Act Your Age, Eve Brown (Brown Sisters #3) by Talia Hibbert

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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

The Bride Test (The Kiss Quotient #2) by Helen Hoang

* * * * 1/4

Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.

As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. Esme’s lessons in love seem to be working…but only on herself. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.

With Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along. And there’s more than one way to love. 

Source: advance e-galley provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review


I, like so many readers in Romancelandia, fell so hard for The Kiss Quotient. It was one of the sweetest, sexiest and most tender novels from last year. With such high praise, The Bride Test has a lot to live up to.

First off, The Bride Test has a different feel. Where Stella wanted to experience romance in The Kiss Quotient, there's a lack of it in The Bride Test, at least initially. That's because Esme has been foisted upon Khai as a potential bride by his worried and well-meaning mother. Esme agrees to leave Vietnam for the States where she's expected to woo him and if all goes well, the family will be planning a wedding by summer's end. It's a tall order to expect of someone who's never met the potential groom-to-be and who also happens to have no interest whatsoever in getting hitched. Khai has autism which impacts his interpersonal skills so he doesn't get social cues or read people the same way someone who isn't on the autism spectrum would. The only person with whom he ever got on with and who understood him was his cousin. Khai's convinced himself that he's this dark, broken person unworthy of anything good. So he'd rather stick to his routine and be content with the way things are.

I'm a bit confused by Esme. She's sweet and stronger than I could've imagined. You'd have to be if you're going to uproot yourself for a mad plan like this. But she has a lot at stake back home so she can't turn down the offer Khai's mom puts in front of her. She doesn't understand Khai's behaviour and is unaware of his condition. All she can think to do is try to make his very bland bachelor lifestyle less bachelor-y and more home-y. She tries to introduce a little bit of home by introducing traditional Vietnamese things she likes in hopes that they'll catch his attention. I certainly was not expecting some of the other stuff she winds up doing such as assimilating herself into American culture and going to school. This is what I mean about how strong she is. She has no family here and misses those she left behind, but she's making the most while she's in America. And for all his complaining about her, Khai does get used to having her around and wouldn't you know, starts developing feelings though they feel pretty alien to him. Esme not only baffles him and tests him, she's also patient with him which is something that he's not accustomed to.

The Bride Test is like continuing education for me about autism, at least through the lens of Khai's character. Once again, simple interactions that we take for granted are significant for him. As Khai finds his orderly life changing, he's forced to learn to interact in ways he's never had to before. I felt as if I was also learning something new from a different perspective as well. This is what I love so much about Hoang's writing - that she takes these seemingly banal moments and brings deeper meaning to them. There's a scene where Esme gently touches Khai and his reaction is of pain. He can't tolerate soft touches and when he explains what that sensation feels like to her, he brings context to it and with that empathy.

I admire Helen Hoang's honesty in writing about how autism affects daily interactions. Any time an author can break down and illustrate human behaviour into different parts to make us see it in fresh light, is an accomplishment worthy of all the praise. I am so grateful to be able to read a romance that comes with its own set of unique circumstances. It's a bit of a slowburn that gradually gains traction as they start to click. The Bride Test is warm, funny, empowering and ultimately, a gem of a book. 

~ Bel