Act Your Age, Eve Brown

“Act Your Age, Eve Brown” is a novel about a flighty twenty-six year old who discovers happiness and maturity at a small town B & B. I appreciated that the author provided a note prior to the first chapter as a trigger warning of the content inside the novel. I also appreciated that with she has chosen to not have the current global pandemic be present in the novel and that this book is meant to provide a form of escape.

Before chapter one of the novel, the author provides the reader with Eve’s Act Your Age Playlist which serves as a way to help the reader better connect with Eve through her taste in music. When the novel begins, Eve is writing in her trusted journal and nursing her wounds after a mishap involving doves at a wedding she planned for her childhood friend Cecelia. After the dove debacle, Eve shuts down her wedding planning business, completely surprising her parents.

After Eve’s parents express disappointment at Eve and cut off her trust fund, Eve is left embarrassed and unsure of what to do next. While trying to figure out her next move, she stops in a town call Skybriar and feels it must be fate when she sees a sign at the local B & B looking for a chef. Although Eve does knows how to cook, she views this job as a temporary fix until she gets back into her parents’ good graces.

Castell Cottage Bed and Breakfast in Skybriar is run by Jacob Wayne. Jacob is very rule oriented and hyperfocused due to having autism. Jacob has a specific idea of the type of person who should be hired as his chef and Eve is definitely not that person. During the chef interviews, Jacob is being assisted by his best friend Montrose (aka Mont.) Mont acts as a buffer to Jacob’s harsh behavior towards perspective employees.

When Eve enters the B & B for the chef interview, Jacob has already decided he doesn't like her and judges her as unreliable, disorganized, and unprofessional. Just as Eve is about to leave the interview, Mont tells her about the dire situation Jacob finds himself in. Jacob is livid at Mont’s telling Eve about the situation and Jacob clearly states that Eve will not be hired for the job.

After Eve leaves the Castell Cottage and goes to her car to figure out other job prospects, Mont and Jacob have a conversation about the future of the B & B which leads Jacob and Mont to go searching for Eve to offer her the chef job on a trial basis.

Unbeknownst to Eve, Jacob is right behind her car and she backs up into him, causing him to break his arm. Since the B & B was being operated solely by Jacob, Mont directs Eve to take care of Castell Cottage while he takes Jacob to the hospital.

When Jacob returns from the hospital, Eve makes it her mission to do right by Jacob and the guests staying at the B & B. While Eve and Jacob initially don’t get along, as the novel progresses, both start to let their defenses down, learn to trust, and in the end find love.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel because I liked that although Eve is a plus size woman, she is not written in a demeaning way. I liked that Jacob’s autism was addressed in a direct manner and that it is written as something that just one part of who he is as a person. I also liked that although the book is set in England, the storyline is versatile and could work in any setting.

This book was an entertaining read and although there weren’t many sexual scenes, the sex scenes that were in the book were very steamy.

Overall, this was a good read and I was surprised that this book is actually the third in a series written by Talia Hibbert (other books are Get a Life, Chloe Brown and Take a Hint, Dani Brown.) Considering how much I enjoyed reading this novel, I definitely plan to read Hibbert’s two previous books soon.

This one is the best of the series!