Wow. That was something. Besides the Queen’s funeral last year, I’ve largely ignored any news surrounding the monarchy. And so, Spare by Prince Harry wasn’t exactly on my radar. That is, until I saw the audiobook pop up on Libby and noticed that Prince Harry himself was the narrator. Quick glance at the holds queue told me I would be third. Alright, I figured, might as well find out what all the controversy is about.
WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH by Elizabeth Acevedo
With the Fire on High easily is one of my favourite books that I read this year. Emoni loves to cook and dreams of becoming a chef. That’s all I needed to know in order to borrow the audiobook. With the Fire on High offers so much more than a trope I can’t get enough of, though. It brings to light complicated relationships, the difficulty of balancing responsibilities and ambitions, and a huge dash of heart.
A DEADLY EDUCATION by Naomi Novik
A Deadly Education left me with very mixed feelings. The opening line held so much promise. It offered conflict and an intriguing dichotomy right from the get-go. Such as, why would anyone want to kill the very person who’d saved their life? What more when they had saved them more than once? I wanted answers but didn’t feel like I got much by the end of the book. Is this one premise supposed to span across the entire series? Evidently, but the opening of the story arc for it didn’t turn out as solidly as I had hoped.
TWEET CUTE by Emma Lord
Tweet Cute was so much more relatable than I had anticipated. Based off the title alone, I probably wouldn’t have picked up the audiobook. But I did remember enjoying Open Road Summer years ago, not realising that Emma Lord wasn’t Emery Lord. Oops. ‘Twas a good mix-up though because I really enjoyed Tweet Cute.