Book Review – Get a Life, Chloe Brown

Title: Get a Life, Chloe Brown
Author: Talia Hibbert
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publication Date: November 5th
Ratings: ♥♥♥♥♥

Goodreads Summary: 

Talia Hibbert, one of contemporary romance’s brightest new stars, delivers a witty, hilarious romantic comedy about a woman who’s tired of being “boring” and recruits her mysterious, sexy neighbor to help her experience new things—perfect for fans of Sally Thorne, Jasmine Guillory, and Helen Hoang.

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 glamourous 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…

As I’ve gone on this journey with my reading, I’ve experienced different cultures, ethnicities, social status, orientation, you name it! I’ve been able to find myself in stories centered on mental health and body image, but I’ve never seen a story with a main character who has chronic pain, until this book,

After narrowly missing a near death accident, Chloe Brown wants to live a more fulfilling life—despite living with the chronic pain illness, fibromyalgia.  Her first step is to move out of her parent’s house and into an apartment where she meets the landlord, Red, who helps her live a little.

Reading a book with chronic illness representation—especially fibromyalgia—really made me emotional. Seeing my disorder written on the page (page 10, no less!) is something I never knew I needed. You could tell it’s an own voices novel and written with so much care and insight. I felt like I was sitting there on the couch with Chloe, bundled up on the couch and going through a flare. Or using a chair in the kitchen just to cook a simple dinner.

The romance was so wonderful to read. Red worshipped Chloe; he thought everything about her was intriguing. He didn’t treat her with kid gloves after learning about her condition, but he supports her in such a positive way. He wants to understand and listen to the woman he loves.

This book means a lot to me and I just want shout it from the rooftops. I want to thank Talia Hibbert for writing this book and educating readers that women with chronic pain and chronic illness can be sexy and desirable.

I won this ARC from a Goodreads giveaway