Act Your Age, Eve Brown (The Brown Sisters, 3); Talia Hibbert

I’ll be the first to admit that “Act Your Age, Eve Brown” was, out of the Brown sister’s series, the one I was looking forward to reading the least. From the brief snippets I saw of Eve in Chloe and Dani’s books, she always kind of annoyed me. So, to say I was a bit apprehensive about her book would be putting it mildly, but man, did Eve prove me wrong just like she did to her family. Eve is a super sunshine character with certain… quirks. She’s so afraid of failing that she quits just as things start to get hard to avoid the stigma of being a failure. It’s terribly relatable, and her parents’ reaction to their twenty-six-year-old child “failing to launch” is totally understandable, too. That’s how Eve finds herself in the country interviewing, on a whim, for the chef position of an adorable bed and breakfast. Typical romance hijinks ensue, and Eve is forced to take the job, and take care of the owner who she hit with her car, out of guilt. I really enjoyed the kind of twist on the sunshine and grumpy love interests that came out of this too, because neither is happy or grumpy just for the sake of it, which is why Hibbert is my favorite romance author.

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Being able to see inside of Eve’s head was the thing missing in the other books because you finally get to understand her quirks, and without that context, it makes sense why she can be a bit annoying to others. Seeing why she does certain things or is the way she is makes so much sense now, and it makes me feel bad for not liking her initially. She’s a genuine people pleaser, who cherishes taking care of others as it brings her joy in return. Watching Eve come to that realization about herself and not running from it was a delight. As was watching Jacob learn to be his genuine self around Eve in return. His grumpiness is part of his Autism and needing things just so, and while I can’t speak towards the accuracy of the representation, I thought Jacob, as a character, was truly a delight. Eve and Jacob’s banter and how they interact with each other is just so fun that, and I’ve said this before, Hibbert must write all fictional men from now one, please and thank you. Plus, like all the books in this series, each character grows and addresses the emotional wounds that were born of awful people hurting these precious characters due to their invisible illnesses, and it’s no different this time around. How Eve grows to accept herself and stand up for herself toward her family was perfection, as was the whole romance but this was such a good added bonus, too.

I went into this book expecting it to be my least favorite of the series, but it now sits right up there next to Chloe’s book which is still one of my favorite books. Sorry, Dani. Plus, the steam in this book? Good lord is it scorching! So hot, so good! So, it’s no surprise this gets an enthusiastic 5 stars from me. One last note: You don’t have to read any of these contemporary romances in any particular order as they are all stand alone, but I do recommend reading them in their publishing order because when the sisters show up in each other’s books, timeline wise with their relationships, it makes more sense and it avoids any potential minor spoilers.