I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend for someone looking for a smart romance. Romance isn’t my favorite genre but I still enjoyed this. Be warned - lots of adult language and steamy scenes!

Aside from the romance, I think it’s great that this book features a main character with chronic pain. What’s more, this isn’t her entire identity, and those in her life don’t reduce her to this. Kudos to the author for producing a well rounded character in this regard.

I loved that this story had a new and interesting heroine. Chloe has a chronic illness that people can't see from the outside but it affects her everyday life. some days she is too tired to leave the house, shower, or cook. Those days she stays inside and works as a computer programmer. On a trip outside, she has a close call and decides to make a list to get a life. Things that will challenge and push her to get out of her comfort zone.

On one of those trips, she finds a cat in a tree and tries to rescue the cat. That is when she meets Red, an artist working as a superintendent at the same complex Chloe is living. Red does like Chloe, she is cold and standoffish with him. However, when he sees her in the tree trying to rescue the cat, he sees another side to her. Realizing they both have their quirks and baggage from the past. They form an unlikely friendship and realize they have more in common than they thought.

Both characters were well developed, you felt for them both as they worked through their past hurts, to try and move forward.

I really enjoyed this one! I thought that the characters were multi-dimensional and lovable. I liked that they had actual conversations about their struggles, obstacles, baggage, and privilege. These weren't two cookie-cutter romance leads and it was very refreshing. The supporting cast was also a lot of fun and I'm excited to see Chloe's sisters' stories next! (Also also can I have her wardrobe because it sounds amazing). Definitely pick this one up!

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins Publishers, and Talia Hibbert for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was sweet and cute! I had some laugh-out-loud moments in the book, which always make for a good romcom. Great rep and and little bit of a surprise with one of the main character's story. Can't wait to read the next book in the series!

Oh my disappearing buttons, I just finished my first book from Talia Hibbert. Get A Life, Chloe Brown is an interracial love story filled with great characters, witty dialogue and the purrfect cool cat Smudge. The cover is the cute animated ‘it’ du jour in publishing. Its cute but very misleading. I was expecting another cute contemporary romcom with a heat factor of sensual instead I bumped my head on a nice and naughty steamy romance. The story went from 0 to 60 in a heartbeat. Totally wasn’t expecting it and I enjoyed every moment of it.
In the new Brown Sisters series, Chloe tries to shatter her boring lifestyle and enlist the aide of sexy neighbor, Red, to help her knock out her “not boring anymore bucket list” The more time Chloe and Red spend together, they become more addicted and break down each other's walls. Both have been hiding from the world. And its very refreshing to read how the hero, Red Morgan, is living with insecurities too.
Words can change lives. After reading Chloe Brown, I dare say mine has changed too. Both Chloe and Red’s story teaches us to live our damn lives. You’ll get heartbroken, you might even experience loneliness, but the world is out there to grab. It’s a sweet, seductive and romantic story, perfect for wrapping yourself in a blanket for a warm and cozy read.

ARC received from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

This was a great, adorable read! A rom-com with quality character substance that deals with real shit. #winning

There’s so much to unpack in this book. The themes of self-love and bravery really hit home. I think everyone can relate to that in some form, and the author did a great job bringing those topics to light.

I also appreciated reading about an abusive relationship with a male victim. Too many times that’s ignored when it’s just as likely to occur. It would’ve been nice to have more background and elaboration on Red - maybe insight into his therapy sessions? His former relationship didn’t get a whole lot of explanation in the book even though it was a huge part of him and his issues.

I did love Chloe’s and Red’s chemistry, and their easy banter. Quite a few steamy scenes, too! Some of the language/word choices were a bit much for me, but nothing that couldn’t easily be skimmed.

Enemies-to friends-to lovers. This interracial romance between a man who was abused by his ex partner and a woman with a chronic illness sheds a light on the unique struggles such a pair would encounter. I would recommend this book to readers of Jasmine Guillory and Alyssa Cole.

Let’s talk about life and review Chloe Brown 🤗.
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This novel came highly recommend by @basicbsguide and @abookorafewandjavatoo ...now, here is the thing. These are not my go to ladies for steamy romance recs...so when they raved about Get a Life I thought. Yep. Must read.
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I’m so glad I did. Chloe was a breath of fresh air. I sincerely fell in love with her myself. The romance was on point with Chloe & Red. (Btw: Red stole my heart too). It was steamy. But well done. Exceptional writing and Talia brought us a character to root for. All the whole knowing she is human with a chronic illness. Just amazingly well done. I could keep going...but if you can handle the steam, this is such a great story. It flew to my favorites shelf on my bookcase 🤗.

Summary from Goodreads:

"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…"

My Thoughts:

This may be one of the most adorable books that I've read in a really long time! I enjoyed it so much that I found myself grinning at my e-reader at times. Because I'm that person apparently and this book was also that good. Let's start off by talking about Chloe and how much of an enjoyable character she was. Because you just don't see (in my experience at least) main characters that are not only diverse but also that have a chronic illness which isn't glossed over. Let me be the first person to say that I cannot speak to any of the above as I'm neither of these two things. I cannot speak to the accuracy but I can speak to how this book made me feel - and it made me feel so good! It was a nice change of pace to read a book where the chronic illness wasn't the point of the story but it was an important factor and was acknowledged throughout the entire book. Chloe has good days and she has bad days with her illness and this felt real to me. I'm sure that her experiences and symptoms are not the same as everyone that has fibromyalgia and that's okay. I just feel like this book helped to shine a light (however big or small) on what life is like for individuals living with chronic illnesses. And then we had a character like Red who was just perfection as well. Red's got some major relationship issues thanks to a past relationship but that doesn't stop him from being just about the most adorable love interest that I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. And the chemistry between these two was just complete perfection! Okay, I'm going to get slightly spoiler-ey here so if you aren't here for that move on to next paragraph. I do have to also say here how much I enjoyed the fact that the relationship between Chloe and Red developed naturally without any huge misunderstandings or angst. Yes, there is a few blips here and there but they were minor looking back which just really fit my reading mood perfectly. I enjoy an angsty romance when I'm in the right mood but I didn't feel like this book was that which I really appreciated (because apparently that is NOT what I wanted without even knowing it).

Overall, I read this one with a smile on my face which should tell you everything that you need to know. I even found myself highlighting passages on my e-reader (which I hardly ever do) because the writing was just perfection. It was the perfect blend of humor and adorableness all rolled into one really great book! I'm really excited that this is my first book by Talia Hibbert because it won't be my last! I actually already have one of her other books on my e-reader but then when I finished this one I realized that it was beginning a series. AND I AM HERE FOR ALL OF THE BOOKS in this series! Like seriously! I cannot wait to see what else she comes up with next! I would recommend this book to fans of romance, contemporary romance, rom com readers, and just those that enjoy a really adorable book with a nice steam factor. An easy book for me to recommend!

Bottom Line: A really great book that I couldn't help but enjoy from the very first page!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. Honest thoughts are my own.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown was a cute, sexy story featuring a disabled, fat protagonist and an interracial romance—which should have made me go 😍—but the book was never more than just...good. Not fantastic. Not amazing. Not "you have to read this now". Just... good. I could understand why both Chloe and love-interest Red were at odds upon first meeting, why they were both hesitant to deepen their friendship into romance, and why they hit the climactic speed-bump. But, even with the super steamy sex scenes, everything else was kind of bland.

I think I expected the book to pivot around Chloe's fibromyalgia, or Red's unprocessed trauma, or even their disparate class differences, but as soon as anything about any of those topics was mentioned, Talia Hibbert quickly smoothed things over. Like, Red is super supportive of Chloe and her limitations—and, yes, okay, it's absolutely fucking adorable and Chloe is never made to feel othered by the person she's meant to fall in love with—but still... just a bit boring. And Red clearly is Going Through Some Shit from a past abusive relationship, but, again, he works through his grief and his anger and makes it out on the other side.

Since this was my first Hibbert novel, I don't know if everything she writes is merely okay-ish or if her getting traditionally published meant the book needed to mosey toward its HEA rather than, say, do some HIIT. And I also can't say if you'll get the same reading experience out of Get a Life, Chloe Brown as I did. Maybe you'll absolutely love it and wait expectantly for the rest of the Brown Sisters series. Maybe you'll immediately acquire everything Hibbert's ever published and read until you can't see straight. Me? I'll put Take a Hint, Dani Brown on my tbr and call it a day.

3.5 stars.

Things I didn't enjoy: I did not care for either of the main characters at the start, but especially not Red. He was abrasive, and it took awhile for me to push past that to see the potential with them as a couple. Also, the bucket list didn't feel as well-integrated into the story as I would have liked. It was a plot device to get the characters together, and on that score it did its job, but I wanted it to be a more driving factor for Chloe outside of her relationship with Red. The author does address this in the book, so she obviously made it that way on purpose. I just wanted more.

Things I enjoyed: Chloe's grandmother! Diversity - this is an interracial couple, the protagonist is curvy, and she suffers from chronic illness which was portrayed well and fully integrated into the story. I enjoyed all of that. Positive views on therapy. The chemistry between the main characters improved over time; by the end I liked them individually and together.

Fans of contemporary romance may enjoy this one, especially if the diversity piece is important/interesting to you. (Language, sex)

I love Talia Hibbert! (I also hate her a little bit because she’s like 23 and has already written so many awesome books.) Get a Life, Chloe Brown is my seventh Hibbert book and might be my favorite so far.

Chloe is a grumpy heroine, which is a refreshing change. She lives with chronic pain and has withdrawn from the world. She’s loved but babied by her wealthy family, which just makes her feel more isolated. Despite that, she's a strong, independent woman who owns her own web design business. Her relationship with Red brings her out of her shell. Eventually. They start off very much on the wrong foot, which gives the story an enemies to lovers feel.

The book tackles some serious issues, mostly related to Chloe's illness, which I found eye-opening. The couple also deals with an unhealthy relationship in Red's past and its fallout. But there are still lots of feel good moments, eccentric side characters and a cute cat which kept the story from being too dark. What gave me all the warm fuzzy feels though, was Red's easy acceptance of Chloe. He focuses on what she can do rather than her limitations, which allows her to shine.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown was one of my Most Anticipated books of the year and it did not disappoint. I'm thrilled that more people are discovering Hibbert and eagerly awaiting the next book starring Chloe's sister Dani.

4.5 stars

This is a steamy rom-com with a familiar set-up: the two main characters (Red and Chloe) hate each other on sight but can’t deny the strong sexual pull they feel. What makes this romance different is that Chloe has a disability that has forced her to give up most of her life outside her home. After almost being run over by a car, she resolves to create a new life for herself, even if it isn’t the life she had before she became chronically ill. This is sure to tick a lot of boxes for fans of romance fiction, and it is the first title in a new series – subsequent titles will feature Chloe’s two sisters Eve and Dani. I am not a huge romance reader, but one of the things that I did like was Hibbert’s portrayal of Chloe: she might have a debilitating illness but she’s smart and determined, she’s snarky and witty, and she wants love and has a lot to give back. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.

Chart Topper!

A definite keeper!

Hibbert nails this big pub debut with flawless characterization, a twist on some tropes, and fresh new look at how people find love and beauty after being in such fragile places.

I dug in and couldn’t put it down. Now, I’m going to let you in on a little secret… I am super busy. So busy I am squeezing in time to write this review before bed. Often when I am reading it’s whenever I can sneak time in, sometimes that will be at my leisure; unless the book grabs ahold tight for dear life. That’s when my family will find me sneaking off to the bathroom just to stand there with the door closed to read. I’ll go to on a store trip and sit in the parking lot for twenty minutes before going in. This book made me do those all those things in a mad rush to finish. And I caution you dear readers, this is a book where one more chapter can easily turn into two or three.

What made it so fabulous? The voice. Chloe Brown is a voice that is infectious and full of life. Let me give you an example:

“Chloe.” Red’s voice was loud in the deserted car park, so deep it almost made her jump out of her clothes. Wait, no: skin. She meant skin.

“Yes?” she squeaked, dragging her gaze from the enormous bike to the enormous man standing beside it.

His eyebrows were raised, his lips slightly tilted. That was his resting expression, the opposite of her chronic bitch face: happy, curious, open, friendly. Why did she even like him?

Wait a moment—did she like him?

“You okay?” he asked

“Fine,” she said brightly. “Just thinking about the potential likelihood of brain decimation.”

His smile widened at that, slow and steady and achingly handsome. Ridiculous man. Brain decimation was a serious business.

“You go any hard numbers on that?” he asked. “Odds, percentages?”

Chloe is real and when I read her all I could think about was a dear, close friend who is a lot like Chloe with the same physical ailments and challenges. Both Chloe and my friend embrace life, they don’t run from it. Chloe is on a mission to get a life. To do things she would normally never do, things that could be dangerous for her. But, there’s no sense in holding back from an adventure. Especially when the adventure delivers the hot as hell, painter and maintenance man, Red Morgan.

Red is the hero I’ve been waiting for. He’s not perfect, and comes with his own set of baggage. What Hibbert provides us with is a hero who can recognize his flaws, accept them, change them, and of course become a better person than when he started the story. Chloe helps with him that and gives him some much needed room to be himself when he doesn’t know who he is anymore… in the philosophical, core sense. Not an amnesia story in the least bit. Red also is the perfect foil for Chloe. He’s nice, achingly so and it drives her batty. He also creates plenty of sexual tension that simmers off the page.

Same scene only half a page later:

“Glasses might not fit under the helmet,” he said mildly. “It’s full-face. You know, to reduce the chances of brain decimation.”

She snorted, was silent for a moment as she studied the helmet. Then, in a fit of irritation, she muttered. “Don’t act as though it hasn’t crossed your mind.”

Something hot and wild sparked in his gaze, a sort of sharp-edged teasing that reminded her of a wolf on the hunt. He leaned toward her over the bike and asked, “As though what hasn’t crossed my mind?”

She shivered slightly, despite the thermal vest under her clothes and the jacket she’d picked up from her flat. And she remembered what had happened in his bedroom, when she’d fallen on top of him like a ninny, and sparks of sheer sensation had taken over her entire body. After shamefully long silence, she blurted, “Brain decimation. The risk of brain decimation has definitely crossed your mind.”

Of course, I can only wax poetic for so long. I’ll say that the black moment isn’t super dramatic. This is a love story with plenty of real-world implication without the dark and deary real-world effect. Hibbert hits all the right notes, the plot doesn’t drag, the secondary characters inspire as much interest as the primaries, and I can’t wait to see what comes next in this series. For readers who love Sally Thorne or Helen Hoang.

~ Landra

Thank you NetGalley, and Avon Books for the chance to read and review Get a Life, Chloe Brown. This story was so fun and unique! Full review to come.

“You’re exactly as brave as you need to be. You’re the one who makes me better. You’re the bravest person I know.”

After a near-death experience Chloe Brown has decided to literally get a life. List created, she gets started by first moving out of her parent’s estate and moving into her own apartment. But her first to-do on her list comes with quite the obstacle (if you want to call it that) and that is Red, the superintendent of the building she lives in. They can’t stand each other…or so they think….

What you essentially have is an enemy to lover’s trope with GALCB. Like I said, it seems Chloe and Red cannot stand one another, they’ve both decided the other doesn’t like the other for one reason or another. But one day after getting a cat out of a tree, things change for both Chloe and Red.

Oh, I simply adored this book. I adored everything about it from Chloe to Red but especially Chloe’s family. Did I say that I loved Red and Chloe together? Because I did. They essentially worked each other’s nerves but the humor and barbs between them could not be denied, that shit kept me in stitches whilst also keeping me turning these lovely pages.

Ms. Hibbert covers many things in GALCB. From Chloe’s issues with her chronicle illness to Red’s unsureness about returning to what he loves, painting. This author wraps up all of this in a deliciously funny romantic comedy.

What I enjoyed so much about GALCB was that Ms. Tibbert didn’t under-power Chloe’s illness and how serious the damage that it played on her body. In today’s world, people really feel like if they can’t see your disability, you don’t have one. I’m happy this author took the time to focus on people with disabilities both unseen and seen.

I want more…seriously I do, and I’m was so happy to see that this is a series and that Chloe’s sisters are getting books as well. Shit, I’d take a book about GiGi to at this point, lols.

Wonderfully done Ms. Hibbert and I look forward to reading more of your works!

Readers definitely add this one to your library.

Red was on his way to have vegetable casserole with the old lady in 3E- Mrs. Conrad-Red was the new superintendent- when Chloe Brown ran into him and her face hit his throat. Her sisters Dani and Eve were with Chloe. Than Eve said to Dani do something and Eve also said we can’t let him choke to death after Dani had said and what should I do? Chloe had hated Red from the moment she met him, her sisters Eve and Dani seemed to love him. He thought of dani as the elegant one, and Eve was the fun one. Chloe made red feel like a rough, scary monster. Why she lived here was a mystery, since she was obviously loaded. After Pippa he could spot the gloss of a wealthy woman from miles away. But he wouldn’t think about Pippa. Nothing good ever came of it. Chloe irritated him. She’d just cut off his oxygen and still couldn’t show him common courtesy. His fingers itched to grab a pencil or paintbrush when he saw Chloe. He thought about how he shouldn’t be thinking about her at all. Eve called to get Chloe out to a bar for Karaoke. But Chloe declined. Chloe had fibromyalgia and chronic pain. Chloe got bone deep exhaustion, agonizing headaches, and shooting pain in her joints, fevers and confusion, and countless side effects from the medications she was on. Chloe felt Red was the man who liked everyone …. But her. But then again, people usually didn’t Sometimes familiar concern was it’s own mind-numbing sensation. Chloe couldn’t help but watch red work on his painting She couldn’t tell from from her window, across the courtyard from his, what he was working on. Red had told her months ago to call him Red. She hadn’t. Couldn’t. The word like word like everything else about him, was too much for her to handle. Chloe didn’t do well around people like Red, confidant people, beautiful people, those who smiled easily, and are liked by everyone and felt comfortable in their own skin. They reminded her of all the things she wasn’t and all the things she wasn’t and loved ones who left her behind. They made her feel prickly, silly, and frosty, and foolish, twisting her insides in knots, until all she could do was snap or stammer. She usually choose to snap. The problem with Redford was he always seemed to catch her at her worst. He turned into a complete disaster, so by day she avoided Red, and by night she sometimes watched him paint. From a distance, in the dark, with his sharp tongue tucked away, she saw him as poetry. There was an honesty, a vulnerability about him that captivated her, especially when he painted. She knew she wasn’t alive like himNot even close Red wondered why a woman who all but hated him, spent her evenings watching him through a window ? He couldn’t say, there was no good reason. She remembered when Redford and she first touched, a handshake which had sent a thousand tingling darts shooting up her right arm, darts that dissolves into a strange pleasurable sensation. Chloe had climbed up a tree to rescue a cat and red ended up helping her get down. He checked on her when she was back in her apartment and she seemed to be in a lot of pain. He made some tea when she asked. Chloe was an online designer.
This had a slow start and I almost gave up on it but as the story went on it got better and better and I did enjoy it and I was glad that I had read the book in the end. I really liked red and Chloe together and how they interacted. I loved how Red was always there for chloe especially when she was sick and in a lot of pain. I loved Chloe’s sisters and how they took care of Chloe. I really liked how Chloe made a lsu to start her new life. I loved that Chloe got Snatch given back to her. It was so sweet how much Chloe loved that cat after never having a pet before. I felt bad when Red let his issues come between him and chloe. I loved the characters and the ins and outs of this book and I recommend it.

Ugh. This was so cute (and sexy), it made my heart tingle. Chloe is our main character and she suffers from fibromyalgia which has turned her into a bit of a hermit. With a push from her sisters, she makes a list of things she wants to do to try to "get a life". She enlists the help of the hot artist/superintendent of her building, Red. Romance ensues.

I really enjoyed the emphasis on Chloe's chronic pain because it is something that someone with fibromyalgia would have to constantly be thinking about. I also loved that Chloe was a plus size woman. A lot of the romances I have read put emphasis on how small and tiny the female love interest is. It just seems weird to me. Also, her being plus size is not fetishized which I also appreciate. This book also dealt with domestic abuse against a man which is something that you don't read about a lot. It shows how harmful it can be for someone and the lasting effects it has.

Definitely one of my favorite romances of the year. One of my favorite books this year period.

I applaud this book for tackling the subject of living with and loving someone with chronic pain. I really wanted to love it because of this-but I just couldn't warm up to Chloe. Admittedly, I don't love the enemies to lovers trope (the one notable exception to this is The Hating Game).

Love isn't safe ...
But is it worth it?
Absolutely!

Chloe Brown is not a liker of Redford Morgan and the feelings are mutual. Redford and Chloe are ruminating in their past hurts which prevents them from moving forward in their lives. There is always something akin to animosity in the air when these two people come in contact and neither of them are willing to embrace civility.

Until ... these two floundering souls are able to connect at the right moment in time.

That moment is when Chloe, despite the physical pain she experiences on a daily basis battling Fibromyalgia and its affects on her life and limbs decides to rescue a cat, in a very, very tall tree. Going up is easy, coming down is another story altogether. Enter one rather tall Viking look-alike and a real life fixer (read the story) who can't help himself when someone is in distress--even Chloe Brown! Redford decides to help Chloe and it's the beginning of something really, really beautiful to behold.

For Chloe, it takes a near death experience, a bucket list, Smudge (read the book) and one Mr. Redford Morgan to make her want to experience life again to the fullest.

For Redford, it takes his new and highly improved experiences with Chloe, her belief in his work, Smudge and his renewed belief in himself to live his life again to the fullest.

Highly, highly Recommended: Read this Book!

ARC generously provided by Harper Collins and Netgalley.