I’m back with another batch of mini reviews, including for some of the most anticipated books of the past few months: Act Your Age, Eve Brown; Lore; The Roommate; and One to Watch.

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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’s 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.

CW: Ableism, childhood neglect
Rep: Black and fat MC, autistic characters

Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Act Your Age, Eve Brown is, rightly so, on almost every most anticipated books of 2021 list I’ve seen. The conclusion of Hibbert’s Brown Sisters series, I too was eager to read this one and was so excited when I was approved for an eARC. It starts off a bit slow and then it escalates drastically. Like the other Brown Sisters books, it’s easy and quick to read. As with the others, I adored how the book touches on Chloe and Dani (Eve’s sisters).

Unfortunately, I have to say that this is personally my least favorite of the trilogy, but that’s just personal taste (and maybe because Eve reminds me a little bit of my younger sister). It definitely has all of the Talia Hibbert trademarks. It’s brilliant and adorable and deeper than you might expect. The banter is top notch, and I adored Eve and Jacob. I was surprised there wasn’t more conflict and thought it was setting up for more, but I enjoyed the story arc and conclusion regardless. Honestly, I just loved Take a Hint, Dani Brown so much that it would’ve been really hard to exceed my expectations. Overall, a great read and definitely recommended!

Lore

By Alexandra Bracken

Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.
 
Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family’s sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory. For years she’s pushed away any thought of revenge against the man—now a god—responsible for their deaths.
 
Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.
 
The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore’s decision to bind her fate to Athena’s and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost—and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.

CW/TW: Sexual assault, bullying, violence and blood, murder
Rep: Disabled side character, gay side characters, character with cancer, Korean side character

Another one of my most anticipated reads, I dove into Lore right away when it arrived. If you don’t know, I love Bracken’s The Darkest Minds trilogy. I also love the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, so I was super excited for this one. For the most part, it really delivered. It’s a pretty dark, violent, and gory book, but I think it fits the story and I liked that it was so gritty. I know some amount about Greek mythology, and while I don’t think you need to go into the book with much knowledge of it, it definitely helps. It can be a bit hard to follow if you don’t know Greek mythology at all and is still a little difficult at the beginning if you don’t know much about the particulars of the relevant mythology for the book.

It was a pretty quick read for me, but the pacing does feel off a bit at times, though I can’t pinpoint what about it seemed “off.” Similarly, some of the reveals later on in the book both took me by surprised and also didn’t, which I think could be a sign of great writing and foreshadowing. At times, the “mysteries” were more confusing than mysterious/compelling, but a couple of them work really well in the end.

The characters are really the best part of this story. Bracken does such a great job of writing stories that are the right balance of character and plot driven. I liked Lore, and although she could be a bit annoying at times, it always made sense to the story and to the character in a way that I can respect and appreciate. Castor is a bit too perfect, but I do love him and Lore and Castor’s scenes together are fantastic. I likewise really love Miles and Van. However, I have to say that almost all the side characters felt slightly under-developed. I think it’s a side effect of having a decent sized cast and a lot of plot and build up but also a standalone book. I think some of the character building and background was sacrificed for the plot. Again, I loved the characters and the dynamics so it’s okay, but if you think about them for a little bit, they start to feel a bit flat (aside from Lore, who is very well developed).

Lastly, if you’re going into the story expecting a lot of NYC love…it wasn’t really like that. There is a sprinkle of it, and I can appreciate it, but I don’t think it was a big enough part of the story to totally convince/compel me on that front.

The Roommate

By Rosie Danan

The Wheatons are infamous among the east coast elite for their lack of impulse control, except for their daughter Clara. She’s the consummate socialite: over-achieving, well-mannered, predictable. But every Wheaton has their weakness. When Clara’s childhood crush invites her to move cross-country, the offer is too tempting to resist. Unfortunately, it’s also too good to be true.

After a bait-and-switch, Clara finds herself sharing a lease with a charming stranger. Josh might be a bit too perceptive–not to mention handsome–for comfort, but there’s a good chance he and Clara could have survived sharing a summer sublet if she hadn’t looked him up on the Internet…

Once she learns how Josh has made a name for himself, Clara realizes living with him might make her the Wheaton’s most scandalous story yet. His professional prowess inspires her to take tackling the stigma against female desire into her own hands. They may not agree on much, but Josh and Clara both believe women deserve better sex. What they decide to do about it will change both of their lives, and if they’re lucky, they’ll help everyone else get lucky too.

Rep: Sex workers

Even though a lot of people have said they loved this book, I still didn’t really know what to expect and it definitely took me by surprise – it’s SO GOOD and SO STEAMY. The characters’ chemistry is just A+. It’s an easy and quick read, with relatable/sympathetic main characters and an interesting plot. I loved seeing the main characters’ insecurities and saw some of myself in Clara in particular. It’s a fun book and exactly what I was looking for in a book when I picked it up.

I’m glad that it’s really sex positive and shows stories of sex workers who love their job and feel passionate and unashamed about it while not skirting away from the wider reputation and lack of societal acceptance, as well as acknowledging and grappling with the harmful sides of the industry. In the end, it still feels a bit surface level and a very white understanding of the complexity of sex work and the lives of sex workers. In many ways, this story doesn’t really dig into the complexities, but I don’t think it needed to (or even should have; it probably wouldn’t be right for a white woman to write about some of the other complexities and how other intersectional identities impact sex workers). I respect it for what it does say and touch upon, and I think that for many readers who haven’t been exposed to or aware of some of the discussion around sex work, it’s a good starting point and provides a different perspective.

One to Watch

By Kate Stayman-London

Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Insta followers–and a massively broken heart. Like the rest of America, Bea indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates The kiss-off rejections The surprising amount of guys named Chad But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television?

Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition–under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She’s in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful beauty standards, inspire women across America, and get a free hot air balloon ride. That’s it.

But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes things are more complicated than she anticipated. She’s in a whirlwind of sumptuous couture, Internet culture wars, sexy suitors, and an opportunity (or two, or five) to find messy, real-life love in the midst of a made-for-TV fairy tale. In this joyful, wickedly observant debut, Bea has to decide whether it might just be worth trusting these men–and herself–for a chance to live happily ever after.

CW/TW: Fatphobia, cheating, abandonment
Rep: Fat rep, Ace side character/love interest, Black love interest, Asian Jewish love interest, single dad

I see this book being described as a romance, but I honestly don’t really know that that’s the right classification for the book. As a disclaimer, I don’t really watch or enjoy reality shows like The Bachelor so I might not be the audience for the book. Mostly I thought it was a very meh book that isn’t very exciting or surprising. It was pretty clear who she’d end up with, even with the plot twist. I suppose in romance novels you do know who the love interest is and that they’ll end up with the main character, but I think that works a little less well for this kind of set up, where I think we’re supposed to be unsure which of the contestants she’ll actually end up with.

None of the relationship were believable, and I honestly didn’t really care about any of them. I didn’t feel anything, even when she was very happy or sad/angry. There’s also a lot of fatphobia that is supposedly really key to the story, and although I can understand the decision to write the story this way, I’m also not convinced that it was totally necessary to go as far as it did. But I am not fat and so should not decide that. Overall, I was pretty disappointed but could see why others might enjoy it.