You may think you know everything there is to know about Prince Harry's book, Spare.
You may feel there's no need to pick up a copy, because you've heard it all, seen it all, even reacted to it all in the week since it's been published. Think again.
It's one thing to read a bunch of news articles summing up the story. It's quite another to read (or listen to) the story yourself.
Spare, published globally by Penguin Random House, has already witnessed astronomical sales figures. The publisher reports first-day sales of 1.4 million copies (of all formats) in the US, UK and Canada.
King Charles comes across, primarily, as loving and tender
Darling boy. That's the affectionate term King Charles uses to refer to his son Prince Harry throughout Spare.
Even when Harry was in hot water after famously donning a Nazi costume at a dress-up party, Charles's response was: "Darling boy, how could you be so foolish?"
Harry recounts the story of how his father then went on to comfort him – here was a man who understood humiliation, who knew what it was like to have your transgressions held up in front of the world.
He writes about how he believes his father and stepmother, Queen Consort Camilla, have been responsible for leaking information to the media, throwing him "under the bus" to bolster their own reputations publicly.
But for the most part, the King Charles he writes about is loving and tender.
There's a moment when Charles's moniker for Harry frustrates him in adulthood, but it's a term so endearing, it would be hard to imagine it landing in a sinister fashion.
Harry and Meghan — A beautiful love story
In Spare, readers bear witness to the evolution of the love story between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
There are many heart-wrenching scenes – such as when the couple lost their unborn child, as well as the lead-up to when they fled Britain, blaming the "toxic" British press for their departure, — but there are also moments when they're getting to know each other where true romantics will see the blossoming of a beautiful love story.
There's a moment when Harry speaks harshly to Meghan. She simply walks out of the room "disappearing for a full fifteen minutes".
Harry goes to find her. "She was calm, but said in a quiet, level tone that she would never stand for being spoken to like that," Prince Harry writes.
Meghan then goes to on to ask Harry where he'd heard a man speak like that to a woman, going on to say she won't tolerate that kind of partner or co-parent, not wanting to raise children in an atmosphere of anger or disrespect.
It's a learning moment, not only for Harry, but the level of maturity Meghan shows should provide a lesson to readers also. Meanwhile, you can see a bond forming, a love built on attraction, but also mutual respect.
His real frustration is not with his family, but with the press
The overarching theme in Spare is the depth of Harry's angst and disdain for the media.
The source of his deepest frustrations isn't his family, but what he refers to as "the press" and "paps".
It's a searing hatred borne from his belief that the paparazzi were responsible for his mother Princess Diana's death when he was just 12 years old.
"I'd been told that paps chased Mummy, that they'd hunted her like a pack of wild dogs, but I'd never dared to imagine that, like wild dogs, they'd also feasted on her defenceless body. I hadn't been aware, before this moment, that the last thing Mummy saw on this earth was a flashbulb," he writes.
On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Harry expresses why his account of his own life is so important, after confirming to Colbert that he watches The Crown, answering in the affirmative when Colbert asks him if he fact checks it as he watches it.
"Which by the way, by the way," he said, gesturing towards his book, "another reason why it's so important that history has it right."
Harry also points out on the show why it's so important to read the whole book, in context.
"My words are not dangerous," he told Colbert when referring to sections of the media who erroneously reported that he'd "boasted" in the book about his kill count in Afghanistan.
"But the spin of my words are very dangerous".
Spare is currently a hard copy book, an eBook and an audiobook, read by the author, in which Harry is speaking at the perfect pace, so it will take you all 15-and-a-half hours to get through it.
Listeners will hear the full impact of his words while listening to the audiobook in the tone in which it's intended.
Spare – the 410-page book, which may take you a few days to read — is an engaging account from a sometimes tortured prince.
