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

3.0

Get a Life, Chloe Brown felt like the perfect cavities-induced rainbows and lollipops chicklit story, with an extra sprinkling of erotic spice. Lovers of sweet, whimsical romances and happy endings will enjoy this book.

It follows the main character, the titular Chloe Brown, who after experiencing a near-death experience, finally decides to 'get a life.' Despite her chronic illness and troubled past, this meticulous lady is determined to accomplish all the activities on her daring list, that is until she meets Redford Morgan and gets far more than what she bargained for.

Let me preface this by saying how much I applaud the characterisation of our main protagonist, with her quirky, memorable idiosyncrasies and how desirably she is depicted throughout the novel as a black, fat and disabled woman. The way it deviates from typical ideas about romance novels and which type of women are heralded as beautiful and desirable, will resonate with the overlooked readers and will hopefully become part of a growing pool of literature that helps to deconstruct our deeply embedded and erroneous views about beauty.

Now onto the story. Critically speaking, I thought this book was rip-roaring fun, however, I was disappointed by the amount of manufactured conveniences in the writing, from the shared view Chloe and Redford have into each other's flats from their perfectly positioned windows to Redford's coincidentally timed appearance when Chloe got stuck in a tree. The whole thing seemed unrealistic to me, such that it blurred the lines between 'suspension-of-disbelief' style fate and unimaginative cliche.

There was also something about the dialogue that felt irreconcilable. It was in equal parts overly theatrical, pornographic and frustratingly banal. Which leads me onto my thoughts on all the erotic bits of the story. I found the cutesy, wholesome nature of Chloe and Red's tentative but growing affections, felt slightly incongruent with all the pornographic portrayals of graphic sex that towards the end of the book became more and more prolific. That's not to say I didn't enjoy these delightful scenes, it's that they were tonally inconsistent with what it otherwise an airy, light and fluffy book.

Red (the love interest) had his moments but his sensitivity and empathy towards Chloe's condition made him endearing and loveable. I did end up getting annoyed with his character because, as much as we love the fact that he is so completely 'head-over-heels' obsessed with Chloe, his arousal at almost every banal action she took became extremely tedious. Other characters I felt endeared to were Chloe's grandmother Gigi, whose characterisation gave the story an extra flare of humour.

Overall, I enjoyed the swoon-worthy nature of this book. It wasn't enough to compel me to read the rest of the series but if you're looking for a sexy, pick-me-up of a book, then I'd recommend you look no further!