A Girl Like Her

De: Talia Hibbert

Narrado por: Rupert Channing

Everyone has secrets. He wants all of hers. Meet the man next door....

After years of military service, Evan Miller wants a quiet life. The small town of Ravenswood seems perfect - until he stumbles upon a vicious web of lies with his new neighbor at its center.

Ruth Kabbah is rude, awkward, and - according to everyone in town - bad news. Thing is, no one will tell Evan why. Does she perform ritual sacrifices? Howl at the moon? Pour the milk before the tea? He has no clue. But he desperately wants to find out. Because Ruth doesn’t seem evil to him; she seems lonely. And funny, and clumsy, and secretly quite sweet, and really f--king beautiful....

The more Evan’s isolated, eccentric neighbor pushes him away, the more he wants her. Her - and all her secrets. Because there’s no way a girl like Ruth truly deserves the town’s scorn.

Is there?

©2018 Nixon House (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

A Girl Like Her

Absolutely loved it!! I enjoyed the story line. I got Caught up in the sexual tension between Evan and Ruth. The narration was Pleasantly enjoyable, I just adored his voice... The timing and pace was just right. Now I want to go on to the next book in the series.

Very Respectfully

Violetia

Ok

I think describing Ruth as rude and disrespectful is wrong. Her autism makes her a bit terse but not necessarily rude. She’d been verbally abused for years by many people so if she did have an attitude about certain things, it’s understandable.

Grumpy, neurodiverse heroine and pining blacksmith

This was a sweet, slow burn romance between an ostracized black woman on the autism spectrum and a new-to-town blacksmith who compulsively feeds his neighbors. I enjoyed watching their relationship unfold, and loved their friends and family.

Ruth Kabbah writes web comics, prefers to wear pajamas at all times and has retreated from the social scene of her small town. She’s obviously on the wrong side of the town’s ruling family and can be blunt to the point of rudeness. It’s obvious Kennedy Ryan has personal experience with autism because Ruth feels very authentic.

Newcomer Evan has retired from the military and taken a blacksmithing job in Rachel’s small town. He is, in fact, her new neighbor. Evan’s mum died of cancer and felt it was very important to be kind to others. To honor her, and because he’s got a caretaker personality, Evan likes to cook for friends, neighbors and people he thinks need a little help. He’s decided Ruth must be an elderly shut in, since he never sees her leave, so he brings her a Shepard’s pie. When he finds out she lives on instant noodles, he insists on dropping off dinner regularly. This evolves into a standing friendly dinner date.

Evan is warned off Ruth and her protective older sister, by his boss’s smarmy son. There is obviously some sort of history. Evan hears a lot of gossip and eventually gets Ruth to trust him enough to share the details.

Ruth was in a long term secret relationship with the smarmy son, who was verbally, physically and sexually abusive. The details are not too graphic. I loved watching Ruth realize that insulating herself from life wasn’t really protecting her, it was giving her power away. I loved watching her start to speak up for herself and to be open to friendship and romance. And I loved that she faces down her own bullies without being rescued by Evan. He supports her but doesn’t rescue her.

There’s a lot of good stuff in here about racism, ableism, stereotypes, parental influence, self esteem, healthy boundaries and love of all kinds.

I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see Evan’s growth as much as Ruth’s. At the beginning, he says he spent the last eleven years with acquaintances and fuck buddies, because he was too distanced by grief over loosing his mother to cancer. He mentions wanting to be more vulnerable with his friend Zach, who’s mother has cancer, but we don’t get to see those conversations. It’s obvious they happen, because he talks about what good friends they’ve become, but it’s more telling than showing. Evan does have many excellent conversations with Ruth tho, as they navigate their relationship as it changes from friends to lovers. Once that happens, it gets fairly steamy.

I thought the narrator did a good job and I look forward to the next book in the series.

awesome sauce

i loved this book, it was eloquently put together. thay characters were all interesting and involving. the only thing i would change isnthe length of the epilogue I so wanted more.

Compelling.

I love it. I Love a love story where the guy is so devoted to the person .

This Series is Really Good but It's a Bit Odd

I had to try twice to listen to this book. I had high expectations from the summary of the story, but there is something a bit odd about this book that makes it take a bit to get into the story.
I listened all the way through and it was a pleasurable "easy read". The story is simple with mild challenges throughout. I liked the characters, but I still don't know why this story has a different feel. Overall, it's a book to listen to or read when you don't want to get caught up in a complex story with heavy emotions and drama. My thanks to the author!

A Love Story - plain and simple

Don't laugh, but I chose this book because I thought the female was going to be a witch 😂 I only read fantasy novels so I'm not sure how this ended up on my recommendation list. But, I can say that it worked out well as I listened to it over Valentine's Day while I finished some boring reports for work.

Fast break down: Boy meets girls, flirts with girl, makes girl feel safe and special, girl and boy do the naked tango, and then happily ever after. If you are here for just a love story then you'll be quite happy. If you prefer your romance stories messy and complicated then you might not get what your looking for here.

As for the story, I found it simple and charming. It's like vanilla ice cream 🍧. Most of the time you want more bang for your buck, but there isn't anything wrong with an old fashioned plain Jane story every blue moon. This is simply a love story. There is no flare, no dramatic deaths or action scenes. And the ending was very much goodie-two-shoe and gum drops 😒😒😒

In any genre I read I hate instant love at first sight. This comes really close. Rather than interest at first sight, it would have been nice for Ruth to rub him the wrong way and then they slowly began to understand each other.

This is about an interracial relationship but that is never brought up between the two main characters. Only once does Evan even hint to acknowledging that Ruth is black. I felt both good and curious about how the author approached this. In a way, it is what we non-racist people want to achieve. Love who you want and let race not be a factor in deciding what makes you happy. However, the book is set in present day and so you would think it would be more at the forefront rather than her weight and cooking disability... lol I like. She has a cooking disability.

In addition, Ruth has mild form of autism. Though Evan seems to handle some of her characteristics well, there isn't any mention of him researching what to expect or having experience because of a family member. I'm not well versed on the different ranges of autism so I wanted to know more information on how it affects their relationships both family and personal.

The cover... smh...My first thought when I met the main character, Ruth, was about the cover art. Why does the cover have a women with short hair and the book describes her with coily (natural) hair that she keeps in one long braid??? Nor does the guy look as described. This was either a lazy publisher or a terrible artist depending on the circumstances. Either way, neither of them took the time to actually read their clients material thoroughly enough.

I was a little taken aback by the narrators voice when the book first started. His voice sounds as it belongs reading one of my beloved Epic Fantasies about dragons and mages. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to enjoy him. Once Evan and Ruth start their banter on comics, I started to relax into his voice a bit more. He doesn't have a wide range of characters voices but he had a nice reading voice and gave the story a calm tone that I think would match Evans personality.

3 Stars 🌟🌟🌟- Good Book. I like the overall concept and it was delivered well. Most common ranking for a book I enjoyed and look forward to the next. I won't rush to the next one, but it's on my list for a future read when the mood is right.

Offbeat and utterly enjoyable story and characters

This is a story about a black woman living in small, insular town in England. She is on the autism spectrum, and has a bad reputation in the town. Her go to response to stress is to tell people to eff off and she stays at home rather than deal with the negative comments from the townsfolk. A handsome and kind man moves in next door to her, and they become friends. He's all about doing the right thing, and when he realizes that Ruth has no stove, Evan begins to cook for her. As time passes, he becomes very attracted to her, but he has to fight through her defenses and and prove to Ruth that he's not out to use or hurt her. Ruth meanwhile, needs to learn to be proud of who she is and get over some devastating experiences from her past.

I loved this story, was very invested in these characters, and enjoyed the journey they had to take to get to their HEA. Ruth and Evan are ordinary working class folks, no billionaires here. He's alone in the world, and served in the Army for several years. Ruth has a sister and mother that she's close to, but no friends. This love affair is a joy to watch develop, and they really earned their happiness.

The narration is perfection, and the story is written in third person so there is one omniscient 'voice', which I prefer. Rupert Channing is the ideal reader for this series. Can't wait for the next book!

Was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it

the narrator deserves serious kudos!!!
the author does a wonderful job of articulating the world as experienced by a high functioning autistic mind.

Absolutely love this author!!

I’ve read nothing but talia since getting audible and I enjoy every word of her books this is my 5 title and I’m in love EVERYTIME☺️