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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.
Source: NetGalley; ARC generously provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review
I wish my review could be one line: "This is a bloody good book, read it!", but I should probably elaborate.
I have experienced so much joy in reading about the Brown sisters but I was not prepared to fall so head over heels for Eve Brown and her beautiful, genuine soul. She hardly has it all together - at least by her family's standards - and she's hardly got a clue as to what she wants to do, so when her family holds an intervention to set her straight, she literally runs away. She gets on the road and in her complete haze, ends up in a cute little village, sees a wanted ad for a chef at a bed and breakfast and pops on in for an impromptu interview. The interviewer, Jacob is aghast that Eve would show up unprepared and not dressed for the occasion (she is in a graphic tee and her hair is an unnatural color of purple). No prospective employer would take an interviewee who shows up like that seriously, so he sends her off, and only a few minutes later he gets hit by her car. Now he's SOL and desperately needs someone to help him at the B&B and Eve feels she must stay and help. This is a temporary arrangement. TEMPORARY, she reminds herself.
The start of this story is so bonkers and it so perfectly sets up the cheeky and fiery dynamic between Eve and Jacob. She is the sunshine and roses to his grumpy, rigid persona. She's always challenging him and they're constantly verbally dueling or aggravating each other. It's all done with the best humor and sarcasm which made me so, so happy! Eve settles in to her role delightfully at the B&B and even the moody Jacob can't deny how positively radiant and vibrant she is, making his guests feel welcome and comfortable. As with the previous two Brown Sisters books, AYAEB is another own voices story with Eve and Jacob both being on the autism spectrum. Jacob has learned he had it at a younger age and how to manage it while Eve hasn't figured it out yet. I found this discovery like a lightbulb going on because I obliviously operated under the assumption that autism is always diagnosed early in childhood. I never gave it a second thought that diagnosis could happen later in life and that this could drastically impact the person's quality of life. Once again, Talia Hibbert educated me and set me off to do my own mini research on it. She doesn't beat the info into the reader's brain but rather simply shows it through the characters' growing awareness. This is why despite their different temperaments that Jacob and Eve click because there's something deep below the surface that they inevitably recognize in each other. And oh my gosh, they are totally hot together! It's been a long time since I've been this excited about a fictional couple and of course, it'd be a Talia Hibbert book!
How many ways can I say this? Reading any of these Brown Sisters books is a joyous experience and I think AYAEB has to be my favorite of the trilogy. Everything about it pushed all the right buttons for me -- the humor, wit, Eve and Jacob's chemistry, the setting... Eve herself is instantly likable and I just want to be besties with her. And her family makes an appearance - all of them so bizarre and off the rails sometimes - but so uniquely themselves. I've had a blast reading this series and Act Your Age, Eve Brown is the icing on the gingerbread (read it, you'll get it)!
~ Bel
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