Get a Life, Chloe Brown - Talia Hibbert

Initial draw: ✰✰✰✰✰
Character development: ✰✰✰✰
Plot/Writing style: ✰✰✰ (3.5, really)
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"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..."

I had a hard time deciding how I felt about this book, so I've been sitting with the review for a while, but I've come to a decision and am finally ready to blog about it. The initial draw was stars across the board - as soon as I read the synopsis, I knew I wanted to read it, and getting started I was immediately pulled in. The characters are three-dimensional, well-developed, and relatable, the story is solid, and I loved Chloe. After being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, she started shielding herself from any experiences she thought might trigger her chronic pain, but following a near-death experience she has decided that needs to change. Armed with a "get a life" list, she takes the first step - moving out of her posh family home and into a small flat of her own - and now she and her cutting wit and focused determination are ready to check more items off the list.

Which is where Red comes in. Chloe immediately butted heads with her new superintendent, but it doesn't take long for the pair to realize that when one of them isn't infuriating the other, they...kind of get along? After a few verbal sparring matches, the pair begin to click, forming an unexpected partnership, and things escalate from there.

And I do mean escalate. (Spoilers incoming, you have been warned.)

Y'all...this is a present-day bodice ripper. Like, all caps. And I have no problem whatsoever with things getting steamy, but my library classifies books by genre, and this one was in plain old fiction. The summary does mention sex, but in sort of a throwaway way. Things start off like any other vanilla contemporary novel. And then BAM. You're sitting on your couch, reading away, and Red wakes up from a nap-turned-wet dream with cum on his belly. And proceeds to give himself a hand in vivid detail. I mean, things go from zero to sixty in the space of a sentence, and the heat only gets cranked (heyoooo) up from there. Again, no problem with a horny novel - I'm midway through the Bridgerton series at the moment, as a matter of fact - but generally I like knowing that's what to expect going into it, and in this case...

Maybe I missed a memo and everyone else was well aware that it was going to get hot and heavy fast, but I was very surprised, and therein lies my initial uncertainty about how I felt about the book. It took me a bit to decide if the unexpected level of spice took me out of the narrative (I mean, at one point Chloe is so ready to bone down that she describes her vagina as feeling like a CLENCHED FIST. What.), but ultimately I decided no, it did not. The storyline is great, the character growth is a thing of beauty, and the representation included is...*chef's kiss*. If you're on board with lots of filthy, sometimes public, sexytimes in your reading, I say give this book a go. Just...maybe don't read it in the same room as your mom.

Lycanthropy and Other Illnesses - Kristen O'Neal

 My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Priya worked hard to pursue her premed dreams at Stanford, but a diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease during her sophomore year sends her back to her loving but overbearing family in New Jersey - and leaves her wondering if she'll ever be able to return to the way things were. Thankfully she has her online pen pal, Brigid, and the rest of the members of "oof ouch my bones," a virtual support group that meets on Discord to crack jokes and vent about their own chronic illnesses.

When Brigid suddenly goes offline, Priya does something out of character: she steals the family car and drives to Pennsylvania to check on Brigid. Priya isn't sure what to expect, but it isn't the horrifying creature that's shut in the basement. With Brigid nowhere to be found, Priya begins to puzzle together an impossible but obvious truth: the creature might be a werewolf - and the werewolf might be Brigid. As Brigid's unique condition worsens, their friendship will be deepened and challenged in unexpected ways, forcing them to reckon with their own ideas of what it means to be normal."

Whew, this book was a bit of a ride! We start off following Priya, who is learning to live with the chronic pain, brain fog, and other symptoms brought on by Lyme disease. She finds solace and support in an online community of others with chronic illnesses, invited by her online BFF. When Brigid goes dark online for several days, Priya finally gets worried enough that she drives across state lines to check on her...and discovers not her friend, but a giant wolf. 

Yep, that's right. Brigid's chronic illness is lycanthropy. I was curious how O'Neal would blend this fantasy thread into the real world, and she does a great job. There were a few moments that require a little suspension of disbelief, but overall I thought it was fantastic. What really sells it is the friendships - Priya and Brigid primarily, but also between the other members of "oof ouch my bones," the animal control employee they meet along the way, and honorary mention goes to Priya's siblings, who melted my heart. Also, it's just wonderful to read a book where a bunch of people with chronic illnesses are able to talk frankly about their experiences and commiserate with others who understand what they're dealing with, without the ableism and garbage that pops up on Twitter and other social spaces. I look forward to reading many more books with such awesome disabled representation in the future!

Umbertouched - Livia Blackburne

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"The mission was a failure. Even though Zivah and Dineas discovered a secret that could bring down the empire, their information is useless without proof. Now, with their cover blown and their quest abandoned, their only remaining hope is to get home before Ampara brings the full might of its armies against their peoples.

As Shidadi and Dara alike prepare for war, Zivah and Dineas grapple with the toll of their time in the capital. After fighting alongside the Amparans against his own kin, can Dineas convince the Shidadi—and himself—where his loyalties lie? After betraying her healer’s vows in Sehmar City, can Zivah find a way to redeem herself—especially when the Dara ask her to do the unthinkable? And after reluctantly falling in love, what will the two do with their lingering feelings, now that the Dineas from Sehmar City is gone forever? Time is running out for all of them, but especially Zivah whose plague symptoms surface once again. Now, she must decide how she’ll define the life she has left.

Together, healer and warrior must find the courage to save their people, expose the truth, and face the devastating consequences headed their way."

I have such mixed feelings about this book. Some of the characters pulled me in, and I found myself eagerly reading certain chapters because I had to know what would happen to them. Exactly what you want from a book, right? So why the mixed feelings? Because when I wasn't eagerly reading those certain chapters, I kept forgetting I was reading this book. 

Just like with the first book in the series, Rosemarked, while the plot is intriguing and the characters are compelling, the book is too long for the story it's telling. It's like wandering in the desert alongside Zivah and Dineas...every once in a while, you may come across an oasis of a few chapters and can't stop reading, but in between are long stretches of nothing progressing. It's not a bad read, but the pace was too slow to keep me consistently engaged, and in the end there wasn't even any of the resolution that I expected. Ultimately, if you need something to read and this duology is what's available, go ahead and pick it up. If you're weighing your options and this is one of them, there are better books out there.

Rosemarked - Livia Blackburne

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"A healer who cannot be healed . . .

When Zivah falls prey to the deadly rose plague, she knows it’s only a matter of time before she fully succumbs. Now she’s destined to live her last days in isolation, cut off from her people and unable to practice her art—until a threat to her village creates a need that only she can fill.

A soldier shattered by war . . .

Broken by torture at the hands of the Amparan Empire, Dineas thirsts for revenge against his captors. Now escaped and reunited with his tribe, he’ll do anything to free them from Amparan rule—even if it means undertaking a plan that risks not only his life but his very self.

Thrust together on a high-stakes mission to spy on the capital, the two couldn’t be more different: Zivah, deeply committed to her vow of healing, and Dineas, yearning for vengeance. But as they grow closer, they must find common ground to protect those they love. And amidst the constant fear of discovery, the two grapple with a mutual attraction that could break both of their carefully guarded hearts.

This smart, sweeping fantasy with a political edge and a slow-burning romance will capture fans of The Lumatere Chronicles and An Ember in the Ashes."

I was lukewarm on this one. The concept was intriguing, and the execution wasn't bad, but it was longer than it needed to be. If I drew a line graph of the action throughout the book, it would look like someone flatlining and then finally being revived just when you thought hope was gone. The book starts off strong. Zivah is a promising apprentice healer who passes her final test just as a squadron of soldiers camped in her village falls ill with the rose plague, a vicious illness that kills most who succumb to it and leaves many survivors permanently infected and contagious to everyone around them. While caring for the soldiers, Zivah also contracts the plague, surviving but ending up one of the permanently contagious. At first, Zivah loses all hope, planning to live out the rest of her life in isolation, unable to put her skills as a healer to good use. When she and Dineas are forced together, another path presents itself and the two of them set off to the capital, planning to spy on the Amparan leader and help free their people from its rule.

Here's where the flatline begins. pick a chapter in the middle, any chapter, and I can pretty much guarantee you that what happens is 1. Dineas trains, 2. Zivah works as a healer in the rosemarked compound, and 3. Dineas comes to the compound for his regular visits with Zivah to make his report of what he's learned. Lather, rinse, repeat. At times, I wasn't even sure what, exactly, they were trying to accomplish with their infiltration. Fortunately, just when I was starting lose hope, the last few chapters blew up. Zivah and Dineas were forced into action, and the book ended leaving me wanting more. Good save, Blackburne!