Get a Life Chloe Brown Review

Author: Talia Hibbert
Published On: November 5, 2019
Publisher: Avon
Genre: Fiction, New Adult, Contemporary, MCoC
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“She was the woman who’d come here to ask about love. She was the woman who’d decided to change her entire life with nothing but a list. She was the woman who survived, every single day. She was Chloe fucking Brown, and she was starting to wonder if she’d been brave from the beginning. If she’d just needed to love herself enough to realize it.”

I’ll be totally honest and say I’ve had this book sitting on my bookshelves for almost three weeks before I decided to pick it up (thanks, booktube hype!). The sequel, Take a Hint, Dani Brown, didn’t even need to sit on my bookshelves because I’m currently devouring it.

The story kicks off when Chloe, who struggles with chronic pain and fatigue due to fibromyalgia, suffers a near-death experience and decides that before she dies, she, in fact, needs to get a life. She creates a list of things she wants to do, including “ride a motorcycle”, “go camping,” and some other ~interesting~ bucket list items. She recruits the super sexy, super sweet superintendent of her building, Red, to help her, and thus begins our adorably fun love story.

Going into this, it’s easy to believe that it’s your run of the mill rom-com book, complete with an animated cover and all. While it definitely had some of those elements: sarcastic, chaotic main character and her soft spoken, sweet, yet “super strong and masculine” counterpart, it also had some nuances thrown in that I wasn’t expecting. Chloe is Black and also plus size, which was something totally normalized in the book. There were so many comments about her “soft, round belly”, and it was treated as just another part of her to love! This was really refreshing to read about, and I hope we get more main characters of color who are unapologetically and beautifully plus size.

Chloe also has fibromyalgia, something I didn’t know much about before reading this (and let me tell you, I now have major respect for those who struggle with it). It was cool to see that even though Chloe had physical limitations, she didn’t let that stop her from pursuing the goals on her list and ultimately living a pretty badass life. All in all, the diversity in this book was awesome, and I hope to see more books with this kind of representation in the contemporary romance genre going forward!

Red was also completely swoon-worthy. His internal struggle with his art and coming to terms with the way his past relationships have impacted his mental health was an interesting journey to watch. I think Talia Hibbert did a really great job with giving Red enough depth that we understood his hangups, but didn’t drag on the emotional turmoil so much that it took away from the otherwise fun and cutesy essence of a romantic comedy-esque story.

In the end, I just wanted to give these two a big hug and watch them ride off into the sunset on Red’s motorcycle. I would 100% recommend to anyone who’s looking for a fun, steamy read about two MC’s who just need somebody to love.

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