I've probably seen Get A Life, Chloe Brown on the internet more than any other book this year. Based on the blurb, I could tell it would be a humorous read, but it in a lot of ways it wasn't the romcom I expected.
Chloe Brown wants to get a life. After having an almost near death experience when a drunk woman nearly runs her over, Chloe vows her life is painfully dull and decides to do something about it. Emboldened by her brush with disaster, she etches out a list of experiences to help spice up her life. And she finds no one better than her seemingly annoying, bad boy superintendent, Red, to help. One thing that isn't on Chloe's list is living an unremarkable life. This book wasn't the romcom read I expected it to be for a lot of reasons, with that being said it surprised me in some ways and let me down in others. The representation in this story is one facet I have no complaints about, and the inclusion of a main character with a chronic illness gets a roaring round of applause from me. Chloe has fibromyalgia, yet it isn't depicted as holding her back or defining her entire existence, and it isn't handled in a way that makes her seem undesirable. Too often illnesses are cast in a negative light, both in society and in literature, but Talia Hibbert did a wonderful job writing Chloe's experience living with chronic pain. The story doesn't only bring to light the reality of living with a chronic illness; it also deals with the aftermath of being in an abusive relationship. If you're familiar with my other reviews of books billed as romances then you know I'm pretty critical of fictional relationships. I need to feel like the connection between two characters makes sense, which brings me to Chloe's romantic interest, Red. I loved Red as a stand-alone character, but his relationship with Chloe was a slow burn that exploded into fireworks too quickly. The story spent more time in their heads than they spent having any sort of meaningful conversation. I didn't expect them to start spilling their trauma and having heart to hearts 50 pages in or anything, but it felt like they went from lightly despising each other to full blown thoughts of marriage faster than a couple of teenagers. Red and Chloe would have made great friends in my opinion. At the end of the day I didn't believe their chemistry as much as I wanted to. Hibbert's humor was absolutely spot on and I found myself chuckling often. We have all been Chloe at moments in our lives, caught off guard in very awkward situations (and probably shrinking into ourselves out of embarrassment). Some of the banter between Chloe and Red reminds me of the quips I've shared with my best friends. I wanted to see more of them together having late night talks or sharing a bit more about themselves. How can two people be convinced they're in love when at the end of the day it seems they've barely learned much about one another? Red and Chloe's individual storylines with respect to their past relationships could have been fleshed out more, and maybe that's why I'm feeling a bit underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, they were still cute together, and I think Chloe is an absolute badass. I didn't need to see how awful their ex's were to care about their trauma, I'm just noticing a misuse of real estate when it comes to how the almost 400 pages were used. I can understand how this lives up to the hype in terms of representation, but the romance element was lacking for me, and that's supposed to be a decent chunk of the story. My opinion seems to be a fairly unpopular one from what I can tell. Get a Life, Chloe Brown gets a solid 3.5 stars from me. I enjoyed the read and would recommend it for all the positives noted above, but it's not a story I'd read a second time.
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