I'm excited for young adults to have age appropriate Talia Hibbert! I think this will be very well received among that group.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute follows a story of Celine and Bradley who were a friends once but now became enemies. This book was so cute and fun!

I love that the character development, the family dynamic, the supporting characters who were also fun. I love the plot pace and how their relationship was so real and deep.

Overall, this book was so good and I’m recommending it to those who love friends to enemies to lovers✨

Thanks to @tbrbeyondtours & @taliahibbert for the earc copy!

I went into this book hesitant for a couple of reasons:
1. I've been suffering from a bit of contemporary YA fatigue, and
2. As a huge fan of Talia Hibbert's Adult Romances, I wasn't sure how well her style would translate into YA - I wasn't sure she could bring *it* without the heat, so to speak.

I have never been so happy to be proven so, so wrong. This book was exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it: an injection of pure joy and overwhelming cuteness directly into my veins. Her heroine is no less complex for being younger than her usual, and the romance is no less swoon-worthy for a lack of spice. My contemporary YA fatigue didn't stand a chance. Talia, I will never doubt you again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Joy Revolution for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh Celine and Bradly, the way they warmed my heart. I loved their story and their undeniable love for each other. The complexity of their life long friendship turned romance kept me going. This was a sweet ya-romance set in their last year of high school. Celine and Bradley were childhood best friends turned enemies when Bradley started hanging out with the cool kids. They go on a journey to finding their way back to each other. I enjoyed the fact that there was more going on then just their relationship. Celine dealing with her father leaving her at a young age and it shaping her life goal. Bradley dealing with OCD and warring with following in his fathers footsteps by studying law when all he wants to do is write. Both of them competing for a full ride scholarship.

These days I typically try to avoid stories that take place in high school, but I have an appreciation for this story and it helped that for the majority of the book was not set at the school. I think this is a cute lighthearted romance. Now on to the Brown Sisters.

Unfairly Cute is right! This book is adorable. 

I procrastinated this book, even after receiving the ARC, because I was nervous. I trust Talia and love her writing. I have OCD. I won't lie, I was nervous about how she would handle an OCD character. OCD is tricky, and I've only read one other book that I thought handled an OCD character well. (Shout out to Penny Reid!) I *knew* Talia would do a great job, but the idea of starting this book still gave me a little anxiety. After the year from hell, I just couldn't force myself through the anxiety until after the stress from the holidays was behind me. Once that was done, I hit the book and I am so glad I did! 

The characters are awesome. Usually in YA romances one of the characters is pretty flat, but that is not the case here. This is perfect. Celine and Bradley are both well rounded with interests and personalities. I felt that the banter and dialog in the story was better because of the dual perspectives and the personalities of each character. It is so nice when you have two good characters to cheer on rather than just one. 

The story is hecka cute. The plot is enjoyable and kept me intrigued. I cheered for Celine and Bradley in their quest. 

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book. I am shelving it to remember when my 9 year olds get into the YAs. Highly recommend if YA is your jam.

THIS BOOK! I knew I would love it, because I would love reading Talia Hibbert’s grocery list if I’m being quit honest. But truly, it still somehow exceeded my expectations. Talia just has this way of writing characters that I can’t help but both fall in love with and connect on to on an almost terrifying level.

Starting with Celine, I couldn’t help but love her from her first eye roll right at the beginning. Her personality is the one I would be totally drawn to in an irl friend and I was rooting for her from the very start.

And Bradley. Golden boy, I just want to hug him and be his best friend but I’m also definitely in love with him Bradley. His bisexuality was so wonderfully represented, and his depiction of OCD hit almost too close to home (as in had me questioning if I needed to look up some online test 😅) but truly just made me love him all the more.

Their relationship had me on the edge of my seat, just waiting for them to just finally stop denying themselves what they truly wanted and get on with it. The banter had me cackling throughout, and their tender moments brought me to tears more than once. I can officially say this made my top ten reads if 2022 without an ounce of hesitation.

I've been a fan of Talia Hibbert for awhile so I was really excited when I heard she was writing a YA novel. Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is a very cute and fun YA romance for anyone for who loves the romance genre especially fans of Talia Hibbert's other works.

I'm sure it's corny of me to start off by saying this book was unfairly cute, but too bad because it was. Talia Hibbert officially does YA romance just as well as she does adult romance--fans of the Brown sisters will find this to be (appropriately) less steamy but every bit as full of romance, heart, humor, and wit.

This story was so sweet and hard fought. Both mains had their own struggles and with each other. But I loved the humor and care taken. Hibbert is a master at writing funny, witty, but flawed characters that I would love to know IRL. I haven't been 17 in....a while, so I don't relate too much with this YA. But that didn't stop me from enjoying my time with Celine and Bradley.

Another hit by Talia Hibbert! This YA romance was sweet and such a great example of healthy relationships for teens. The development and growth of the characters is what kept me reading since it was a refreshing take on a teen romance.

3.75 stars

This book was very wholesome and endearing. I love that Bradley's character had OCD and she showed how he managed it and also didn't manage it well always. It felt real. Bradley was nerdy and cute and I loved getting a look at how his mind worked. Celine reminded me a lot of a young Eve from her adult fiction series. Dramatic and fabulous but also guarded. I appreciated the storyline about Celine's father and the journey that was.

I will say I expected more of this book to take place during the expedition/camping. I feel like based on the cover and the description more of the book would have taken place in that setting. I think I would have liked to see their friendship/situationship blossom more from those days instead of jumping back into school. I feel like only 30% of the book took place in the woods.

All in all it was a cute read and I will always read anything Talia Hibbert writes. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of Highlight Suspicious and Unfairly Cute in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t really know where it went wrong for me with this book. Talia Hibbert’s writing is great and her banter is as entertaining as ever. However, I went into this one without knowing its YA so maybe I wasn’t just in the mood for that? Or maybe I wasn’t just feeling it? Im not really sure, but I’ll say its a me thing, maybe.

Talia Hibbert, I still love your stories and your sense of humour, this one just didn’t work for me.

Huge Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this copy.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this advanced copy.

I am a huge fan of Talia Hibbert's adult books and "Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute" is everything and more that you could hope for in a YA novel from Hibbert. It has the same bones as the Brown Girls series (hilarious women of color, disability rep, cinnamon roll male main characters) but dialed to just the right level for a YA audience.

Celine and Brad are so adorable in their friends to enemies to "lovers" relationship, doing their best to hold the most high school of grudges while denying that they were probably always more than friends and just never could admit it. Packed off on this bizarre scholarship program, they trade barbs and slowly come back to where they should have always been: together.

The side cast of friends and characters are fantastic, but its really Celine and Brad together that makes this book special. Reading how they handle themselves, their complicated lives, and their feelings was so heartwarming and wonderful and I loved how Hibbert wove in complicated relationships with parents, teenage sex (not on the page), and the stress of figuring out what to do after high school.

I'll read anything HIbbert writes and this book is just one more reason to love her, her characters, and her stores.

Oh my GOSH. This is the cutest thing I’ve ever read. Perfect grumpy/sunshine, friends to enemies to lovers goodness!! I’m writing this at 1:40 am when I am almost always asleep, but Talia did not allow me that luxury—I had to stay up to finish Cel and Brad’s story. It’s a good one. Recommend to all people everywhere.

THIS IS ALL I WVER WANTED ALL I WVER NEEDED OMG TALIA HIBBERT WHO ARE YOU HOW DARE I LOVE, truly Can write anything wow.

THEMES 🎭: academic enemies-to-lovers/friends-to-lovers, competition, older young adult romance, man v. nature

I know I would have loved this back in high school! This was deeper than an academic enemies-to-lovers; it was far more complicated in my opinion! I loved how diverse Celine and Brad’s personalities and familial situations were. Growing up, I was rarely aware of books that featured a Black, bisexual athlete with OCD, so seeing that pop up in this novel was so refreshing 💕 I loved Celine as a character but Brad was absolutely excellent 😭 He is such an emotionally intelligent main character. I loved how he tried to help Celine through her own emotional dissonance. Celine’s character voice kind of dwindled as time went on, but her sense of humor really set the tone for the whole novel.

I felt like some storylines were just dropped, but overall, the story was really enjoyable!

This was a cute read that I think my high school students would really enjoy! I liked the representation in the book and I felt like it was perfectly YA!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely heart stopping-ly adorable. I should have never doubted that Talia Hibbert would be able to capture my heart with YA just like she did with her adult romance. I am absolutely obsessed with these two little lovebirds and in my cannon they are together forever.

The childhood friends to academic rivals to friends to lovers was *chefs kiss*. I couldn't put this one down and managed to binge read most of it over the course of an afternoon with Studio Ghibli films playing in the background, aka Saturday afternoon perfection.

I highly recommend this to anyone who calls themselves a romance lover and it's going to be a tough one to beat when it comes to favorite romance of the year.

Thank you to #NETGALLEY and #joyrevolution for the advanced audiobook. This book just like the title suggests is "unfairly cute." The main characters are likable and smart. This is an enemies to lovers trope. Hibbert does a good of writing for young adults. This is a quick easy read that is also delightful.

I loooved this author's other novels, so when I saw this I knew I had to pick it up. I was not disappointed! It was very much living up to its title of being unfairly cute. I think that it was a good-paced book that I was able to read in one sitting. Would recommend!