Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Carolyn: 

Have a blurb! 

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…

I don't particularly care for cartoon covers, but have one anyway.

Well, the heroine covers a lot of ground: she's plus sized; she's Black; she has a chronic disease, fibromyalgia; and all of this has given her certain ways to cope, ways that alienate her from her peers.But, ya know, I'm sorta hero-centric and I gotta tell you this hero met all my needs even if the description of his hair did remind me of my son (please don't judge).

Lori:

This was an excellent book. I've had a hard time with romance lately because it's too much insta-lust or H/h's with problems that could be solved easily with a little honesty.

Chloe's issue isn't small. She's in chronic pain and there's no easy cure. Quite the opposite and the kind of pain she's in makes it hard for her to sustain a friendship, much less a romantic relationship.

Red, a wonderful hero, also has his issue. He was in an abusive relationship (emotionally and physically) with a woman which has left him scared and scarred. His attraction to Chloe is fraught with his inability to see her as she is instead of as his ex was.

There's a lot to unpack but from my reading I just loved how well Chloe's medical condition was central to everything. I've been fighting a lot of pain myself recently and sometimes I find that I make choices not to do certain things, not to partake in pleasures because I'm afraid of how I'll physically feel afterward.

I felt for Chloe. I was so tied into her story and felt so much how easy it is to disappear into the sofa with the mess around her, having so much to do and so little ability to do it. 

And when Red came into Chloe's life, when he really came into her life, he never judged her for her difficulties. Red tried to make things doable. He tried to keep her pain in mind. And he lusted for her with so much passion, the pages almost burned with it.

To tell you how much I liked this book: I read the sex scenes.

Carolyn: 

LMAO! 

I've been blessed to be without a whole lot of physical pain in my life, but the way Chloe dealt with hers sounded logical and totally realistic. It was also realistic how Red slowly - emphasis on slowly - drew her out of her shell and made her life more joyful. It made me joyful too.

But most of all, it was the writing that spoke to me. Unfortunately it didn't occur to me to highlight notes until later in the book but here are a few examples.

* Old people always had hankies. They hid them on their bodies like ninjas with throwing stars.

* Tiny drips of rain spattered the lenses of her glasses, beaded on the flyaways frizzing from her hair, slicked her skin until she gleamed under the streetlights like a jewel.

* ...wearing a suit so sharp, it should be kept away from infants and waterbeds.

* ...it would be murder on her lower back. She sternly informed her nipples of these pertinent facts, but they gestured rudely at her and continued to tingle like a pair of slutty batteries.

I wish, oh I wish!

Lori, this writer has never really disappointed me. Her heroines are interesting, and while some might call them 'well off the beaten track', I say they're true to life; this author casts her nets wide and her characters are never cookie cutter people.

I think you'd also like the first book of hers that I read, "A Girl Like Her". Worth a try anyway, yes?

Lori:

This was my first book written by Talia Hibbert but it certainly isn't going to be my last. Thank you so much Carolyn, for pushing me to read this. 

It's hard to find a book that connects on every level but this one really did. I felt like Red did when meeting Chloe but the more I got to know her the more I wanted to know her. 

This was a delight from first page to last. Highly recommend.