[Book 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…

* * *

Get A Life, Chloe Brown is one of the cutest romance stories I've ever read. I'm so incredibly happy I picked it up and it's easily a new favorite of mine. When I pick up a romance book I'm overall optimistic but there's always a little inkling of worry that it'll be another one I don't like, and I am so happy this is one I can put in my favorites. 

"Bravery wasn't an identity, so much as a choice."

Chloe is such a sweetheart and badass. I loved reading her perspective because she's both really funny but also I related to her overall personality in a way I wasn't expecting. I think the way she thinks and the way she reacts to things throughout the story is a similar way to how I would if  I was in her situation. She has such an honest but also soft personality that made it easy to relate to. Plus, her cute aesthetic and style made me want to be her friend so badly, I feel like we'd get along so well. 

Redford is one of the best guy love interests in a romance novel I've ever read. I mentioned my hesitance earlier when it comes to reading romance, and it's mostly because in a few I read a handful of years ago (when I gave some popular ones a chance) one of the characters in the relationship (majority of the time, the guy) would be overly controlling and/or toxic. So, I am so happy that Red was the perfect love interest. Sure, he had flaws and he has struggles in this book that really impacts his relationship with Chloe, but he's so good to her. He's earnest, kind, and just really fun to read. He didn't seem to have one overly controlling or bad bone in his body and I fell in love with him quickly. 

"When he was around her, he burned from the inside out."

Get A Life, Chloe Brown touches on a lot of great and important topics without it feeling like it was checking off boxes (unlike Chloe herself). Topics like, people who live with chronic illness and what they go through, of course this is different for each individual but I think Chloe's experience can at least be related to in some ways as a whole. Other topics are that men can be victims in abusive relationships and the importance of therapy. 

My cons about this book are so minor, but I do have a few. I'll start with the one  I think is more a preference thing than an actual criticism, which is the dirty/sex talk. I think it was a  bit cringe-y at times and although it doesn't happen a lot (maybe a few times?) I cringed each time. I think this is a preference thing because I am someone who isn't a fan of that kind of thing. However, for someone who doesn't like detailed sex scenes,  I think the scenes in Get A Life, Chloe Brown are a good compromise for people who like steamy scenes and for people like me who prefer tamer/fade to black kind of sex scenes. So the scenes themselves weren't an issue, just some of the dirty talk. My other cons are pretty small. I would have liked more family dynamics; we get an okay amount of moments between Chloe and her family but I would have loved to see more scenes of Red with them or even Chloe with Red's mom. I loved his relationship with his mom. The last con would be I wish Chloe had more scenes with Annie. I loved Red encouraging Chloe to make more friends, and when she gives Annie a chance I was excited. I would have enjoyed seeing Annie and Chloe going bra shopping together versus it just being mentioned, or more moments of them together. 

"His grin started in his toes. It was a warmth that rushed through every inch of him, a warmth that he wanted to share with her because it was pure and so was she."

The writing is great. I love their banter and teasing. They have amazing chemistry and I love that the story went from them both being kind of annoyed with each other to lovers. Enemies seems like a really strong word to describe their beginning relationship before it becomes romantic, but they definitely find each other annoying for various reasons and I think it's well done. I think their relationship naturally evolves into something romantic flawlessly. I also felt emotional while reading and even teared up in a few moments. I laughed, cried, got frustrated, etc at the right moments and I feel like that's always a sign of great writing.

Overall, I highly recommend and absolutely plan on reading more by this author in the future. I cannot wait for the companion novel that is coming out in the summer! I think Talia Hibbert could easily become one of my favorite romance writers just off how much I love Get A Life, Chloe Brown.

"Love is certainly never safe, but it's absolutely worth it." 

Thanks for reading!