A review by wardenred
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“I’ve come to the conclusion,” she gritted out as she flipped his eggs, “that you are incredibly difficult to be polite to.”

A really fun read, just as expected! Much like with the rest of the series, I absolutely lived for the banter. So many utterly hilarious moments an quotable lines! It took me a little while to start actually shipping the main couple, but I was entertained by their interactions straight from first disastrous meet cute. 

As for the reasons I didn’t get invested in the main couple right away, I think they’re twofold. First, Eve wasn’t very easy for me to connect with. I empathized with her inability to commit to a career path and I was definitely mad at her parents for how they handled this. Why couldn’t they suggest therapy to get to the root of her troubles? But at the same time, she came across as rather bratty and unaware of her privilege. There are plenty of people dealing with the same issues but lacking the kind of resources she had and all the time she got to figure it out at largely her own pace. That' doesn’t minimize her struggles for sure, and I feel like she gained some awareness in the process of the story! But it would be easier for me to root for her if she had more awareness at the beginning. Or, alternatively, maybe if there was a deeper delve into those struggles? Because what we’re seeing in the first chapters is the aftermath of a big backstory that we’re told about but never really shown. Perhaps if I got to see more of her problems and better understand her mindset, it would be easier to find points of connection around this obstacle.

The second reason was, I guess, not untypical for my reactions to Talia Hibbert’s books: the characters’ initial connection is very much sex appeal-based, and I’m too ace to appreciate this kind of attraction, I suppose. It also seemed initially that they were moving through life in very different directions and couldn’t offer each other much. However, this last assumption was turned masterfully on this head as Eve and Jacob fell into a really fun Grumpy/Sunshine dynamic and started pushing each other to far healthier places than they’d been in initially. A dash of forced proximity certainly helped on this journey from enemies to lovers. 

It was fun to see the couples from the previous two books of the trilogy, even though—not to delve into spoilers—the circumstances weren’t ideal. And of course I greatly appreciated the neurodivergence rep that felt really thoughtful and authentic. And… have I mentioned the banter? I know I have, but I need to do it again. It’s THAT awesome!
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