures of the pieces were okay, and fairly readable but not original. You can have all the pretty in the world but if the pieces lack depth, then you don’t have that much to go on to make it stand out from other collections. It was an okay read, but I did find that some pieces seemed to stray away from the themes which was disappointing.
Read more here: https://sincerelyyoursannie.wordpress...
March 14, 2019
A Short Review (Because 3 Reviews of This Have Been Lost to My WiFi Connection)
I love Amanda Lovelace and Nikita Gill, and I have been recently introduced to Trista Mateer’s work, which I enjoy very much. It is clear that these poets are close friends and enjoy collaborating together. Their joy and friendship shines through this collection, and it mostly makes up for its shortcomings. The poems are very good, some even excellent, but I do wish the collection was a little better organized. Overall, recommended for any fans of these three poets or feminist poetry.
I love Amanda Lovelace and Nikita Gill, and I have been recently introduced to Trista Mateer’s work, which I enjoy very much. It is clear that these poets are close friends and enjoy collaborating together. Their joy and friendship shines through this collection, and it mostly makes up for its shortcomings. The poems are very good, some even excellent, but I do wish the collection was a little better organized. Overall, recommended for any fans of these three poets or feminist poetry.
February 21, 2019
Actual rating: 3.5
As always, I loved the writing of this poetesses. This collection is inspiring and it pushes you a step further into the self-love field. I really liked this book.
However, I didn't feel attached like I have with other work of this poetesses. I didn't love the format either.
Very enjoyable and inspiring.
As always, I loved the writing of this poetesses. This collection is inspiring and it pushes you a step further into the self-love field. I really liked this book.
However, I didn't feel attached like I have with other work of this poetesses. I didn't love the format either.
Very enjoyable and inspiring.
February 19, 2019
only a few of nikita gill's poems stood out! the rest was very disappointing and i really could not tell amanda lovelace and trista mateer appart, they have the same voice, use the same clichés and this shows just how unoriginal their poetry is.
May 16, 2019
i really needed this.
April 28, 2021
solid 4.5 stars,
beautifully written book by three amazing poets.
beautifully written book by three amazing poets.
December 24, 2023
3.25/5⭐️
Displaying 1 - 30 of 138 reviews