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I love Elizabeth Acevedo and will read every book she writes. She's also a fantastic audiobook narrator, which is how I consumed this story. Unfortunately I couldn't get into this one as easily as her previous works. There were too many characters and I couldn't keep track of them all. The writing was poetic and beautiful as usual, but I wish the story focused on one or two main characters rather than four sisters and two cousins.

I love memoirs, especially when the author narrates the audiobook version, so I was excited to get my hands on this from my library. I remember Alyson Stoner from the Missy Elliot video, as most people do, as well as some Disney shows and movies. Being a child star is tough and I was anticipating learning about what they went through growing up. It’s fascinating to learn about someone’s life and to have access to so much - it really fills my curiosity. It’s hard to rate memoirs since it feels like I’m rating someone’s life, rather than the presentation and writing of it. This was an interesting listen and had some difficult parts to hear about, but this book was written well, narrated excellently (forgot they were a voice actor) and kept my interest. It was nice to see Alyson evolve and find their true purpose and identity in life, and I wish them much success in their personal and professional life.

Julia Whelan is one of my top fave narrators! Everything she touches (narrates) turns to gold imho. That is why I picked up this audiobook from my library. I haven’t been too taken by any Emily Henry novels yet but this one got me hooked. I liked that the fmc is a librarian, as I am. The premise was interesting as well; Daphne was broken up with by her fiancée for his childhood best friend, so she moves in with the jilted boyfriend of the best friend. Miles was a yummy mmc and I enjoyed his personality. Lot of family dynamics at play and found family, which I love. Overall an enjoyable read with excellent narration and hopefully a movie in the future.

Someone recommended this book on Twitter so I got the audiobook from hoopla. It was a quick listen with solid narration and I thought it was interesting. I’ve personally not owned a gun or used one, but I can definitely see the case for it, especially when most non-violent means do not achieve much. I appreciated how folks worked together despite these differences and were firm in their ways. The kkk kept pissing me off but it was satisfying to see the cowards retreat when faced with armed opposition. Black folk were not presented with many options to defend themselves and guns were seen as generally acceptable, even by white supremacists. I hope there is a resurgence of this movement in modern society as it is much needed due to the violence committed upon people by the state and government and other bad actors. This is the only language the oppressors will listen to so we might as well use it.

I’ve listened to one other book by this author and thought it was cute. This one is more of the same and the narration was done well for the female characters but not so much for the males. I was so upset for Leah at her cousin’s wedding. Couldn’t she have just wished the bride & groom well in English and avoided any mistakes? I liked the idea of connecting to one’s roots and learning the mother tongue, but wasn’t too invested in Leah’s journey and Cyrus was too much at times.