Act Your Age, Eve Brown

Try as I might, I just can't climb fully onto the Talia Hibbert bandwagon. I find lots of things to like in her books, but I don't find myself immersed in them. Act Your Age, Eve Brown does a lot of things well. I liked Eve's character growth and the illustration of how autism looks different in women than in men. There are numerous entertaining scenes between Eve and Jacob; Hibbert knows how to write clever banter and create sexual tension between her MCs even in bizarrely humorous moments. But sometimes she is so much into her characters' feelings and thoughts that very little else happens, and other parts of the plot are barely touched upon. We're told that Eve had trouble making and keeping real friends but there are no scenes that illustrate that problem. And considering how much Eve is thrilled to discover that she likes the job at Jacob's B&B, we don't see many examples of her working or interacting with the guests. Instead, there are pages and pages of cute scenes in which she and Jacob flirt and get all hot and bothered.

The approach to sex is another area in which Hibbert doesn't work for me, and I own that is my issue entirely. She is raunchily R-rated, with lots of references to Eve's wet pussy, sparkly vibrators, etc. I know we're into the era of sex positivity and W.A.P., but it was a bit much for this embarrassed Baby Boomer. YMMV.

I'm extremely glad that Talia Hibbert has brought a lot of diversity to contemporary romance with her curvy, neuro-atypical, chronic pain survivor, women of color heroines. God knows the romance scene needed to be cracked wide open. I hear she is exploring YA romance next, and I wish her lots of success. I think I'll applaud from a distance as the continues to conquer the romance genre.