Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
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 is 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.
Give me enemies to lovers and I’ll read it any day, every day, of the week. There’s just something so great and fun about a couple that can’t stand one another at the start because the banter that is born from that is priceless and no matter how feelings may change, the sass and banter doesn’t go away, and to me, that’s what makes great chemistry. Witty banter all the way my friends! Eve Brown was probably my favourite story of the three Brown sisters. The other books were amazing, Chloe was my favourite sister as I related to her the most, Zaf was my favourite male lead because he was the sweetest, but the plot for this book was the superior story. Set in an idyllic little English town at a bed and breakfast? With enemies to lovers, tonnes of humour, and an accidental car maiming, I couldn’t get enough of it.
We start off with Eve recounting her latest “failure”. She’s a girl who can’t decide what she wants to do with her life and a crippling fear of failing at what she loves so she bounces around form job to job. Her parents have finally had enough and lay down the law: she has to keep a steady job for one year or she’s cut off from her allowance. For Eve that’s like a death sentence so she finds herself arriving at this small town B&B in which there just happens to have a chef position available. Unfortunately, her new potential employer isn’t a fan of “spur of the moment” decisions which is basically Eve’s entire personality. Through insane circumstances he has no choice but to give her the job and they both learn so much about themselves throughout the journey. They are the perfect balance to one another. Eve brings out the fun in Jacob, showing him how to enjoy life, and Jacob helps steady Eve’s impulsiveness.
There were so many things to love about this book. Eve has been a fun character right from book one, always ready with a quip and a good playlist. Her little quirk of incorrect word placement is one of my favourite things about her, and Jacob’s responses to that quirk made this book the cutest thing to ever exist. He’s the only person who doesn’t correct her but understands what she’s saying and focuses on what she’s actually trying to express not just her grammar use. Their back and forth was gripping and I am in amazement at how good Talia set up the banter between these two. Somehow these two extremely different characters were able to understand each other so easily.
Jacob’s characterization was great. We’ve always loved the put together businessman who might be a little cranky but Jacob did it in such a way that he wasn’t really an asshole…. sounds contradictory but it worked. He was a sweet character who was a little closed off from life. Eve blew that doorway he’s kept shut wide open. But for someone with as heartbreaking of a past as him and a history of being bullied, he’s a very well-rounded character. I like that he accepts every part of himself. He’s not conscious about not having been the cool kid, he accepts that his autism is a part of him (although also understands it isn’t the only thing that he is) and he’s confident in what he’s good at. If only he could not be so oblivious to his own feelings sometimes, his life would be pretty great. Eve is the funnest of the three sisters and even being the “happy-go-lucky” sister, there’s depths to her we couldn’t have imagined and I related a lot to some of her self-doubts and trials. Seeing her journey through this book was so inspiring.
I really enjoyed this book. The plot was a little predictable but the characters really brought this story to live with so much energy and sparks. I loved Eve and Jacob’s dynamic and this is my favourite of Talia Hibbert’s novels so far. I gave it 5 stars.