Name: Larisa Maria 's review of Love & Misadventure by Lang Leav
Item: Love & Misadventure
Rating: 2
Author: Larisa Maria

Lang Leav

The journey from love to heartbreak to finding love again is personal yet universal. Lang Leav's evocative love poetry speaks to the soul of anyone who is on this journey. 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 modern poetry fans from all over the world. Forget the dainty, delicate love poems of yore; these little poems pack a mighty punch. Lang Leav is a poet and internationally exhibiting artist. Her work expresses the intricacies of love and loss. Love & Misadventure is her first poetry collection.

Love & Misadventure

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

Larisa Maria 

Laura Rodrigues de Pina

3,5.

tem bons poemas, mas eles se perdem entre os muitos que parecem ter sido escritos de qualquer jeito.

ella

never not love lang leav's works. it's always simple, beautiful, and rather poignant because it tells the truth, it expresses the honest feelings.

Christine Frisbie

While I appreciate the atmosphere Leav created in many of the poems in this book, there were an almost equal amount that were lacking and seemed to barely rhyme if only for rhyme's sake, which not only took me out of the atmosphere she had created, but made me question it too. Her art is beautiful and some of her word choices were pretty good, but I feel there is much more that could have been done with the ideas she wished to discuss in the book.

01010111 01000010

It’s light. It’s bubbly. It’s not for me, sadly.

samira 

SO GOOD !! i normally don’t like reading poems, i read them sometimes but usually i avoid them. this book was great though and i enjoyed reading it. the illustrations are really cool too!

I love lang leav works and this is one of my favorites

Expected to like Love & Misadventures a lot more than I did. A majority of the poems felt elementary but the one poem I liked was ‘Angels’.

“One day you meet someone and for some inexplicable reason, you feel more connected to this stranger than anyone else. Perhaps this person carries within them an angel--one sent to you for some higher purpose; to teach you an important lesson or to keep you safe during a perilous time. Trust in them--even if they come hand in hand with pain or suffering--the reason for their presence will become clear in due time. You may grow to love this person but they are not yours to keep. Their purpose isn't to save you but to show you how to save yourself. And once this is fulfilled; the halo lifts and the angel leaves their body as the person exits your life. They will be a stranger to you once more.”

Melsriana

This book is so beautifully written. It gives me a rollercoaster feelings from falling in love to broken hearts, so many emotions in one book. I don't need to explain how good this book is too much cause everyone already knows??!!

tina

Lang Leav doesn't have the best poems. Some of her poems didn't really have that much depth to them. Some I felt had no substance at all. But I can understand why so many people have loved her writing. They're very easy to understand and there are no mind-boggling metaphors. Her poems are just very plain but at the same time, pretty because of the words she uses and the feel that readers get when they read them. But upon finishing the book, her poems failed to stick with me and leave a long-lasting impression. Of course, if you want to read poems that will capture your heart and stay with you forever, then this is definitely NOT for you. Although there were some I found quite good, others were too insubstantial for my liking. 

There were some poems that I found too ordinary and simplistic. The poem below honestly looked quite similar to what my classmate wrote when we were told to write a poem for our English class. 

  “The Girl He Loves   

 There was a man who I once knew,
for me there was no other.
The closer to loving me he grew,
the more he would grow further.
I tried to love him as his friend,
then to love him as his lover;
but he never loved me in the end—
his heart was for another.”  

Some I am even embarrassed to actually call "poetry".

  “A Well-Dressed Man   

 His charm
will disarm;
his smile,
in style;
his fashion,
in passion;
his words,
his flirt,
his tie
from his shirt,
to my wrists—
his kiss!
his kiss!
his kiss!”  

But I was still able to find little gems in this very flawed book, nonetheless. 

  “Wallflower   

 Shrinking in a corner,
pressed into the wall;
do they know I'm present,
am I here at all?
Is there a written rule book,
that tells you how to be—
all the right things to talk about—
that everyone has but me?
Slowly I am withering—
a flower deprived of sun;
longing to belong to—
somewhere or someone.”  

  “A Way Out   

 Do you know what it is like,
to lie in bed awake;
with thoughts to haunt
you every night,
of all your past mistakes.
Knowing sleep will set it right—
if you were not to wake.”  

  “All or Nothing   

 If you love me
for what you see,
only your eyes would be
in love with me.
If you love me
for what you've heard,
then you would love me
for my words.
If you love
my heart and mind,
then you would love me,
for all that I'm.
But if you don't love
my every flaw,
then you mustn't love me—
not at all.”

mighty dragon 

Bea R.

“You were you,
and I was I;
we were two
before our time.
I was yours
before I knew,
and you have always
been mine too.”

Eva Korosec

I read this poetry collection out of boredom at work today, just to see what all the fuss is about and … I don’t know, I’m just not very impressed with this kind of poetry to be honest. While there are some longer poems that were lovely to read (like Rougue Planets, Canyons, and Sundays With Michael), the majority of shorter poems were truly nothing special, neither in their message nor in their form.

Reyna Wren

The reviews seem to run rather hot an cold for this one, and I'm afraid that I'm not strictly on either side of the growing divide of opinions on this novel.
This book was recommended to me by a friend, who absolutely loved it. And while I can see why some people may adore this, it simply was not for me. I didn't identify with many of the poems and a lot of them didn't carry any emotion for me, but that could be entirely subjective on the part of the reader. The art, while pretty, was not to my taste, although I did like the typography and graphic design of the book.
My favourite and least favourite poems were sat next to each other in the book, which I found a bit jarring. I went from this travesty:
"A Dangerous Recipe

To love him
is something,
I hold highly
suspicious.

Like having something,
so very delicious--
then being told,
to do the dishes."

I mean, like what does this even mean??? And I'm sorry but the image of "doing the dishes" after eating, when they're all gross and grimy, is not exactly the most romantic image in my mind...

to this:

"Just Friends

I know that I don't own you,
and perhaps I never will,
so my anger when you're with her,
I have no right to feel.

I know that you don't owe me,
and I shouldn't ask for more;
I shouldn't feel so let down,
all the times when you don't call.

What I feel--I shouldn't show you,
so when you're around I won't;
I know I've no right to feel it--
but it doesn't mean I don't."

Which I felt was a rather accurate portrayal of young love and admiration, and brought me back to some choice memories of past crushes.

Overal, the book feels a bit undeveloped emotionally, and the relationships it portrays feel rather toxic in many poems. It comes across as rather juvenile in some spots, and the drama of it feels like a stereotypical teen girl's diary at many points.

Definitely not worth $19.99 Canadian for a paperback (what??? That's a typical price for a hardcover!!!) that was only 155 pages, printed on a single side, so more like 78-ish pages, or less with how little she puts on each one.

Amelia Halliday

a breath she caught and kept- that left her in a sigh

maybe i have low expectations for poetry books but i don’t expect to love every single poem but there were more than a few in here that i read and reread.

Jas Wang

there were a few i couldn't understand, but there were a lot i thoroughly loved.

Lysha Taynish

Not the best collection I've read. Some stood out, most didn't. Fairly short and a quick read. :)

Elizabeth Garza

Maybe its the valentine's holiday but I am very much enjoying books of poetry about love (the good and the bad; the happy and the sad; the stuff that makes us angry and the stuff that makes us sad). It helps that these writers are roughly around my age and truly have a way with words. Leav, in particular, is so deliberate with her word choice (her poems are small and short so, I mean, come on, a lot of thought probably went into each word), and so whimsical yet strong in each message she is delivering with each of her poems. 

I also think Love and Misadventure can be read by anybody at any point in "love" (in love, out of love, falling in love, hating love, loving love, etc.). Another book I highly recommend to anybody wanting to branch into poetry.

Lucía RG

i should rate this 1 star but i felt bad so... that's that.

Olivera Mitić

This was way too naive and simple with a too obvious rhyme and childlike metaphors. Some of it was cute, but I mostly didn't find it to be that big of a deal as everyone's making it be. I suppose that for someone who is reading poetry for the first time, this might seem like an eye opener, which is really great for person in question, but I've read quite a lot of poems myself and just can't appreciate this as much, even though there is potential.
I only liked 4 poems: A Thank-You Note, A Rollercoaster, Rogue Planets and Letting Him Go, and even those weren't that memorable. 
I plan on checking out Leav's other works because she might have matured by time, but overall I am not necessarily impressed by her.

Mica

Hacía un tiempo que no leía poesía que me gustara y la verdad que tenía muchas ganas de leer este libro. 
Por suerte me encantó.

Jordan Robinson

B. K.

1.5 stars. "Underwhelming" is the kindest word I can use to describe this poetry collection. The extra .5 stars is for the poems "Rogue Planets," "Soul Mates," and "Angels," which were the only ones I liked.

Rachel

Love & Misadventure is a collection of poems about the different stages of love. I liked a few of them, but most aren’t anything remarkable & memorable. Thought it was a decent first collection of young love poems.

Larisa Maria &
Love & Misadventure by Lang Leav

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