This Cheeky Book Will Melt Your Heart

February is Black History Month. The 14th of February is Valentine’s Day. So I decided to read Get A Life, Chloe Brown to celebrate both.

Written by a black author, this contemporary romance novel follows Chloe Brown, 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…

When I added this book to my tbr, I didn’t know much about it. The only thing I knew was that it was cute. So all I expected from this book was to feel all mushy inside.

And that’s exactly what happened.

I loved this book. From the first page to the very last. This book touched me in ways I can’t really explain.

All I remember was smiling while reading it. And doing a lot of “awww”s.

What I Liked About This Book

The strength of this book is how real the characters feel and how healthy their relationship was.

First, Chloe Brown is not just a girl trying to “get a life”. She is a black disabled female web designer that comes from a wealthy family and is trying to break out of her shell and be less of a sheltered and cautious person.

And Redford Morgan is not just the romantic interest or the bad boy next door. He is also an artist who is trying to find himself again after going through an abusive relationship.

Both of their traumatic experiences in the past reflect in their actions and the way they perceive each other’s actions. Red doesn’t like Chloe at first because he thinks she is just another rich girl who thinks she’s better than him. And Chloe doesn’t like him because he makes her feel things and she’s afraid of getting hurt again.

Talia Hibbert puts the reader on both of the characters’ sides, which makes the development of their relationship really interesting to read.

Throughout the book, we read from both of their points of view, which helps us understand how complex humans are and how vulnerable we have to be with each other in order to communicate our feelings and have healthy relationships.

Another thing I liked was how the author addressed Chloe’s chronic illness. It wasn’t the main plot of the story, but it was part of her as a character and the things she had to experience and how it affected her day-to-day life.

It felt very realistic, which makes sense since the author also has fibromyalgia.

Red was supportive, kind, and caring, but not to the extreme that he is babying her or taking away her decision-making ability. There’s a great balance between him being supportive and letting her be her own person.

Each character developed through motivation from their partner and themselves to be their best self.

Another thing I loved in this book was the banter between the 2 main characters. It didn’t feel forced. It was just so funny, cheeky, and felt very natural. Their emails made me smile from ear to ear.

Overall, I loved how healthy and realistic this relationship was. Yes, we had the very extra romantic grand gestures that we all love in romance novels, but I just loved how they were able to communicate openly about their traumas and insecurities and were understanding and supportive.

The way the author deals with mental health is just so refreshing. I think Hibbert did a great job of putting the reader inside the character’s minds and showed the complexity of traumas and insecurities. And how sometimes, even though you know it has nothing to do with you, it still hurts.

Final Thoughts

It was just so refreshing to see a romance novel about people with real problems while also including all the things we love about romance novels.

The characters were complex, with many layers that gave a fuller sense of who they were and the reasoning for their actions.

I wish there were more characters like these in other books and movies. We need more of this. More true love. I’m done with the selfish and the toxic. Bring me more boring and real love stories. Those are the cutest ones.

If you’re interested in reading this book, get it here.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve read this book and what did you think of it. Did you enjoy it?

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