Review: Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
SYNOPSIS:
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…
Review:
Chloe Brown. Hell yes. I am in love with this book! It was everything I didn’t know I needed to read.
Talia Hibbert wrote two characters that struck me so deeply. Chloe has chronic pain due to fibromyalgia & is taking on her life post diagnoses. Red is an artist who has become reclusive after leaving an abusive relationship. Chloe talks of how life changes when you are diagnosed with an illness, especially an invisible one. Her former friends faded away. Her life has become reclusive and sheltered. She recoiled into herself and her pain. Red is fighting insecurities that stem from the emotional and physical abuse from his ex girlfriend.
Chloe decides she needs to take back control & moves out of her family home. She meets Red, the apartments super, who verbally spars with her from the get-go. Red finds Chloe attractive but assumes she is a stuck up rich girl while Chloe secretly spies on Red while he is painting shirtless. Red & Chloe develop a deal, he will help her with get a life & she will design him a website. As they start their plan, Red is beginning to enjoy talking to Chloe & Chloe is learning Red isn't so bad either. Cue the banter and blossoming romance.
Here is why I am absolutely nuts for this book:
For one, you get amazingly written characters. It's not everyday you read a romance heroine who suffers from a chronic illness, is curvy and beautiful, & is smart and capable. Red is another enigma in the romance genre, he is hot and gruff but is vulnerable & has PTSD from his past. He seeks therapy & normalizes the need for help.
Two, beautifully written sex scenes between diverse characters. The dialogue and inner dialogue Red has about Chloe's gorgeous thick thighs, smooth brown skin, and sexy soft tummy. So. Good. The way he treated her and loved her and never dismissed her invisible illness as less than because he couldn't "see" her sick. FUCK YES. This is what romance is. All people deserve love and to be loved. To be believed. To have worth.
I feel like I have a lot I could say about how much I adored this book & it's hard for me to form the right words. It is romance at it's absolute finest.
