Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Rom-Com
Blurb (on back of book): In Act Your Age, Eve Brown the flightiest Brown sister crashes into the life of an uptight B&B owner and has him falling hard—literally.
Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong—so she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It's time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she's not entirely sure how…
Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner’s on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry—and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car—supposedly by accident. Yeah, right.
Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen—and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore—and it’s melting Jacob’s frosty exterior.
MY OPINION: ****
My first book of 2022 and I didn't absolutely despise it!
I'm going to be honest here and admit that I don't really remember anything about this book. I read it approximately three weeks ago and since then have read a lot more interesting and thought-invoking books (that's sort of a lie) and have next-to-zero recollection about what happened in this book. I apologize for the scant review.
This was the final book in the Brown sisters series that we all should be aware that I didn't like as much as everyone else did. I wasn't a fan of the first two books, finding them quite bland and boring. However, this one was my favorite of the three, resulting in a higher rating. I really liked the characters and while it still felt a bit tiresome at times, it wasn't that bad.
I liked how all of the sisters seemed to be similar, in the way that siblings are, but unique in their own ways. Eve definitely was different from her sisters, who seemed to exude with overconfidence and intelligence. Not to say that Eve wasn't confident or smart but she wasn't as outspoken as her sisters and had a lot of insecurities to fight through as the book progressed, which was very interesting and refreshing to see.
I really liked Jacob as well. He was very kind and forgiving despite his initial reservations about Eve. His character was also located somewhere on the autistic spectrum and I think that Hibbert added in this aspect of representation in a very realistic and non-intrusive way. As in the previous books, I liked how these aspects of each character's identity didn't encompass who they were and instead were just another character trait, like having brown hair or hating chocolate.
My only issue with this book was the romance. Now, coming from me, the romance-rom-com-love-happily-ever-true-love-is-real sort of reader, it's rare that the romance is my least favorite part of a book, especially when this book is essentially romance-driven. I just wasn't feeling it with Eve and Jacob. I think they made good friends and would have been excellent platonic soulmates. Their relationship felt very forced and I didn't feel any chemistry between the two. They were extremely different, not in an opposites-attract kind of way but in an we-are-actually-incompatible kind of way. Something about them didn't seem like the typical book-couple.
The banter between the two was so cute and definitely made up for my feeling that there was a lack of chemistry. Hibbert is excellent at writing fun dialogue, as well as including witty quips and emotional conversations.
Minor spoiler: I wasn't a fan of the "third-act-conflict" that is so typical of all rom-coms these days. I won't get into it but it felt so out of place and unnecessary and was resolved in the span of ONE chapter, making it seem like a useless inclusion just to fit the general mold of the rom-com novel. I think that if Hibbert hadn't followed the same format as every other book, it would have made this one even more unique and above-and-beyond for me.
Overall, I wasn't the hugest fan of the Brown sisters series like everyone else seemed to be but I think this one was the most enjoyable out of the three. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a cute, fluffy rom-com. Despite being a part of a trilogy, these technically do not have to be read in order, nor do you have to read any of the other books in the series to understand one.
Main Character: Eve
Sidekick(s): Jacob, friends, family, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstandings, confusion, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.
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