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!

Review: A Girl Like Her, by Talia Hibbert

Anyone who's read my reviews before probably knows that I'm a sucker for small-town romance. But I've never read a small-town romance set outside of the United States. A Girl Like Her is a first for me for that, as it's set in England. It's also my first Talia Hibbert book, mainly because I've been slacking. It won't be my last Hibbert book though. I want to continue reading this series.

What was great about this book was the diverse representation Hibbert wrote into it. The heroine, Ruth, is a woman of color who has autism. The town thinks she's weird, she keeps to herself, and the hero doesn't care. He's new to town and is falling for Ruth. But is autism in your face, over-mentioned, and drilled into the reader's head? No. Ruth is Ruth and she's just like any other heroine. I always enjoy books where the author will write underrepresented characters, but not make a big deal about it. That's how I feel it should be because there are many types of people out there and everyone has a story.

As for the small-town setting in England, that left me wanting a little more. While it didn't need to be the focus in this particular book, I felt that it was lacking a little bit of the normal feel of a small-town setting. The town itself isn't really explored until the last quarter of the book, even when the townspeople are cause for conflict throughout. It's more in the background. That's part of why I know I'll be reading the other books in this series. 1) To see more of the characters introduced here, and 2) to explore this town more. It wasn't a bad start to it, but I crave more.

This was a good book to check out. And a good start to a series. If the buzz around Hibbert is anything to go by, I don't think I'll be disappointed moving forward.

Don't judge someone

I was going through Audible Romance package, it's now called Audible Escape, and I wanted to know what is out there. Since I am paying a monthly fee I want to get my money's worth. This story came up because I have listened to a couple of interracial stories before. Being a black woman it is very hard to find an author who writes about black women who are not maids, babysitters, or in a subservient role. So when I found out that Ruth is an independent graphic novelist I decided to snatch this book up as soon as humanly possible.

Ruth is physically described as a dark-skinned, full-bodied black woman. She is comfortable within her own skin and decides that if pajama pants and a big t-shirt is what she wants to wear she is going to wear them. I love the fact that she is so comfortable in her own skin as well as having insecurities just like any other woman might. Evan was a bit interesting for me. He gives me people-pleaser vibes but also gives me, I want to help out anybody that I can physically can vibes. As a woman, if my neighbor came up to me and was trying to give me food I would be confused and I would politely tell him I don't know you I don't know the way you cook it might have poison in it no thank you and goodbye. However, Ruth was confused but again she was hungry so she politely took that dish and ate it.

I like the fact that Ruth was autistic. She understands who she is and if someone doesn't like it then that is not her problem. I was a bit confused with the plot. At first I thought Ruth had a brother and then I realized she didn't have a brother. I thought that Ruth gotten raped but she didn't get raped. I had a lot of different guesses throughout the story but all of them were wrong. The story open up with somebody smashing a car but it was not who you thought was smashing a car. I was really intrigued and fascinated with this story.

Talia Hibbert is new to me and I can definitely see myself reading another book from her. I enjoy her writing salad and I enjoy the fact that she kept me guessing throughout this entire book. Rupert Channing is new to me and I have to admit that I really enjoyed his narration. It is kind of hard to listen to a new narrator that you have no idea about because it seems as though the same people narrate all of the audiobooks. So finding a new person is like finding a unicorn in the narration world.

Really good

Even if people give you a bad name and say mean things about you it doesn’t mean everyone will believe it. Sometimes life brings just what you need when you need it.

Sweet Love Story

This was a sweet love story but I’m not sure I would advise paying money for it. The depiction of autism seem to be somewhat lacking and the profanity really turned me off. The F bomb was dropped in almost every sentence of the two main characters conversations. But other than that it was sweet and predictable. Probably for the beginner romance reader.