Review: Talia Hibbert – Take a Hint, Dani Brown

Did you think Get a Life, Chloe Brown was a good read? Get ready for her sister!

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert was one of my favourite romance reads of 2019. The sequel, Take a Hint, Dani Brown, centers Chloe’s sister, and it is set to come out on June 23rd. I’m so thrilled that I was able to read it already! I just know it’ll be another romance favourite.

I was sent an eARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Goodreads Synopsis

Talia Hibbert returns with another charming romantic comedy about a young woman who agrees to fake date her friend after a video of him “rescuing” her from their office building goes viral…

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.

When brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it’s an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and ex-rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Now half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae—and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out, his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse?

Dani’s plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, grumpy Zaf’s secretly a hopeless romantic—and he’s determined to corrupt Dani’s stone-cold realism. Before long, he’s tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his… um, thighs.

Suddenly, the easy lay Dani dreamed of is more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint?

CWs: past death of a parent and sibling, grief, anxiety, depression, sex scenes

Review

While this companion novel is not exactly comparable to the first book, it does have the same heart, the same excellent use of tropes, the same humour, and the same near-perfect pacing. These ingredients, combined with characters that seem to be able to step off the page any second, make for an addictive, uplifting read that will find its way on many favourites lists!

I absolutely adored the main characters. We get an academically successful, passionate and ambitious black bisexual witch with brightly coloured hair, who’s my new favourite Slytherin. And we get the most grumpy-looking but kind-hearted Pakistani Muslim man who’s (not so) secretly an avid romance reader, and who’s made it his mission to destroy toxic masculinity in rugby and work against the stigma on mental illness. These characters were both so distinctive, and unlike any characters I’ve read about before, which made them feel like real people I couldn’t help but love.

Of course, as a romance novel, this books uses a lot of tropes and clichés, and it does so in a really great way. (Like, there’s fake dating!!) But what’s even better is that it gives a lot of those tropes an original twist, and that makes this book unexpected and refreshing.

Are you looking forward to this release?

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