I love that Chloe isn’t perfect, and I love that Red isn’t either. Talia Hibbert says that she wants to write stories for those that don’t often see themselves in literature, and I think she accomplishes that here. I especially loved Chloe’s grandmother and sisters, who made me smile every tie they appeared in the story.

The auxiliary characters in the book were also great comic relief. If only everything could be so easily wrapped up with a happy ending? It never was, for Chloe.” That’s a mindset we both share, and while she overcomes it in the narrative, I am still working on that in real life. I underlined a lot of sentences in this book, but one stands out to me a few days later: “It couldn’t be that simple or lovely. It feels appropriate that I’m actually writing this review, sitting in my hotel room in London, on my first solo vacation ever. Like her, I internalize a lot, I don’t want to have regrets about how I lived my life, but I am also kind of a chicken (both physically and emotionally).

That, to me, is the heart of this book these two broken individuals finding what they need in the world: a person to understand them.Īdmittedly, I do not have a chronic pain disorder (though I do have much more respect for those who do after reading this book), but I saw a lot of myself in Chloe. I wanted to give both of these folks a big hug and a cuppa tea - just be the friend they need. On the other level, it’s an incredible character study of two people, learning to get over their personal fears in different ways. This story was a totally predictable love story, on one level: Red and Chloe hate each other, they bicker, they start to work together, and they fall in love, with misunderstandings along the way.

I liked getting a peek into each of their minds, and it added a great deal to the story. The chapters alternate between their two points of view, which isn’t my favorite literary conceit, but it worked in this instance. Chloe Brown is a wealthy English girl with chronic pain (fibromyalgia) trying to stop being scared of everything in her attempt to “get a life,” and Red is the very attractive superintendent in her new building who is broken in his own way. I thought this was going to be just a run of the mill romance, but the story of Chloe and Red was so much more than that. Review: I will totally cop to the fact that this is a book I wouldn’t have picked up but for Book of the Month Club*, and I am surprisingly glad that I did. “Get a Life, Chloe Brown” by Talia Hibbert

Get a life chloe brown book cover