Leanne Olson

by Marie Lu, narrated by Becca Q. Co

published March 28, 2023 from Macmillan Audio

I’m normally a fan of Marie Lu’s writing, but unfortunately this one just didn’t work for me.

The premise sounds like goofy fun: Winter Young is a pop star who is recruited to be a secret agent, and has to work with experienced young agent Sydney Cossette.  

Unfortunately, the book just bored me.  I didn’t feel any real sparkle between Sydney and Winter, and Winter in particular just seemed too perfect to be interesting.

The mission wasn’t that interesting.  The two of them infiltrate a crime lord’s daughter’s birthday party.  There are a lot of the usual cliches in this kind of book, but they feel more motivated by the author trying to hit typical plot points, and don’t seem character-driven to me.  For example, Sydney and Winter decide to go rogue and continue after being pulled from a mission—but I didn’t understand why they were so passionate about this particular mission.

I was hoping for a lot more fun, banter, and cheesy action.  It was fine, and not badly written, but not that interesting.

The narration is good, and doesn’t take me out of the story, but it also didn’t really suck me in.  I’d have DNFed this one if it wasn’t my only audiobook while on a long hike.

I think younger readers who are more into pop music might enjoy this more than me.  I’ve seen reviews by BTS fans who have said Winter reminds them of their favourite stars, so I’m probably not the target audience here.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for my review copy of this audiobook.