Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

Eve Brown is chaotic and can’t keep a job. When her parents tell her they’re cutting her off until she can stay employed for a year, she storms off and drives away. She ends up in the Lake District where decides to interview for a chef job at a B&B. Jacob, who runs the place, is her complete opposite - particular, OCD kind of person. He doesn’t want to ire her, until she runs him over and he’s in enough of a pickle that he needs her to stay. Well, his best friend decides Eve needs to stay. Eve and Jacob can’t stand each other… or can they?

I knew straightaway how the book was going to end as soon as I read the blurb. And this is not a bad thing. It’s one of these books where you start reading hoping for a happy ending and you get it. It was overall a pleasant and easygoing read, the plot was straightforward and the vocabulary wasn’t too far fetched which makes it a perfect book to just glide through, which is exactly what I did. I read it and put it away, I didn’t become attached to the characters, simply because they didn’t interest me enough.

Don’t get me wrong, I was invested in the story. I enjoyed the progression of Eve’s and Jacob’s relationship, how they found similarities between each other and got closer. However, I think it happened a bit unnaturally. Maybe I’m not familiar enough with the enemies to lovers trope, but it seemed like they hated each other and then suddenly fancied each other, no middle stage whatsoever. That doesn’t mean there was character progression.

Both main characters developed and changed as the story went on, despite holding onto their old habits that almost ruined their relationship at one point. Would I say Eve matured and began to ‘act her age’ though? I don’t think so. I’d say she discovered what she loved doing, which doesn’t necessarily mean maturing. I’d argue that Jacob’s character developed more than Eve’s, with him overcoming his OCD habits and getting out of his comfort zone in order to win a woman he loved. The character I liked the most was Mont and in fact I’d have liked to see more of him. He was underrepresented and I wish I found out how him and Jacob had become friends! When it comes to his sisters though… I understand why their characters were created but I found them both annoying and I think they didn’t bring anything to the table.

While the writing on average was pleasant, I found the two intimate scenes too descriptive. The length of them turned them from romantic to boring, with every single detail being overexplained. The presence of them was surprising as well as I was expecting a sweet, innocent love story however, this was a positive surprise - it added spice but, in my opinion, wasn’t executed very well. I could also argue that the first person point of view would be more beneficial as it would let the readers feel the characters more and would add more depth to the autism-related issues raised in the book which, by the way, was a big positive of the whole story. They were shown without unnecessary exaggeration which was very refreshing to see. As I mentioned before, the ending was predictable but it didn’t stop it from being sweet and satisfying my need for an occasional love story.

Do I want to read other books by this author? Not really. Do I recommend it if you want to read a cute romance with a little bit of spice? I do.

Rating: 3/5