Backlist Review: Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Photo by Kasya Shahovskaya on Unsplash
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 item?
1. Enjoy a drunken night out
2. Ride a motorcycle
3. Go camping
4. Have meaningless, but thoroughly enjoyable sex
5. Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage
6. 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 heart-throbs. 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.
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…
This book is pure sunshine.
“Whether something bad is coming from your body or your brain, it makes no difference. Still feels like shit, right? Still hurts. Still needs fixing. When it comes down to it, everything we feel is in our heads.”
I picked this book up in 2019 using my Book of the Month subscription. Admittedly, I was drawn to it because of the absolutely adorable cover, but when I saw that the main character had chronic pain—specifically fibromyalgia—I was determined to read it. My mom deals with chronic pain, and when I was kid, I didn’t always understand why some days she could be a quote-on-quote “regular mom,” and on other days she could barely get out of bed. Because I didn’t understand—and was maybe just a little bit of a brat—I thought sometimes that she was making it all up. Of course, now I realize how very real and debilitating it can be to live with. So I was intrigued to read a romance novel where chronic pain made up a big part of the story, and I thought it would help me understand my mom that much better.
But this book exceeded all of my expectations.
First of all, Chloe Brown is such a relatable character. I don’t have chronic pain, but I do have ADHD, depression, and anxiety, so I’m very familiar with the need for multiple coping mechanisms just get through the day. I would love to go into all of my unconventional methods, but that’s really the subject of another blog post, so I digress.
Anyway, I really resonated with Chloe, especially when I read this paragraph:
“When she found herself trapped in that cycle, Chloe was supposed to do certain things. Things like forcing her battered body into excruciating Pilates positions…Things like meditation…These, obviously, were the suggestions of specialist consultants who were rather clever but had never lived inside a body in constant crisis. What Chloe actually did to cope was take her medication religiously, write fanciful lists, play the Sims, and live through it. Sometimes it was hard, but she managed by whatever means necessary.”
Anyone who has ever dealt with mental illness, or chronic pain can relate to this. No matter how far you are in therapy—physical or emotional—you will still have bad days. All you can do is keep yourself going, any way you can.
What I love about Chloe is that even though she has these physical limitations, she is not a weak character. She’s smart, grumpy, and incredibly strong, even when her body betrays her. Hibbert does not romanticize fibromyalgia at all, and it’s perfect. There’s no magical cure for Chloe. She doesn’t need to be saved from her illness. She just needs a friend.
Enter Red Morgan., the equally grumpy superintendent of Chloe’s building.
I’m not usually a huge fan of books where the chapters alternate between two characters., mostly because I think there isn’t enough of a tone shift to distinguish the voices. But this is definitely one of Hibbert’s strengths. And she’s so good at writing funny, sexy banter. I actually laughed out loud while reading this book, and that’s pretty rare.
There’s a tendency in romance novels to have the romantic lead be an emotionally constipated womanizer. It’s so incredibly refreshing to see a male lead actually deal with his emotions and trauma in a healthy way (looking at you Bridgerton). I loved how much depth Red had. Hibbert was able to write a male character who was healing from an abusive relationship with such care and empathy, without crossing the line into outright victimization.
The one thing I wasn’t a fan of was the fact that Red calls Chloe “Button.” This is a completely personal problem and I still love the book; I just don’t like it when people call their significant other by a cutesy nickname. It just makes me cringe. But, I still loved Chloe and Red as a couple.
Also Chloe’s younger sisters, Dani and Eve, were absolutely hilarious. I loved their dynamic, and how supportive they are of their sister, while also teasing her mercilessly.
TW: Deals with the aftermath of an abusive relationship; chronic pain.
This book is an open-door romance, meaning there are explicit sex scenes.