Get a Life, Chloe Brown | Take a Hint, Dani Brown | Act Your Age, Eve Brown
author: Talia Hibbert
released: Nov 2019 | June 2020 | March 2021
Publisher: Avon (HarperCollins)
cover love: ♥♥♥♥

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 six directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamourous family’s mansion. 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.

Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits—someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom.

Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong—so she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding, her parents draw the line. It’s time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she’s not entirely sure how… (from Goodreads)

Review:

So last year I was looking for some rom com books to get into and I came across the first book in the Brown Sisters’ trilogy. I decided to just read all of them for a series review.

#1 – Get a Life, Chloe Brown

First, we meet Chloe Brown, right as she is having a near death experience. She goes home and decides right then and there to GET A LIFE! Chloe is heavily dependent on her family due to a chronic medical issue so being on her own is a challenge. But she decides to move out of her parents’ home anyway and into her own apartment, freelancing as a web designer. She is also working on getting everything on her “Get a Life” list checked off. There’s only one other issue, besides her “get a life” bucket list: Redford Morgan, her very hot, very infuriating, across-the-courtyard neighbor (and building maintenance man). Though she claims she cannot stand him, she can’t help thinking about him…or spying on him shirtless, painting across the way. When they keep butting heads, Chloe realizes Red isn’t half bad as a person and she decides to get up the courage to ask Red for his help with her list. The more time they spend together, the more they both realize neither is what they seem and sparks are growing between them.

In my opinion, GALCB is the “best” in the trilogy. For me, Chloe’s story is realistic and more relatable than the books featuring her sisters at the forefront. She also has the hotter man (again, my opinion). Chloe has Fibromyalgia, that can sometimes leave her in a constant state of pain. This condition constantly impedes on her life. She has lost friends and significant others due to their insensitivity about her illness. Because of these experiences, she puts up a wall of distrust and bitter sassiness, lol. She’s also awkwardly cute with her failed attempts at socializing with neighbors and having full blown convos with a stray cat (then proceeding to rescue said cat from a tree).

As far as romance tropes go, Chloe and Red get the “enemies to lovers” label. The trope wasn’t over the top, no no no, it was more subtle. More playful and flirty. The banter between them when they’d run into each other or hang out was quite entertaining, well versed, and humorous. It flowed naturally. Once things got hotter between them, I was flipping through those pages! Red definitely had my attention: a hot, long haired ginger with a leather jacket and a motorcycle! Yes, please! The way he would pine over how much he wanted Chloe was hot! I liked that Red, in time, could sense that Chloe was having a flare up with her condition and did everything he could to take the burden off of her. Giving Chloe what she needed without her asking him to, but not coddling her to where she feels like a burden.

This book was a little spicy…but tbh some of the sex scenes were a little…awkward. I really didn’t see the appeal of the one on the steps or during the camping trip. Maybe it was the way the scenes were described but yea, they just didn’t do it for me.

Even tho I enjoyed the book, I was kinda stuck on what to rate it. At some point during my reading, it was nesting itself into the 4 star category. But toward the end, it was looking more like a 3 or 3.5 rating, which isn’t bad either. The pacing of the story at times felt unbalanced. Like it was a very slow beginning and then…BAM, you get hit with all the spice at once and then the events are moving quite fast. Sometimes I didn’t care for the way the author described how the characters expressed their emotions toward each other. For example, the author would write, “When Chloe looks or smiles at Red, it does “xyz” to him”. It’s a constant, repetitive, narrative, unnecessarily copied and pasted between the dialogue. Also, there’s way too much “growling”. What is this about? If someone growled at me this much it wouldn’t be a turn on, it would be weird. 3.5 stars

#2 – Take a Hint, Dani Brown

In the second book, we’re hanging out with the middle child, Danika Brown and her “fake relationship”. Danika is all about her career and doesn’t do the relationship thing for too long. Once they start catching feelings, she’s out of there! But work and school are stressing her out and what she really needs is a distraction-less release once in a while. A safe and simple fuck buddy. Someone who can hit the sheets and be on their way. Her prayers are answered the day she gets stuck in an elevator at her University and is rescued by the hot security guard, Zafir, who secretly has a crush on her. The whole spectacle (Zaf carrying her out of the building like a damsel in distress) is posted on social media, leading everyone to believe they are a real couple. The post instantly goes viral. Instead of fighting off the rumors, they decide to roll with it. The publicity is good for Zaf, who’s been trying to get more sponsors for his charity rugby for kids. And good for Dani, as well, because now she has an excuse to be around Zaf and get all the hot sex she wants!

But, things get complicated as it’s apparent that Zaf has been harboring feelings for Dani long before the fake situation was created and Dani doesn’t know how deal with the fact that she too may be falling for Zaf. And how to stop getting in her own way when it comes to dating.

I think TAHDB had a strong start, it was interesting but as the pages turned on and on, it started to lose its dazzling qualities. I liked that the other two Brown sisters (and Red and Smudge the Cat) make cameos. It makes the book very wholesome and fun when all the ladies get together. But there was a very unnecessary amount of eye rolling and f-bombs (and yes, more growling). For some reason I could not get into Danika and her boy toy’s love story. Some of the humor wasn’t coming through and the sex scenes were….a little awkwardly written. The climax felt very underwhelming, like, you could’ve almost missed it entirely if you weren’t paying attention. I think the climax came way too late in the story, it’s very near the end of the book and then all the issues are neatly fixed with maybe one or two chapters left and then we’re done. Huh? Danika and Zaf could’ve had a bigger struggle and a bolder finale. They were absolutely capable of that. It’s like all the ingredients to make this story more substantial were right there in the text but weren’t used in the right order or not used enough to give it that kick it needed. I gave this book 2 stars.

#3 – Act Your Age, Eve Brown

Now, the last book…eeek! Tbh, I barely enjoyed the last installment in the trilogy. In AYAEB, we have the youngest Brown sister, Eve. She is completely unsure of herself and drowning in her failures. After losing yet another job, her parents kick her out of the house and tell her she must find a job and an apartment before they will jumpstart her trust fund again. After hearing this, she has a meltdown and drives off and gets lost in a quaint little town. She ends up at a bed and breakfast run by a very grumpy man, Jacob Wayne. She somehow manages to run this man over with her car…and break his wrist. Then ends up being the cook at his restaurant…oooooookkk???

So, this is the only book in the series where I didn’t like the male love interest. At all. He is so bland and comes off very snobby and corporate. Not sexy in the slightest. And the plot…let’s talk about it. Nothing was going on. Nothing was happening…I mean, nothing. There is barely chemistry, romance…none, and no sex or hot scenes until like 200 pages in! I was halfway in when I looked up and thought, “Is this the whole story?” Just Eve cooking and cleaning this man’s hotel…as a reader, I could not find the appeal in this (honestly, don’t get me started). The “connection” between Eve and Jacob was so forced and mechanical. There is no chemistry that I read or felt between these two characters. There was just nothing there to even think these two would get it on. I mean, they did but reading about it wasn’t doing anything for me, it was just a bit strange. I mean, at one point, Eve gets all turned all over Jacob eating off a fork. a fork????. Some of what I was reading was just came off as very odd and confusing. The dialogue was just awful, Eve and Jacob banter back and forth in a very boring, dry way. Unfortunately, this goes on for the entire book. Yea, I didn’t like this book, it wasn’t cute, sweet, funny, or hot in any way shape or form. 1 star.

Overall

The series had a promising start, with its humor, great main characters and just enough spice. But sadly, the series fell shorter and shorter with every installment.

I will say this, the author definitely did a great job in creating a charming and humorous family, the Browns, which includes the parents and grandmother, Gigi! The eccentricities of the Brown family is a hidden gem within the series. I can’t stress my opinion enough that the author should write a book about the Brown family, centered around their family dynamics. That would be a great book to read!

2.5