What a life and so many achievements! This is a great one even for a fencing novice, such as myself. I quite enjoyed this memoir, and admired her grit, determination, and perseverance. Which all might be the same thing, who knows! I admired that for her and at the same time it was so difficult listening to the constant “subtle” discrimination she experienced. I called it “subtle” bc it wasn’t like overt slurs and like all caps RACISM or ISLAMOPHOBIA but rather the lower case kind. It happened at every level (including on the US Olympic team) which was very upsetting. Upon listening to all the work and effort she put in, I just wished for her to have the option to rest. I know why she couldn’t at the time bc she wanted to secure her future and gain broader acceptance for Muslims in America, but my goodness I wish she could take a break from always pushing forward and having the world on her shoulders. It’s challenging to be a representative for so many communities all of the time. 

I’m definitely going to be following her life now, she does so many various cool and inspiring things. I’m glad the author narrated it, she did a great job. 

 My 4.5 stars is solely for the writing style, it could a bit smoother and I would’ve liked to hear more about the post-Olympic bronze win. 

I almost finished this but then realized….why? I wasn’t having a good time and had to force myself to pick it back up. So I decided to DNF! 

It's a bit repetitive + I just can't have a workplace romance (boss/employee) have the vibe of "forbidden." He has a temporary job for the summer at her family's vineyard, and they're acting like it's ILLEGAL for them to be together??? It's not, I promise. 

Also - he offered to quit, as soon as he realized!! And she said no! And yet they often said how much they wanted each other, how incredible their one night was, etc. What’s stopping them?? Literally nothing.

The repetitive part was that there were frequently moments when they were interacting where things were repeated a lot. For instance, through coincidence they ended up taking a long drive together, which takes maybe 5-10 pages, and they keep referencing the same things or revisiting the same ground. Over and over! And the same thing when they first talked about the boss/ employee situation when they first realized. Which just got annoying!! Bc they didn’t cover much ground in their conversations bc they’re constantly circling back. 

As always, I am tearing through these authors’ works 

what an emotionally turbulent cruise 

The title was so compelling, I was immediately intrigued. I have since realized after getting slightly less than halfway through the book though, that I do not get speculative poetry. Some poems were very good, most I did not understand. 

This one was strange bc it was angstier than I expected but also….a lot of the angst wasn’t resolved? The issues between Rahul and Jasmine were resolved for the most part, but their internal struggles certainly were not. And their internal struggles directly correlate to their issues with each other, so…

Jasmine’s especially, her issues with her mother were hinted at throughout so I thought there would be a big reveal or realization but that…just didn’t happen. We do have a scene where she and her father chat and Jasmine finally brings up her mother for the first time in years, and then their convo is summarized/glossed over. Like we didn’t hear any issues nor understood the root cause, the author just keeps it moving with a general “and then they talked” sentence or two. What??? The ENTIRE premise of the book is that Jasmine does not date nor fall in love, but we never learn exactly why + what happened with her mother that result in not dating as a coping mechanism. Also, speaking of things not being resolved, why did we hear so many times about Jasmine’s mysterious arm scar that she didn’t like to talk about, if that was never going to be addressed?? 

As for Rahul, he very clearly had some issues with control and putting too much pressure on himself after his dad died. And Jasmine lightly teased him about it a few times, he had some light realizations, and then one conversation with his mother, and that’s it?? He’s fixed now! 

So all that to say, this certainly wasn’t my favorite Talia Hibbert book. I had been racing through her backlog, but after this + A Girl Like Her, I think I’ll take a pause.