A review by belladonnashrike
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

okay, I liked this way more than I thought I would. chloe and red are perfect for each other. I love love!!!

I didn’t know chloe had fibromyalgia (twin!) when I downloaded the book, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually some good chronic illness representation. i’m assuming hibbert isn’t disabled or has a chronic illness from her note at the beginning, so i’m happy she wrote about this topic with a lot of grace and respect. chloe has a personality outside of her illness and she doesn’t wallow every day and she doesn’t hate her life, like a lot of disabled characters in media seem to do. she has good days and bad days, and she’s still a person outside of her illness; she’s not one-dimensional. and red doesn’t coddle or baby her either — if she needs help, he assists, but it’s not because he views her as inept. he respects and loves her and treats her like a person (and his love language seems to be acts of service anyway, so fibro or not, he would be behaving the same way). it was really nice to read about a character with an almost spot-on situation to mine be treated with so much love and care from her significant other and not be treated like a burden.

i’ve actually never read a book that treated a chronically ill character in such a way so I am just over the moon right now, she did a wonderful job.

in terms of spice: I didn’t hate it but at times it seemed a little corny (referring to dialogue) and…underwhelming 😶‍🌫️ it wasn’t bad though! 

things i wish that were different: I do wish that red’s mom was present in more than just the start of the book. I think it also would’ve been nice if he had a conversation with chloe about his mothers illness because I think it made an impact on him which in turn impacts how he treats chloe. & I know people groan about lighthearted romance being more than, like, 350 pages, but I think adding more pages would’ve benefited the story, actually. like I wish that there was a bit more romance between the incredibly public extracurricular activities and the misunderstanding at the end. it needed a bit more fluff!

I did really like it though & I will be downloading the next book to my kindle immediately after I finish typing this 🫶🏻

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