Book Review: A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert

Title: A Girl Like Her
Series: Ravenswood #1
Author: Talia Hibbert
Published: March 14, 2018
Genre(s): Romance: Contemporary
Page Count: 308
Rating:

Summary from Goodreads:

In Ruth Kabbah’s world, comic books are king, silence is golden, and human contact is a pesky distraction. She doesn’t like people, which works out just fine, because the people in this small town don’t like her. The exception to that rule? Evan Miller, her way-too-charming next-door neighbour…

Ex-military man Evan is all tattooed muscle on the outside—and a big, cuddly teddy bear beneath. He’s used to coaxing prickly people from their shells, but he’s never met a woman quite like Ruth. Blunt, sarcastic, and secretly sad, she’s his exact opposite. She’s also his deepest desire.

Soon, Evan’s steady patience and smouldering smiles are melting Ruth’s reserve. But when small-town gossip from her past begins to poison her future, she’s forced to make a choice. Should she trust Evan completely? Or is her heart safest alone?

It’s hard for me, sometimes, to find a romance that makes my heart happy, satisfies my soul, and makes me believe in love. If that sounds overly sentimental, rest assured that I don’t often find such books, so I don’t usually sound so…flouncy. But. Sometimes, I do. And then I melt into a gushy mess.

Talia Hibbert’s A Girl Like Her turned me into a pile of feelsy goop. This book was absolute perfection, and then some. It’s by far the best book I’ve read so far this year. Like, seriously. Any contemporary romance I read for the rest of 2018 will be measured against this (and it will probably not meet the standards, tbh.)

This is a love story between Ruth Kabbah, the prickly and awkward self-proclaimed “Town Jezebel,” and Evan Miller, her new neighbor. If we’re being honest, I picked this book up because A) it came highly recommended, and B) the promo materials highlighted Ruth’s autism. Spoiler: I think this is some of the best neuroatypical rep I’ve seen in fiction like…ever. God, so great. Anyhoo.

So, yes. Ruth is a web comic designer who loves to wear superhero pajamas and can’t cook. She’s also the town pariah, mostly because her ex-boyfriend is a stalkery rapist with a lot of money who turned the whole town against Ruth rather than own up to his stalkery and rapey ways. Enter Evan, new guy in town, who does a neighborly thing and brings Ruth a shepherd’s pie. Evan, by the way, really can cook, and he takes it upon himself to bring Ruth dinner every night in exchange for comic books and general banter. Because, in spite of what the town says, he thinks Ruth in all her blunt and prickly ways, is delightful.

I loved this couple. They’re so adorable. I loved that Evan was completely accepting of Ruth from the get-go, and there was no big to-do about her autism. At the beginning of the book she says “I have autism, there’s nothing wrong with my brain” and he says “okay, sure!” and that’s literally it. Complete acceptance. I can say from experience that a lot of people think they accept autistic people, but they also are full of ideas on how those same autistic people could modify their behaviors to make everyone else more comfortable. It’s exhausting. A Girl Like Her doesn’t even go toward that road for a second.

I was trying to pitch this book to a friend (and probably failed, because how do you describe such awesomeness?) and the adjective I kept coming up with was “genuine.” Everything about this book felt so heartwarming and authentic. Evan was such a nice guy (not an ironic “nice guy”)—he cares about people, takes care of them, doesn’t have a cruel bone in his body, and is nuts about Ruth and isn’t ashamed to let the whole world know. Ruth has some trauma and associated guilt, but she’s also very secure in who she is, and she doesn’t ever think of changing to make her life “easier.” The small town setting was tough, because obviously almost everyone in this book is a gossipy asshole, but again, I thought Hibbert handled it very well.

Last note: female relationships! Ruth’s mother and older sister are a huge part of this book, and I was so delighted by the complexity and realism of those relationships. There’s a lot going on there, and it just made me really happy to see such strong, loving women interact with all the best of intentions to help each other, even if their attempts were sometimes imperfect. Such a great touch.

In short: this is one of the best romance novels I’ve ever read. It’s perfect. And that’s all that needs to be said.