Fiction Review: Get a Life, Chloe Brown

I don't normally read much romance, but I kept hearing rave reviews of Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert. So when I saw it discounted on Book Bub, I took a chance and downloaded it to my Kindle. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this unique romance novel features a main character who has a chronic illness, a rarity in fiction! I enjoyed reading about the brave and bold but damaged Chloe.

In the Prologue, Chloe Brown has a life-changing moment when a car narrowly misses her while she's walking along city streets. She is unhurt, but the incident shakes her up and makes her rethink her careful, cautious life. A highly organized, list-loving woman, Chloe makes a Get a Life list to ensure that her obituary won't be so boring. Her first item is to move out of her family home, where she lives with her two sisters, Dani and Eve, her parents, and her spirited grandmother, Gigi. Her family is very supportive of her and her chronic illness, fibromyalgia, but Chloe decides it's time to get out on her own. She moves into an apartment and settles into a happy though solitary life, working from home as a web designer and IT specialist. She soon clashes with her building super, though. He's a big, red-haired, motorcycle-riding guy named Red, and they dislike each other from the start. Little by little, though, as Chloe works through her list, they get to know each other better and realize they are both wildly attracted to the other. Each has been hurt by a bad relationship in the past, so they are both cautious about falling in love again, though Red is determined to help her with her list.

The author balances a careful line here, both sharing intimate details of Chloe's daily challenges with chronic pain and fatigue while also making her relatable, someone you either see yourself in or want to be friends with. Her work to improve her life and her compulsive list-making are fun characteristics. As someone living with chronic illness myself, I found the details of her life honest and real, in a way that felt surprising to encounter in a novel. At the same time, the story is a lot of fun, filled with snappy dialogue, romance, and mild suspense as to whether Chloe and Red will end up together. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, as when Chloe gets stuck in a tree or Red catches her bundled up in a lemur onesie. The sex scenes are fairly graphic, which doesn't bother me but be forewarned, but I did find myself getting a bit bored by the "will they or won't they," "he loves me, he loves me not" stuff that is pretty standard in romance novels; this might be why I don't read more of them. Overall, though, I enjoyed this unique novel with likable characters, a sense of fun, and plenty of humor and enjoyed getting to know the unstoppable Chloe Brown.

384 pages, Avon

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