Thank you to the publisher for providing me with the audio ARC of Fencing with the King by Diana Abu-Jaber.

I unfortunately didn't get on with the writing style and DNFed the book at 20%. The repetitive use of similes, overwriting, and repetition made it very difficult to enjoy the audiobook. In addition, the clunky turns of phrase took me out of the story far too often.

The audiobook is beautifully narrated, and I will be looking for more books read by Rasha Zamamiri.

Fencing with the King has a really interesting plot and some amazing characters! It does start a little slow and there are a lot of names in the very first pages but it all comes together pretty quickly and once it gets going it's a wonderful story! I really enjoyed Amani’s character and her determination to figure out the family mystery. This is a story of family myths, belonging, heritage, and love! A wonderful well written book that would be great for book clubs!

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This was a different book, was a good read but it was harder to read all in one go for me

I began this audiobook and enjoyed the cultural and familial storyline so far but it seems to be dragging for me. For some reason, I am not able to get into it further and had to DNF. Perhaps at another point in time, I will be able to dive in!

I try to write my own summaries for my reviews. I started on this one but it got long and it wasn’t capturing what I wanted it to. So I gave up and here’s the Goodreads blurb:

Amani is hooked on a mystery-a poem on airmail paper that slips out of one of her father's books. It seems to have been written by her grandmother, a refugee who
arrived in Jordan during the First World War. Soon the perfect occasion to investigate arises: her Uncle Hafez, an advisor to the King of Jordan, invites her father to celebrate the king's sixtieth birthday-and to fence with the king, as in their youth. Her father has avoided returning to his homeland for decades, but Amani persuades him to come with her. Uncle Hafez will make their time in Jordan complicated-and dangerous-after Amani discovers a missing relative and is launched into a journey of loss, history, and, eventually, a fight for her own life.

I liked the book. Jordan and the Middle East are FASCINATING and the mystery was engaging. Although, it took me at least 1/3 of the book to feel like I got into the groove of the story. There are so many characters, points of views, and timeline shifts. It was hard to follow and that is probably why I had trouble writing a summary!!

Thanks to @netgalley and @wearefindaway for a copy of this book!

Short synopsis: Amani goes with her father to visit his home country of Jordan. Amani goes on a journey to discover hidden family secrets, including a lost relative.

My thoughts: I enjoyed learning about a different culture and customs in The Middle East. I thought Amani was a great character who was willing to risk her life to investigate and uncover the family secrets.
This one just didn’t quite work for me. I listened on audio, and while the narrator did a wonderful job I think there was just too much going on in the story for me to keep up. It probably would work great as a Bookclub or buddy read to unpack and discuss all this book has to offer.

Read if you’re a sucker for:
* Historical fiction
* Learning about different cultures and customs
* A complex family story where everyone is not who they seem

Thank you to @booksparks and @netgalley for the audio version of this book in exchange for an honest review. This one is out now, so check it out!

Fencing with the King by Diana Abu-Jaber Narrated by: Rasha Zamamiri was a very interesting audiobook and the narrator Rasha was excellent. I love finding a new author and Diana's new book was excellent throughout and was an elegant detailed novel with lots of twists and en excellent ending.

Big Thank you to Diana Abu-Jaber, W.W. Norton & Co, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review

Amani, the daughter of a Jordanian immigrant returns to Jordan with her father for the king's 60th birthday. Her visit is a way to reconnect to her family, its secrets, the culture, and the politics of the time. Fencing with the King is also a love story. In the end Amani, is able to put behind her complicated personal past and move forward. I enjoyed reading this book. Thank you to NetGalley and W.W. Norton and OrangeSky Audio for the advance copy.

I’ve been listening to Fencing with the King, and unfortunately, I had to DNF this one. Beautifully written, Fencing with the King incorporates family dynamics, politics and history. I really wanted to love this one but I could not get into it.

BOOK REVIEW

BOOK: Fencing with the King
AUTHOR: Diana Abu-Jaber
FORMAT: Audiobook
GENRE: Historical Fiction
PUB DATE: 3/15/22
RATING: 6/10
3 stars

Thank you so much @booksparks and @orangeskyaudio for my #gifted advanced copy of the audiobook for FENCING WITH THE KING, out now!

MY THOUGHTS

It’s taken me a little while to be able to gather my thoughts about this one. I finished it right around pub day & struggled to review it. While I did enjoy parts of it, a lot fell pretty flat or went right over my head.

I liked the book followed a Jordanian-American woman and her father as they travel to their home country of Jordan. We learn a lot about Jordanian politics and culture, as well as it’s rich history. A lot of this I was just learning about for the first time so I really appreciated that. I loved the MC. She was fearless, independent, curious, intelligent and determined. The concept of wanting to learn about one’s ancestry and family history in order to really find oneself was a compelling plot line and theme to read about. I also liked that we learned about her father’s childhood as she was learning about it. The writing was beautiful and the author used rich detail to really enhance the reading experience.

As much as I liked the cultural aspect of the book, it was pretty politically charged and a lot of that went over my head. I felt that maybe if I had more of a concrete understanding of Jordan, the Middle East and it’s political history, I may have felt more connected to the story. It also felt a little long, and because of that I kind of lost interest about halfway through. I expected more from the ending as well, and didn’t feel quite satisfied when it ended.

Overall, I am glad I was given the opportunity to read it & did enjoy it. I would recommend this one to anyone who enjoys history, the Middle East region and a character-driven story about family secrets.

Okay this book hooked, me in the beginning. And then I slowly lost interest. I don’t know I just. I like to the world building I liked the characters.
And I read a lot of stuff like this but for some reason I just couldn’t get into it. I don’t know if it’s an off day or what. Not for me good though. Just not for me

Amani takes the reader through her journey on an intergenerational familial mystery, which comments on ancestral displacement. Amani is a Palestinian-American who returns to Jordan with her father, where the matriarch of the family was displaced in World War I. The prose is detailed and lyrical with beautifully paced action scenes within this Arthurian/Lear retelling. The audiobook was beautifully read and very accessible to a western listener.

Thank you to the author and to Orange Sky Audio for this advanced listener copy in exchange for an honest review.

I started listening to “Fencing with the King” with the promise of a story based in the Jordan and an insight into the sport of fencing. It turns out I was wrong, I got much more than what I expected. here’s why!

“Fencing with the King” tells the story of Amani, a Jordanian-American poet who is on a writer's block and still dealing with the recent failed marriage. When her father is invited to a session of fencing with the Jordanian King for his 60th anniversary, Amani takes this opportunity to discover more about her family’s and the country of her ancestors.

Through the book, Amani gets to discover her family and untangle the ups and downs from her family tree. When it comes to fencing, I was a bit disappointed to see that there only a few passages dedicated to this sport, far less than I expected for a book with the sports name in the title.

From a cultural perspective, the story was narrated like an introspection into the culture of the Middle East. The King’s banquet, the country’s history, and the description of the historical site of Petra are well crafted and made me enjoy the book a lot, and I hope it will delight you as well.

Special thanks to NetGalley, OrangeSky Audio, and the editorial team for giving me the opportunity to review the ARC in audiobook format and to you, my reader, for taking the time to read this honest personal book review.

If you are interested in other of my book reviews, make sure to follow me on GoodReads!

#LifeLongLearning #FencingwiththeKing #NetGalley

Pub date: 3/15/22 (out now!)
Genre: historical fiction
In one sentence: Amani discovers a family mystery linked to her grandmother - and when her Uncle Hafez invites her father to celebrate the King of Jordan's birthday, she seizes the chance to investigate.

I love historical fiction and I love finding non-Western stories, so this book taking place in Jordan made for a great fit! The audio performance by Rasha Zamamiri was lovely and transported me to Jordan.

There's a lot going on in this book - the mystery of Amani's grandmother, fencing content, Uncle Hafez being villainous, and a missing relative Amani discovers. I liked that we got a bit of everything, but I couldn't stop thinking I was missing connections and plot points as I listened. I think this would be a great book club or buddy read book - I kept wishing I had someone to discuss it with! Audio newbies - be sure you have a physical copy handy too.

Thank you to @BookSparks and @OrangeSkyAudio for my audiobook of Fencing With the King!

I love how this is a beautiful story transports us to Jordan where Amani travels from the US to visit her Jordanian family, her father finally goes back to his home country after many years.
She is a poet and wants to learns about her family’s struggles and the Palestinian conflicts from the previous decades, she also discovers a few family secrets.
I think is very well written and I also enjoyed the narrators voice, she has a middle eastern accent that makes the experience much believable, like we are really in Jordan.
There are not too many characters nor too many connected stories and it wasn't too long, the writer kept it simple and in a small environment and I really appreciated it.

This is a great story with so much insight into Jordanian culture which I'm deeply attracted to. I also really appreciated the narrator (I listened to the audiobook version) who clearly is of Arab decent which helped a lot with relatability and pronunciation of Arabic words.

The story went on smoothly despite some stalling at the start of the book. I really appreciated the cultural accuracy and the use of authentic terms. I also appreciated how the clashes between Arab and Western cultures were portrayed through the characters (Amani, the main character is Jordanian-American). There was great character development within the story especially with Amani. Needless to say, there's so much cultural depth in this book and such books really intrigue me. Fencing with the King did not disappoint!

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about Arab culture and the integration between the East and the West. And I'm sure that anyone with an Arab decent will thoroughly enjoy this story.

This is a beautiful story that transports the reader to Jordan. Amani is a poet who travels from the US with her Jordanian father back to his home country. While there, Amani learns about her family’s struggles during many of the Palestinian conflicts from the previous decades and discovers long buried secrets surrounding her family.
I enjoyed learning more about Palestinian refugees and the sacrifices that were made to protect their heritage and culture. I really enjoyed Amani’s character and her strong will to investigate a family mystery. There were some moments that were really emotional that will stay with me.

I had hoped to love this book, but it proved very difficult to follow on audio. It was a struggle to figure out who was who in the family tree. I also had a hard time understanding the nuances of Jordanian political history, which seemed important to fully grasp the story.

Still, I enjoyed the writing and plan to try the print version of this book.

Abu-Jaber has written a rich story of a young woman delving into the hidden parts of her Jordanian-Palestinian family. Her characters are deftly handled and developed and become ever more complex as their history unfolds. Using a heritage that straddles the rich culture of two countries, speaking to their era of displacement and the violence that led to it. Amani embarks on her journey to Jordan not expecting to be dropped into the centre of hidden familial secrets.

To seek the story of a presence that has always been with her but that in life seemed to have led an unspoken of life where her expressions were corralled. Amani must now try to uncover the secrets and untold story of her grandmother's life and why there is always tension and an unwillingness to share when she questions her uncle Hafaz. But Amani gets help in unexpected ways and in subtle ways.

I absolutely loved how the author handled the pacing of her plot and the navigation through a complicated and painful family past, while also managing to include domestic drama, political shenanigans, and social hierarchies which definitely enhanced my enjoyment and brought the world to life. A well told and well-written story.

However I do feel as she let Hafaz off too easily after his greedy and entitled betrayal of his family. This made the ending just a bit underwhelming.

Diana Abu-Jaber’s author note at the beginning of Fencing with the King creates immediate interest and gives a personal context to the socio-political nature of the story that follows. Even though it bounces around between perspectives, times, and places, the transitions are for the most part smooth and logical, feeling more like an omniscient narrator than a constructed artifice.

The plot line is engaging, but it is the characters who shine. Family relationships are masterfully, gradually uncovered, and we become more and more vested as the story unfolds. A reader can feel the opportunity for a sequel, and I, for one, will be happy to see it.

The audio is clear and very well paced. It shows A skilled balance of distinguishing characters from one another and straightforward reading, not the performing that can distract from the work itself. I would listen to more books narrated by Zamamiri without hesitation.

Thank you to Diana Abu-Jaber, Rasha Zamamiri, Orange Sky Audio, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.