Audiobook Review: Aren’t We Lucky

In Sarah Forbes Stewart’s “Aren’t We Lucky,” we meet two young women: one friendly, frumpy, introverted, and the other outgoing, charismatic, and wealthy.

We immediately skip two decades, and the charismatic one is dead. It was an accident, despite constant rumours to the contrary.

At this point, I settled down for the expected murder mystery. I was sure our frumpy friend, Abby, would, one way or another, start to pick up clues to suggest that wealthy friend, Hetty, had been killed.

That’s not the mystery we get, though.

The real mystery is why Abby remained friends with Hetty for twenty years. Sure, it’s sometimes helpful and fun knowing someone as energetic as Hetty, but the more listeners get to know her, the more cow she seems to be.

“Aren’t We Lucky” storytelling

“Aren’t We Lucky” isn’t a linear story. There are time jumps as often as there is forward progress from the funeral.

I wouldn’t describe the plot as one that bounces up and down the timeline; it’s more structured and measured than that but we do traverse the full twenty years of the two women’s friendships.

Since there’s no murder mystery coming, although those suspicions that Hetty didn’t just slip and fall won’t quite go away, Sarah Forbes Stewart has to find something else to hold our attention.

That “something else” is Abby’s life. She’s not been as successful as her former flatmate, Hetty, and she does not seem terribly happy in her dead-end relationship. Perhaps the death of her overpowering best friend will force Abby out of the shadows and into the light and give her a second wind late in life?

It works. I especially like that it’s okay to be by yourself late in life, as I am, and I see nothing wrong with it. Sarah Forbes Stewart always finds enough interest to keep the next chapter interesting; there’s enough bait to pull again on Abby’s lifeline to see what comes next for our narrator.

The Edinburgh connection

Edinburgh does not feature heavily in “Aren’t We Lucky”, although Scotland does – it is where Hetty dies. Abby lived in Scotland too, moving from Ireland.

However, the book itself was inspired by Sarah Forbes Stewart’s time at Edinburgh University.

Guess what? At Edinburgh Uni, Sarah encountered class-related prejudice. Our author was at Uni on a full grant scholarship and came from a state school in Aberdeen.

Locals will know that this is still a hot-button issue in Edinburgh.

For me, the relationship between Abby and Hetty and the two worlds the friends lived in and managed to cross was never clearer than when Hetty couldn’t understand why Abby wouldn’t work for free, to intern for a bit, just to get experience.

“Aren’t We Lucky” narration

A good narrator can save a bad book, and a bad one can ruin a good book. We have a good story here, and Nicola Coughlan reads it incredibly well.

Our audiobook narrator brings several characters to life wonderfully and clearly and copes with multiple accents.

Overall

I really liked “Aren’t We Lucky”.

I admit it, I had a snip after the opening moments when I realised we wouldn’t plunge into a murder mystery and would get a slice-of-life story instead.

However, I’m impressed at how quickly Abby became an interesting character and how her progression through life became worth listening to.

There are dark moments in this story, which I liked, and light ones, which I also liked. Overall? Recommended.

You can listen to Aren’t We Lucky as an Audible exclusive.

Disclaimer: My copy of the audiobook was provided for free to review..