There’s a big difference between being a coward and putting your emotional safety first.
― Talia Hibbert, Get a Life, Chloe Brown
CBR17 Bingo: White
Chloe Brown needs to go. After narrowly avoiding being run over by a drunk driver, her brief and bland (to her) life flashes before her eyes. Once the panic and subsequent exhaustion pass, Chloe decides then and there that she must Get A Life ™.
She makes a list of things she’s always wanted to do but was too afraid or too ill to do. She checks off the first item on her list, which is moving out of her family home into a flat of her own. However, exhaustion and pain caused by her fibromyalgia slow her progress, and she settles into a new routine before attempting to tackle another item.
Sequestering herself in her new nest with her work and her blankets and her tea protects her psyche, but she is not allowed to linger on her own for long. Her sisters, Eve and Dani, check in on her regularly and coax her out of her nest with food and invitations to go out with them when her illness allows. They also tease her about her attractive, flustered building superintendent Red. This, Chloe believes, is pointless as Red obviously loathes her. However, Red seems to keep interacting with her no matter how awkward their conversations are. So, she comes up with a plan. Perhaps Red can help her with some of the items on her life list. If he already dislikes her, then she has nothing to lose.
I wanted to like this. I liked the other Talia Hibbert book I read (The Roommate Risk). Like this one, it had messy characters with real character growth. However, this book never really gained enough momentum to keep me interested. The final quarter was a slog and the third act breakup was so late, I couldn’t bring myself to care.
Again, I wanted to like this because it was funny! And the sex scenes were excellent!!! But it wasn’t enough to raise my rating or make me want to recommend it.