A Girl Like Her ARC Review
For two years, I lived in a small town in rural Alabama. I was placed there for a stint during my years in Teach for America. Marion was different than anything I’d known before. It wasn’t bad though. Yes, my students came and knocked on my door. A lot of people knew where I lived since I was in an apartment above a shop on main street, but in the end I was a visitor, and things are different when a place is not home. It’s easier to leave.
Ruth Kabbah lives as a social outcast after “it” happened, resigned to the edges of Ravenswood minding her own business. For two years, she’s kept to herself in her apartment, reading and making her comics. She’s content, or at least, not being bothered. That is, until Evan Miller knocks on her door with a Shepherd’s Pie and his unassuming smile.
I read this story for the first time years ago when I first started reading Talia Hibbert. I was fresh off the Brown sisters series (and really it’s hard to compete with those books), but A Girl Like Her has a lot of heart. It’s a romance that’s not 100% light and fluffy. Instead, we get to see characters navigating hard moments. How do you come back from being cast aside by the people you thought were your friends? How do you deal with feelings of guilt from events you feel like you could’ve prevented? How do you open yourself to trust after so many people have handled your trust without an ounce of care? It’s not easy, but we try our best to move forward.
I love these characters. Evan Miller arrives as a wrench in the status quo. He is one of those too perfect MMCs who literally shows up on Ruth’s doorstep, but he’s written with so much care that he manages not to be annoying. Ruth is prickly and crochety and herself, not unapologetically at first, but in that way that if we’re lucky, we get to discover bit by bit. They fit together in unexpected ways
As with most of Talia Hibbert’s books, the moments of heart and self-discovery are generously interspersed with heat. This book is steamy. I do not like reading the word c…, and I think that honestly and unfortunately removes at least half a star. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this reread, perhaps more than I did the first time around. I’m excited that it’s been optioned for the screen (unclear if it’s movie or TV). Sounds like a reread of the full series will be forthcoming!