The 2022 challenge is underway! FIrst up for me is a romance by a BIPOC author. And as luck would have it, in my Bookstagram Christmas book swap, I was sent a copy of Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert, which us the perfe t fit for this category.

What it’s about?

From Goodreads:

Chloe Brown is 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…

What I think:

Somehow I had read the second and third books in the Brown sister trilogy but not the first one.

And it is fantastic!

I loved Chloe. She is so resilient and funny – even when she is always trying to be.

Coping with chronic pain, Chloe has moved out of the security of the family home into an apartment of her own. But her illness means she is often limited in what she is physically capable of and she works from home.

She’s finding that her life is becoming increasingly small. Her friendships have fizzled out and she never meets anyone new. So she write a list of things that she wants to try to push herself to be braver and try new things.

As part of her new found gumption, she attempts to save a cat stuck in a tree. Before it’s Chloe that needs saving by apartment handyman, Retford.

The sexual tension between them is instant, but with both Chloe and Red trying to rebuild their lives and needing a friend should they risk taking their relationship further.

Well of course they should! There’s hilarity and fun, confusion and genuine moments of poignancy along the way. There’s also a fee very steamy sex scenes.

The Brown sisters trilogy is so much fun and it’s great to see real women represented. Dani and Eve make cameo appearances too.

A fantastic way to start this year’s challenge!