Review: Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items?

• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And… do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior… 

My Thoughts

“Love is certainly never safe, but it’s absolutely worth it.”

Get A Life, Chloe Brown, Talia Hibbert

Get a Life, Chloe Brown is a wonderful witty and cute rom-com novel that anyone would love to read while also tackling topics on representation and health. The med student in me love the discussion on Chloe’s disabilities because fibromyalgia and chronic pain are real medical diagnoses are often disregarded or thought of last, and even considering that the patient might be malingering. To see the struggles she had to face and her coping mechanisms to battle it out was extremely mentally satisfying to see, and I rooted for her immensely. The topic on Red’s previous relationship abuse might be a trigger warning for some people, but I commend the author for showcasing this vulnerability to his character, and how much he had changed and went through to be able to get back on his feet after that traumatic experience.

I absolutely adored Chloe and Red. They were amazing adorable characters that I fell in love with immediately. They definitely made a hell out of a rom-com in this novel, and I enjoyed both their tender and vulnerable moments, and their constant battle with their inner demons. I also liked how they both understood each other even without the constant prodding into their emotions, and they just helped each other up every time they would fall down (literally, in Chloe’s case). They were adorable together and I appreciated deeply how they were characters that communicated very effectively regarding their concerns so things were getting immediately resolved. I was just looking for a bit more kilig from them, since the trope and the quick progression of their relationship totally threw me off to make me feel even more things.

This book featured one of my least favorite romance tropes – the “x hires y to change her life but ends up falling in love with y”. This type of trope never works out successfully for me in other books, so I was super hesitant from the very start, and I’ve been cringing countless of times. While it was a very predictable trope, I actually started to ignore it about more than halfway through the book because I was getting more involved in Chloe and Redford’s story more than their prior arrangement.

I read this book fully as an audiobook, and I probably would have given it a lower rating if it hadn’t been for how splendidly done the narrator gave justice to this story. It still had that sweet rom-com factor that it wanted to deliver, but I just didn’t love it as much as I expected it to be.

I can’t wait to read the other books featuring the other Brown sisters!

 

My Rating

Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

About The Author

.

Talia Hibbert is a USA Today bestselliing author who lives in a bedroom full of books. Supposedly, there is a world beyond that room, but she has yet to drum up enough interest to investigate.

She writes sexy, diverse romance because she believes that people of marginalised identities need honest and positive representation. Her interests include beauty, junk food, and unnecessary sarcasm. She also rambles intermittently about the romance genre online.

Talia self-publishes via Nixon House and is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan at Handspun Literary.

Author Website | Twitter | Instagram