I have long been a fan of Talia Hibbert, as she is so good at sensitively handling disability representation and reminding readers that everyone deserves a happy ending no matter their circumstance. Her first foray into YA literature is no exception, as we get a peek at the struggles of OCD through our main character Bradley. Soft and sweet, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is slow to start, but once you’re out in the woods with Celine and Brad, you just have to know how it ends (happily, of course)!

Talia Hibbert’s YA debut…. Need I say more?

Talia Hibbert always delivers with her writing, the banter between characters, and the development of those characters. The OCD and Bisexual rep was really great to read here.

The characters, however, gave off friends only and not really lovers. Again this is a YA book so that could have been the reason I was getting those feelings. Some parts of the story felt like it dragged and I didn’t see much of a point to things.

Celine had this confidence about her that I really liked. I think I just would have loved her and Brad more if this was maybe college and written more adult.

I love Talia Hibbert so I will for certain reading everything and anything from her.

3 stars.

I must admit, when I heard that Talia Hibbert was coming out with a YA romance I was a bit jealous… but only because I selfishly wanted another adult romance from her since I loved her Brown Sisters series so much!

YA romance is very hit or miss for me. This is largely in part due to the fact that as a 30-something adult, I am not the target reading audience. Despite my reservations with YA romance, I was confident that Talia Hibbert was going to knock it out of the park, and I was right!

Celine is an amazing main character. While she is strong, driven, and ambitious, she also experiences trauma from an absent parent that causes her unrealized issues in her daily life. Celine goes through a lot of growth throughout the story, which was a joy to watch.

Bradley, my dear sweet boy! What a wonderful love interest that breaks the traditional YA leading male stereotype. Bradley is sweet, perceptive, and sensitive. I really loved seeing their evolving dynamic.

One thing that Talia Hibbert does so well is character dialogue. I often find myself laughing out loud at the clever repartee. I was entertained from start to finish.

Talia Hibbert does a wonderful job balancing heavy themes such as parental abandonment, mental health, parental pressures, and more with lightheartedness. Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is just the right mix of depth and fluff.

Overall, this was a heartwarming YA romance with standout characters. I would recommend this to fans of the rivals-to-lovers trope, Becky Albertalli, and witty dialogue.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review***

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute, Talia Hibbert's YA debut, has all the same quirky charm as her adult romances (with, admittedly, a lot less kissing, etc). I didn’t want to put it down because I loved Celine and Brad so much. And the OCD rep is incredible.

It’s enemies to lover and also childhood best friend and somehow it’s absolute perfection. It’s the incredible alchemy of snark and grumpiness and side eye and pining and perfect knowing and the feeling of home that makes this book so absolutely delightful and unputdownable. (Which is now officially a word. I have made it so.)

They’re both complete goners for each other from the very beginning. It just takes them awhile to realize it. 💕

Thank you to Joy Revolution Books and Netgalley for my advance review copy.

I really loved Talia Hibberts romance novels so was excited for her debut YA. However it just didn’t work for me. I couldn’t connect to any character or the plot. I never rooted for them to be together or even care if they won the explorers scholarship. I still don’t even know why they’re friends again or like each other.

However all it just dragged some, had a few holes where I was like how did we get here. I didn’t feel the adventure of their (only two) explorations; I was certainly led to believe there would be more. We just don’t get enough of the school, their friends, their adventures. It’s just too much for one book. But I did really appreciate Bradley as a character though and his OCD was written well but we definitely needed more of how he functions and how he god to where he is now.

I mean it’s a cute book but I am not left thinking about it or would read it again.

CW: OCD, PARENTAL ABANDONMENT

I’ve always wanted to read a book by Talia but never got to it until this!

This is the sweetest and cutest YA enemies to lovers romance you’ll ever want to read this year.

Now don’t me wrong, the miscommunication trope wasn’t my favorite, but it gave the story more flesh and Talia did justice — so cringy faces on my end. These were just teenagers acting like teenagers would. You had two kids who don’t like each other, even if they were once best friends, working on a project together. That’s chaos waiting to happen, but as they spend more time together, their connection gets stronger amidst the challenges and miscommunications.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is about to melt me into the floor literally! Celine and Bradley were so wonderful. Talia Hibbert does romance in such a terrific heartwarming way. Bradley was adorably refreshing character with his wit and charm. Celine was driven, cute, and sassy. I think I was gonna explode with happiness at their shared banter and antics. This one is definitely going to be one of my top books of the year, I can feel it. It's a 10/10 for me. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Children's for a chance to read this incredible slice of happiness.

“This thing we have, it's like throwing a tangled chain into a drawer, hoping one day it'll come out untangled again: the knot gets even bigger while you're not looking. I couldn't find the right piece to pull, couldn't get a good grip on the links, even if I wanted to. We're just too . .. done.”

This book is a fantastic best friends to enemies to sorta friends to lovers. Bradley and Celine were best friends, until they weren’t. Years later they have built all this animosity for each other and don’t know how to pull the breaks.

So when they find themselves both at a scholarship retreat in the woods, they have to come to terms with whether they are capable of moving on from the past or accepting it for what it is.

The representation, as always in Talia Hibbert books was perfect. These characters are actually teenagers. I feel like what some YA books miss are the how messy and complex being a teenager is and when you add on mental health it can be a lot. I think this book balanced it perfectly in showing two young adults making decisions for how they want their futures to look.

I am new to reading Talia Hibbert's content, but I have heard nothing but amazing things! It has been an honor to have received, read, and now review an ARC copy of her debut YA novel, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute.

Bradley Graeme has finally found his place. He is a popular football player with stellar grades and a happy family; he even has his future all planned out. The only person doing better than him is Celine Bangura. Her grades are better, she is TikTok famous, and she doesn’t care what people think of her. Meanwhile, Brad’s OCD won’t let him stop thinking about every little thing. Only a few people know about his disorder, including Celine, his childhood best friend turned enemy. When life pushes them together, Brad has to face some deep seeded feelings he has kept down for years.

Celine Bangura has her sights set high. Growing up, life was not easy, Celine has watched her mother work endlessly to give her and her sister a better life. Celine knew things were different, that she was somehow different. Feeling like an outcast her whole life, she has carved her path and found her niche. It turns out that a lot of people on TikTok like to hear about Celine’s thoughts and the latest conspiracy theories. She has made her name known on the platform, but it is time to make a more significant impact. When Celine signs up for a survival course hosted by her idol, life gets a bit muddy.

Former BFFs Celine and Brad are a spitfire duo with a rocky past; from being attached at the hip, to barely handling being in the same room. Brad and Celine connected and bonded over the fact that they felt different growing up. As time went on, Brad took control of his OCD and decided he didn't want to be seen as different anymore. Celine on the other hand tried to let it shine and was not afraid to show her true colors. This caused a rift and Brad left Celine in the dust, found a new crowd, and kept his past behind him. What will happen when both teens find their way back to each other, sign up for the same survival course, and now have to navigate the woods and some new feelings?

The mental health and absent parent recognition were wonderfully executed. Talia Hibbert made it clear that life goes on, no matter what happens behind the scenes or in our heads. We can be stronger than the things we see as faults, the things we believe make us different can make us stronger and better. The novel is well thought out, with not too much focus on the survival camp and not too much focused on day-to-day school life. Nothing felt repetitive or out of place, every detail had a home.

I absolutely ADORED this book with all of my heart.. Celine and Brad are such relatable characters, even if their problems arent necessarily our own. The banter in this book is top tier, and the two friends dont just automatically forgive and forget. They have an honest conversation about it and really get to the root of their problems. the COMMUNICATION in this book is something I strive for in my own life. Celine analyzing herself and realizing that her motivations are mainly because of her dad shows real character growth, especially when she talks to Brad about her feelings. AND Brad being trauma informed and using coping skills IN THE BOOK? I almost swooned myself. I only wish that I got a little bit more detail into the explorers program, but I know that that wasnt the main purpose of the book, nor did it take away from the content. Overall, I honestly think I liked this book better than the Brown Sisters trilogy, which I devoured and loved so much. Very nice job!

4 stars!

this was my first talia hibbert book and i quite enjoyed it. i really loved the representation of bisexuality and OCD (i love that both are slowly being de-stigmatized by authors writing about it!) and i loved the outdoor setting. the characters are on their own were so lovable and unique, and celine's fascination with conspiracy theories was especially relatable.

i only rated this one four stars because i didn't love all of the modern references to TikTok and such--i feel like YA contemporaries are hard to write because you want to be relatable to your audience, but you also can't sound too dated, and this one, for me, seemed like it will feel dated in five years. i also don't love second chance romance, or second chance friends to lovers romance, whatever you want to call this, so the romance wasn't super up my alley.

overall, i would definitely read another one of this author's books, but i think i'll try out her adult books from now on.

thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC!!

I couldn't love this book any more if I tried!

Bradley Graeme is a good student, a great guy, incredibly popular, and tries really hard to manage his OCD.

Celine Bangura is a conspiracy-theory-obsessed Social media queen but she's not so popular in real life. At school, she's doesn't fit in with the crowd. She talks too much, and says whatever she wants and doesn't even attempt to follow the cool crowd.

Which is why Bradley and Celine's best friendship crashed and burned so many years ago.

What I loved about this book is that these two friends can't just dismiss each other that easily. Sure, they're still competitive and trade snarky insults, but deep down inside they still worry about each other, and keep tabs on each other, and make sure other people don't talk crap about them. I also love how working toward their future isn't so easy, and that sometimes what you think you want to be when you grow up isn't at all what you want. It's about trusting yourself to follow your own path, and speaking up when you need to. It's about family and friendship and being true to yourself. It's about building up the people around you, and not being afraid to show your feelings. It's one of the most positive YA books I've read in awhile.

I requested this book because I saw it was a Talia Hibbert book, and I haven't had the chance to read her other novels yet. This was a good book. I suspect it's incredibly Talia Hibbert's style, in the sense that I could tell it was written by an adult romance author. It has a heavier style to the writing--much like you find in adult romance. A little slower storytelling, a little more flowery, and a lot more in-your-head. Nothing wrong with that though! It didn't detract from the book. It was just slightly different than I'm used to a lot of YA being. Although it did echo Emma Lord's latest YA that comes out this month... so maybe YA is just changing a little.

It's dual POV, which I found interesting. And a little hard in the beginning to read. Both voices sounded pretty similar despite them being two clearly different characters. The beginning was also a little slowly paced for my particular taste, but again, that doesn't mean it's bad. It just took me multiple times to get into the book, rather than me wanting to devour it in one sitting immediately.

If you—or anyone in your life—are even a casual fan of romance novels, you’ve probably heard of Hibbert, whose bestselling The Brown Sisters trilogy (Get a Life, Chloe Brown, Take a Hint, Dani Brown, and Act Your Age, Eve Brown) has rightly piled up both fans and critical acclaim, thanks to its charming heroines, great dialogue, and effortless sense of fun. It’s not always easy for authors with demonstrated skills in certain genres to transfer them to a different one, but Hibbert manages to bring everything that works in her adult fiction to her first YA effort, grounding the romance in contemporary coming-of-age issues involving family expectations, growing up, and realizing the aspirations you once had for your life might no longer fit the person you’re becoming.

Talia Hibbert never disappoints. Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute lived up to its name. This was the cutest YA contemporary romance I have read. I normally prefer YA fantasy but this was just perfect. I loved both of the main characters and seeing their growth through the book. This had me laughing throughout, even the glossary. I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc.

The first book from the new Joy Revolution imprint from Nicola and David Yoon is by an author I love. Her name is Talia Hibbert and she is a Brit who mostly writes very, very sexy and heartfelt romance novels for the growns, but this time she’s bringing us a funny, quirky, mouthy, sparkling Young Adult love story called Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute. (Such a good title.)

Talia Hibbert has a gift for two special things, and this is something I talked to Nicola about on Geek Girl Riot, Talia has an acute observational eye for humanity and our idiosyncrasies—but also for dialogue that sounds like poppin’ champagne. It just sparkles.

The story is about a guy named Brad or Bradley, who is a star footballer (not a football player for those of you who know). The heroine's name is Celine and the two of them used to be the best of friends. But then something happens where Bradley chooses to be pop-u-lar. Celine, however, chooses to be her weird, wonky, alien-loving, and amazing self. That caused a rift between them and from there, you guys will have to read the book to find out.

Here’s a clue, this is a friends-to-lovers trope. . .or a friends-to-enemies-to-lovers trope (to be more specific). When we meet them, they are rivals. They hate each other and yet their hate feels like it might be disguising something more real—real warm, mushy feelings. So that's the “highly suspicious” part. They don't trust each other and it’s “unfairly cute” because both Brad and Celine are too ‘qwoot’ to be denied.

This book was a great choice for Joy Revolution to launch with. It is just so warm and cozy and you often have to burst out laughing at how quirky these characters are and the ways that their minds work. Talia Hibbert also creates characters who are oftentimes “neurospicy” or they may have chronic illnesses or phobias, ​​and she writes them with such kindness and without any of the artifice of ‘inspiration-gratification.’ There's none of that, It's just the diversity of the human mind and the human body and I think that's really amazing.

I didn’t love this book as a romance. I didn’t think that the main characters had much chemistry as a couple. I understood their friendship, but felt that their relationship seemed rushed. I did however find this book to have amazing themes of acceptance and forgiveness. Those two things were the cornerstones of the book for me. The progression these two characters made for becoming themselves and being 100% behind those selves, by the end of this story was beautiful. Their ability to help pull the best out of each other is what makes their relationship so good. Mental health awareness was spoken well multiple times and multiple ways through these pages.

2nd chance romance
Enemies to lovers

Such a cute story. The banter between Celina and Brad had me laughing at times, but I also was annoyed with Celina. She was sometimes way too much with her falling to conclusions and her way of thinking. I wanted to love the romance but I felt like they were more friends or I kind of got that vibe instead of the romantic type. Maybe because they were best friends I don’t know. I did enjoy reading it though. Thank you to NetGalley for the e-arc.

3.85 stars.
<b> We have academic rivals, bisexual and OCD representation, and AMAZING banter, if I do say so myself. </b>

Want a quick, enjoyable and hilarious read? Pick this up!
The banter between Celine and Brad was soooo funny, I was actually looking forward to their disputes. I laughed so hard at each one. I didn’t quite mind the back and forth between Celine and Brad at first, but I eventually did get bored towards the end, because their “misunderstanding” was a little dragged out to me. I also felt like this misunderstanding between them wasn’t worth it but the characters in this story and again, their banter definitely made up for it. There are so many relatable and likable characters in this story, this was too cute. Thank you so much NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was definitely unfairly cute but not precisely highly suspicious! I've gotta say that these characters are pretty a mix of what I imagine Talia Hibbert is like IRL, and it's definitely not a bad thing! I loved Brad a lot, and Celine was so determined to keep everyone out that it was incredibly satisfying to see her slowly open up.

With that being said, I still am just not a YA reader, but that's totally on me and my reluctance to revisit my terrible, anxiety-filled high school years.

Thank you too Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my thoughts.