Written by: Talia Hibbert
Reviewed by: Mary Warren
Once again, Talia Hibbert knocks it out of the park. The romance, the warm fuzzies, the diversity, and all the spicy perfection is Act Your Age, Eve Brown. In this book, we get to learn more about Eve Brown. Unlike her sisters, Eve has never really found her place. She kind of flits from job to job and friend to friend. At the beginning of this book her parents make her aware it is time she gets more serious about her direction in life.
Through a string of humorous mishaps, she finds herself working as a chef at a sweet little bed and breakfast, owned by a man who is less than sweet. Any romance reader knows how this will end, but knowing the end doesn’t make the reading any less entertaining.
Hibbert’s writing is easy to read and incredibly funny. Her characters are easy to fall in love with and root for. All three of the Brown sisters are fully human, flaws and all, but Hibbert writes them so you see who they truly are. Her characters, like real people, are more than the identities and labels that have been pinned to them. Eve is a fat woman of color with autism but you get to see Eve Brown, the delightful woman who loves fiercely and sings incessantly, it is just perfect.
The men in her books are kings; there are no toxic masculinity tropes here. Just fully fledged, fully human, fully wonderful men falling in love. There is consent, and there are healthy boundaries, but there is still drama and spice, and Talia Hibbert writes amazing spice, involving fat bodies. As a fat reader, reading about a fat body being desired is a rare and valuable experience. Of course it is a 5/5 for me, and Talia Hibbert always is.
In summary, Talia Hibbert could publish her grocery list and I would read it and laugh and cry the whole time, I’m sure.