Random House audio review of Spare by Prince Harry narrated by the author

Today I'm excited to share my review of Spare by Prince Harry. Like many I have watched him grow up under the flash of the paparazzi's bulb, but now I get the real story and what it was really like growing up the Spare.
Enjoy!

ASIN: B0BJ4JGQGS
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: 01-10- 2023
Length: 15 hours-39minutes
Source: Purchase Chirpbooks
Buy It: Audible/Chirpbooks

ADD TO: GOODREADS

Overview:

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Discover the global phenomenon that tells an unforgettable story of love, loss, and healing.

“Compellingly artful . . . [a] blockbuster memoir.”—The New Yorker

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.

For Harry, this is that story at last.

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.

At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.

Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

My Review:

Spare
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex
Read by the Author

Whether you love the royals or couldn’t care less you need to read/listen to Spare, Prince Harry’s very personal no holds barred story. A bird’s eye view of the pomp, circumstance, drama and most times chaos in the royal Windsor family, the relationship between the royal family themselves and the symbiotic relationship between the royals and the English paparazzi. But it's mostly about a husband and father protecting his family at all costs when he saw the writing on the wall of history repeating itself.

Now I know a lot of you think poor, Prince Harry it’s so tough being born with a silver spoon in your mouth but I encourage you to read the book with an open mind, it opened my eyes and I think it’ll open yours too.

Before the tragic death of Princess Diana her youngest son was a carefree force of nature a bundle of energy, the Spare was a total contrast to his no-nonsense older brother, the Heir. But after her death Harry didn’t know how to deal with his grief, his feelings of isolation and the fury he felt for the press who he blamed for his mother’s death.

In Spare Prince Harry tells his story in his own words against the wishes of his very dysfunctional royal family and the English press/paparazzi who vowed revenge and tried their best to achieve it.

 The book starts at the death of Princess Diana how Prince Harry was told about it by his father, now King Charles, how he felt when when he and his brother were made to greet mourners before his mother’s funeral and how he grappled with her death and for years even believed she had faked her death and would come for him and Prince William when she felt it was safe. Price Harry takes his audience through his difficult childhood his problems with school and into a troubled young adulthood until at twenty-one he finally found his calling in the military but after two combat tours he came home again without a purpose and now with more problems including PTSD.

Then he meets an American Actress who sweeps him off his feet, falling head over heels he knows she’ll win his family and his country over as well, but instead of winning them over she became their sacrificial lamb, and thrown to the press by his royal family.

The rest as they say is history, but you need to read the book to learn the actual history, not the royal and paparazzi approved account that’s sometimes brutal, racist and often a total fictional account of the love story of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Fans of explosive tell all memoirs and Prince Harry will find this absolutely unputdownable.

Narration:
It’s not always a good idea for the author to narrate his/her book but Prince Harry is the absolute best choice for telling his enlightening tale.