Review: Act Your Age, Eve Brown

I, like many rom com readers, discovered Talia Hibbert in late 2019 with Get a Life, Chloe Brown. I absolutely loved it and was all in on her Brown Sisters series. Take a Hint, Dani Brown absolutely blew me away and was a top book of 2020. Act Your Age, Eve Brown released this week and I was both very excited and very apprehensive about this final book in the trilogy. I don't know why I was worried. I loved it from start to finish.

Here's the book's description:

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.

Given how much I loved Chloe and then how much more I loved Dani, I wasn't sure if Eve could live up to her older sisters. Like I said, it was silly to worry because Hibbert is so freaking talented that I feel like an idiot for doubting her skills at writing characters I'd love. Eve seems to be quite different from her sisters. She's bubbly and louder and full of sunshine that she loves to spread to everyone she knows. I loved that Eve learned so much about herself in this book and why she is the way she is (and that why is a reason she's more similar to her sisters than she thought). She's a character you're going to absolutely adore and seeing her become more confident and sure of herself was magical.

The hijinks in this book seem so completely bananas but it works! Because of course Eve would randomly come across a job, hours away from home, that she'd be good at. And of course she'd hit the B&B owner with her car. And of course there would be a Duck Incident. But it all works and it works so well. I was laughing at the antics so often and I loved it because there was so much joy and good intentions throughout too. Sure, you kind of have to suspend your beliefs a little bit but this is a rom com. It's meant to be a bit out there and full of love and laughter.

I love a good trope and this book has a couple I really like. Something I'm just learning about myself is that I do enjoy enemies to lovers, when they're done well (I think I've read a lot of bad ones that lean too far into the alpha male/dominant personality and they've scarred me a bit) and this novel has a nice twist on that trope. To say Eve and Jacob were enemies indicates there's some sort of history there where, in reality, the pair meet and Eve immediately offends every sensibility Jacob has and they get off on the wrong foot. (Eve hitting him with car doesn't help, of course.) I loved loved loved reading as they learned about each other and opened up. There's also the forced proximity trope as Eve just sort of...moves into the B&B. Jacob's reaction when he finds out was too funny. I liked that the sort-of-not-really-but-actually living together resulted in sexy times that were so natural. And steamy. Hoo boy. *fans self* These sex scenes are not for the faint of heart and I loved them!

Hibbert is fantastic at writing amazing female characters and wonderful heroes who fall in love with them. Cinnamon bun heroes are drastically overlooked and I very much appreciate Hibbert giving me so many men to swoon over who are smart, attractive, and super sweet. They might not seem to be squishy, adorable guys at first glance but, oh my, are they ever. They're respectful of the Brown women and just can't help but fall head over heels in love with them. Naturally that means I can't help but fall head over heels in love with them. *swoons* Just the best.

I can't comment from a personal experience on the portrayal of characters on the autism spectrum, just like with the sisters being Black. BUT. I can appreciate it and be so thankful that publishers are figuring out that readers want to read characters from every background. There's so much more to be done but I'm glad authors like Hibbert are out there writing these stories for us.

To compare all three Brown sisters books is like comparing cupcakes. (Provided you like cupcakes. If you don't, please think of something you DO like that can come in different flavours but are all equally delicious. And also tell me how you can not like cupcakes. No judgment. Just much confusion.) They each have their own style and flavour but they're all completely wonderful. I cannot recommend this series enough. Act Your Age, Eve Brown was so wonderful to read and I enjoyed every second I spent with Eve and Jacob. I didn't want it to end! I cannot wait to devour more of Talia Hibbert's novels and am really looking forward to the spinoff Skybriar series. Read these books, friends!

Review of Get a Life, Chloe Brown 
Review of Take a Hint, Dani Brown

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*