Hey guys! It's been a while since I came here, but between work and reading some things tend to get neglected sometimes, which is something I hope it can change with the coming year because I want to update this blog more often.
Even though I still request Netgalley ARCs here and there, this month I decided I will only read the physical copies I have on my TBR and Get a Life, Chloe Brown is my first reading of December. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it as much as I was expecting, although it was still a fun read.
This book follows Chloe who struggles with everything that comes from having fibromyalgia, which lead her to a very boring, very safe life until she has a near death experience that prompts her to create a very specific, adventurous, and filled with everything she didn’t get to do “Get a Life” list. To complete the first item on that list, she moves out of her huge house to a flat where she meets superintendent Redford ‘Red’ Morgan who seems to dislike her for some reason.
I give this one a 3.5 stars. Here are my non-spoiler thoughts on it:
I’d say the first half of the book started out fine. I enjoyed reading from both points of view, with the whole ‘I don’t like you because for some reason you strongly dislike me and you make sure to show it’ but when they got past that stage and started to get involved was when I started to lose interest, my disinterest growing as the story progressed. At a certain point, it seemed like Red was a horny teenager in a 30-something-year-old body who can’t think of nothing but sex. Some of their sex scenes even had me cringing, I’m not going to lie.
Some time ago I read somewhere you have certain stages to write a book. It was something like: you have a starting point, and you have a destination. In between you must have something that keeps the characters from going to that destination and find a way to get past it. Here we have Chloe and Red, who have to end up together in the end. After they admitted their feelings for each other it was as if the author was getting too close to their destination, so she had to come up with something, an obstacle, for them to overcome. For me, it was unnecessary.
Chloe’s family seemed very supportive, and I wish we got to see more about her sisters and Gigi, since they obviously play a huge role in Chloe's life.
For someone who knew close to nothing about fibromyalgia, I think it was well represented and gave us an insight of what to live with it looks like. With the bonus that Red treated Chloe with the respect she deserves and not like a damsel in distress when it comes to living with it. I also enjoyed that we got to see from a male perspective what’s it like to be in an abusive relationship and what it can do to you, even after you got out.
Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I feel like Talia Hibbert could have given us more. I will also probably still read the next books, as I’m curious to get to know more about Dani and Eve.
What about you? What are your thoughts on this book?
