More of a story than a collection of poetry, Love by Night will whisk you away from your world and into the dreamy romantic night.
Love by Night begins with anxious hesitation and nervous attraction, grows into tender affection, blossoms into passionate love, delves deep into whimsical dreams, and finally builds an image of an idyllic future together, as the reader develops along with the two characters of this poetic story.
Written as a conversation between two points of view in constant change and flux with each other, this book invites the reader into the conversation about the love that connects one person to another, but also all of us to each other.
Through this written testament to the emotional journeys books can take us on, S. K. Williams breaks down stereotypes, sexism, relationship roles, and brings awareness to mental health, grief, anxiety, depression, how to move forward, how to love in a healthy way, and, most of all, how to love yourself when it feels impossible.
S.K. Williams is the collaborative creation of a couple who reside in Washington State. They met at the bookstore they worked at and began to run an Instagram page together. They have cultivated a healthy relationship together and hope to connect with people and help them find the strength within their own vulnerability. They have dealt with bullying, grief, trauma, anxiety, depression, mental health, unhealthy relationships, and experienced some of their family struggle with substance abuse. Through these hardships and their connection to each other, they’ve grown stronger and learned how to better love others as well as themselves.
They got married in 2021 and bought a house in 2022.
This was my first poetry book and I loved it. It was really cool to see both perspectives of the relationship and to see it start out as nervous and then blossom into true love. There were so many quotes I could relate to. Overall, I really liked it and I will definitely be buying more poetry.
ughh another disappointment i feel so pretentious giving these all one star im not saying they're bad at all they're just not for me but i wish they were!! this had some great concepts but it felt very shallow and i wish it was a bit more developed
1.5 stars. does this type of poetry have a name? a subgenre?? if so, can all poetry like this be labeled with that name so that i know to avoid it??? i'm talking about this minimalist, overly generic, rupi kaur type poetry with some simple line/abstract art to distract from the absolute lack of substance in the actual poems. there was no depth in this. none. NONE. absolute nothing at all. kiddie pools have more depth than this. smut on tumblr has more depth than this. the mug that i drank my coffee out of this morning has more depth than this. it's just...... it's so easy to read, to the point where it's fucking frustrating to read. it requires absolutely zero brain cells to decipher. not a single one. now don't get me wrong, it's not that these were 'bad' per se, these were sweet love poems that i could see as fragments from love letters. they read like anniversary instagram posts. it's cute. it's romantic. but it's completely shallow. surface level. all you have to do is look at it for more than 3 seconds to see the bottom. is this the depth of love?? is this what love creates?? i wouldn't know. but if love spurs you to make poetry like this then maybe i don't want it after all. the 'art' or designs in this are pretty, i won't lie. i enjoyed how it was cut up into sections based on phases of the moon. the stars and night imagery was pretty and romantic. but that's all it was. pretty. had no depth. there were some poems that i did like, that had a bit more depth and actually immersed me in the romance of it all, but those poems were fewww and far between. this was nearly 200 pages, mind you. 200 PAGES. A POETRY COLLECTION. 200 PAGES of "I've never been more afraid/ of anything/ than I am/ now/ of ever losing you". am i being too harsh? pessimistic?? I've never read poetry about just romance and maybe this is what it entails. but either way, i did not like this. no. not at all. if you like rupi kaur, or amanda lovelace, or other poets like that, then i'm sure you'll absolutely love this. but, as you can probably tell, i'm not one of those people.
This book of poetry was so sweet. I honestly usually don't love romantic poetry. I tend to prefer poetry about more hard-hitting topics but this collection was very unique, featuring the voices of both people in the relationship instead of just the one person who's pining or heartbroken. That in itself made this collection really enjoyable for me.
Next, I saw someone compare this style of poetry to Instagram poetry and I have to completely disagree. While some of the poems are shorter, there are other longer ones which take up a page or two. This isn't something you'd see in Instagram poetry!
Lastly, the illustrations were amazing. The collection is broken up into sections corresponding with the phases of the moon and the drawings in between and throughout were so beautiful. These types of books feel like hydration for my soul! Well done.
Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Advance Review Copy generously provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Aesthetically the book is so beautiful! I loved the illustrations. It doesn't go into too much depth. It is easy to read. I liked how the book was split into sections according to the phase of the moon. Objectively it is a very nice romantic reading, but I had some reservations...
I did enjoy some of the poems but most of them just didn't impress me very much. I wish some parts of some poems were connected to other poems. The biggest issue with this book for me personally is that the writing style didn't touch me and I didn't feel connected to the poems.
For me, this was pleasant reading with beautiful illustrations but nothing more. I was missing something.
Love by Night is a beautiful story of Love, real love. It tells the perspective of 2 people from the very first moment they lay eyes on each other, to their beautiful journey after falling in love. It’s beautiful that we get to see both viewpoints of the couple. The poetry was beautiful and I found myself highlighting my favorite poems. However, I just wish it was more realistic. I wish we could see the rawness of not just the good but the ugly and I honestly hoped we’d be able to see the relationship to it’s end to see the fullness of it, the realism of it.
This is a very classic case of “it’s not for me”… so I’ll run through my pros and cons.
Pros: First, the premise of a couple writing this, with poems from both sides of the relationship is wonderful. There were also non-gendering we/you/i poems that were probably written together too.
The books itself — cover, formatting, interior art — all stellar.
Cons: There’s no grit. None. Nothing punched me in the gut. Nothing sunk it’s teeth in and pulled me in. It’s very fluffy, very soft, flowery. And that’s not for me. If that’s what you like in romantic poetry, this is probably for you. I need a little something more than a few mentions of self-doubt and “the darkness”.
One poem actually used the word “fart” and I don’t care what you say, the word fart just doesn’t hit right in a poem.
Felt a touch repetitive at times. There were also repeated words and phrases too distinctive to mention more than once in my opinion. The repetition was not intentional and therefore could feel a little clunky.
Just my two cents. I gave it three because… like it’s fine. If you told me you wanted a really soft, sickeningly romantic collection, I’d probably rec it.
★★★★ |𝑅𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒾𝒸 & 𝐼𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓂𝒶𝓉𝑒|𝒟𝑜𝓊𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝒫𝑒𝓇𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝓋𝑒|𝐿𝑜𝓃𝑔 𝒟𝒾𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝓁𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅|𝐹𝑜𝓇𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒞𝑜𝓃𝓃𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈| What I loved about this collection of poems is the parallels of two people in a committed relationship. From the early, nervous interactions, to the growing old and grey of forever, this collection has both sides speaking their minds and exploring their hearts. The back of the book says it perfectly--'We will take you on an intimate journey between two souls as they explore themselves and each other.' I loved this, and it truly does have something in it for everyone at every stage of love, or connection.
This poetry book was beautiful. It was more than just poetry. It told a story, a journey, an experience.
This poetry book was a bit different form the ones I’ve read before because it tells the story of two lovers.
It tells their journey and, in my humble opinion, the way it’s written makes it ten times better. To me it was beautiful and I loved every page in this poetry book.
It made me feel and it was beautiful. I completely recommend this poetry book so, if you want, buy it and give it a read. Toodles!
I thought I hated poetry, but one day I came across a poem in this book and thought I'd give it a shot. I fell in love with these words from the first pages and how relatable they felt. It's not a book about me and my feelings, and yet, most of the time, that's how it felt. Please, give it a try if you ever felt in love!
I 100% bought this because of the cover and the pretty dark pages on the inside. I'm not much of a poetry reader so I was hesitant to actually want to read it. But, I loved it. So many of the pieces made me reminisce on the early days of falling in love with my partner. The strong feelings we felt but the uncertainty that comes with feeling intensely for another person. What we find in another human we find ourselves growing attached to, and especially when it is out of the blue is such a beautiful thing. It was fun to flip through the pages and think back to the early days of our relationship. We are to the point in our love story where everything just feels normal, like we have always been together. But this made me think back to when we didn't know each other beyond our names and faces and all the late night convos, silly date nights, and long stories told to dive into each other. Beautiful!
An interesting collection. Released by a couple under a single pseudonym, the poems are frequently written as a call and response from one author to the other on the facing page of a spread. While there are aspects that I enjoy, especially their embrace of the open field through varied layout choices, unfortunately, these layout choices are often the only way to distinguish one poem from the next as there is very little thematic differentiation from one wisp of puppylove to the next. It serves a purpose, of course, but in the pursuit of relatability, the collection ends up being a mile wide and an inch deep. Very little about this book feels specific to two real people.
This is simultaneously a good read and a confusing one. It honestly reads like it should have been formatted as an epistolary novella, with alternating correspondence between the two love interests. I'm not sure why this was done as poetry, but it just doesn't work for me at all that way.
However, if you consider only the story told between the two people, and consider the alternating 'poems' as their points of view, it works much better. The story itself it cute, as we follow each partner through their feelings in the romance.
A beautiful collection of love poems that tells the story of each of the author’s relationship with one another. It is clear that these two are very much in love and it was a delight to read. This book also served as an inspiration for me because as a poet myself, I struggle to write poems of love and light, so this certainly has given me some fresh, new ideas. The one gripe I have with this is that most of the poems are not titled and I found it difficult to distinguish where one poem started and another one ended. 4.5 stars.
I absolutely loved this book. My girlfriend gifted me this book because I was tired of reading heartbreak books because I don’t feel that way, I’m happily in love. Then I got this book and it is now one of my favorite poem books. The poems were so beautifully written and I truly felt I understood what I was reading. I was crying at some points because the poem perfectly explained how I feel about my lover. Amazing and easy read!
First time diving into poetry.. this little book made me feel every emotion. I cried, I giggled, I smiled, and my heart broke in the best way. I have never been touched by words in a page like this - maybe it's because I'm in love with a man that I saw little qualities in on every page but my goodness I'm obsessed with this book of poetry. All the feels
4.25! Very enjoyable Poetry book. I really love this sweet take on love poems. I love that this was done together as a couple. Very sweet and very moving.
For those Poetry police you need to step back. If you don't enjoy this type of poetry then don't read it. Blasting the authors and those who enjoy it is not ok. I realize everyone has opinions but telling people that this type of poetry is not real is wrong. Be better.