A few months ago I was looking through Amazon looking for new books and guess what I spy a Talia Hibbert YA Romance that so had to go on my wish list. I had already read the Brown Sisters Books and know that when Talia writes about disability is always on the money. I know this after reading Get a Life Chloe Brown I got an EArc of it and even though I was excited it took me a long time to read it as I knew it could well trigger me. You see at that time I was going through the process of being diagnosed and her book helped me to begin to come to terms with it.

Now let me just talk about the main characters of Celine and Bradley were top notch and the banter between them and their side characters was on an epic scale. I also loved the glossary at the front of the book that had me howling with laughter and it clearly showed that Talia was having a great time and I love that.

if you are expecting me to tell you more about the book then I am afraid to disappoint you by saying this will not happen. Instead I will tell you that I loved this book so much I bought it for my Kindle as Talia is an auto buy author for me. If Talia wrote a shopping list out I would read that too. Please can we have more books from this world maybe following other characters as it be sad if it was a standalone. You already know what star rating I am going to give yep 5 stars and I knew that after just reading the glossary that I was in for a great time and I did.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is a friends to enemies to lovers YA Romantic Comedy novel. This genre is not my usual genre as a reader and I absolutely enjoyed it. Talia Hibbert is a great writer and makes dynamic, believable and relatable characters. It was really great to see the characters realize their and their flaws and also give in and admit that they wanted to change. In real life, doing that takes so much maturity and trust in yourself. I love that the characters look like me and the author and has subtle cultural references. This book was so cute and I loved Brad and Celine equally.

This book was so funny and sweet! Talia Hibbert is an incredibly talented author and this book is another example of the wit and adorableness that’s in her books! I found my self writing down quotes from this book so often because it was so funny! I absolutely adored Celina and Brad’s relationship and really rooted for them to get over their prides and be together!
The serious moments were done really well. I appreciated the level of care that was taken to talk about both OCD and the trauma of abandonment.
This was the perfect mix of comedy and a heartfelt romance.

✨ Review ✨ Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert; Narrated by: Amina Koroma, Jonathan Andrew Hume

I think my enjoyment of YA romances is fading throughout my thirties, but I still really enjoyed this one. Hibbert's writing is relatable and honest, especially re: relationships and mental health. The characters grapple with OCD, anxiety and stress, and familial trauma throughout this book. Hibbert, as always, handles these topics with grace and care.

Celine Bangura and Bradley Graeme were best friends as kids but went different ways as they became teens. In this book, they end up side by side again as they enroll in a wilderness survival/leadership program. In places, this book made me giggle and roll my eyes, and I was invested in them as a pair. The book was sweet, but also not necessarily in a disconnected way. In one of my favorite moments, Celine dismisses virginity as a social construct, one that she refuses to comply with. 🔥 Celine's a total badass of a 17-year-old, and her personal growth throughout the story was really lovely.

The audio narrators were fantastic and their emotions really brought this story to life. The accents especially alongside the story / age of the characters was bringing me Sex Ex (Netfix) vibes.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: YA m/f contemporary romance, bi and mental health rep
Location: UK
Reminds me of: Sex Ed
Pub Date: out now!

Thanks to Random House Children's, Joy Revolution, Libro and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

Having read all of the sister books, I was really excited about this release. The characters are cute. The dialogue is cute and snappy, which I expect from Hibbert. While I will recommend this to my students there was something sort of clumsy about the teenager plot. I’m not sure if it was all the people involved or what, but it didn’t resonate with me overall.

I love the confidence in Celine and the vulnerability in Bradley with his OCD. Enjoyed the friends to not friends to friends to relationship storyline. The side characters were everything and drew my attention every time they were on the page. While I did enjoy my time with this I do think I prefer Talia's adult novels more.

This is absolutely Unfairly Cute!! I really love Hibbert's dialogue. The characters here not only always felt age-appropriate but also had really snappy banter that was super easy and fun to read. In true Hibbert fashion, the characters are racially, sexually, and ability diverse without feeling like checkboxes on a page. This was total fluff. Yes, there are underpinnings of mental health issues and parental trauma, but it's handled in a very soft way that doesn't feel dismissive but also doesn't bog down the fluffy narrative. Talia Hibbert is a magician that way.

This was really cute! I loved the setting and the banter of this one! Not to mention the cover is super cute. I could have gone without the Kanye and TikTok references though.

This was SO CUTE! Brad is just so sweet and kind. And Celine was such a quirky badass. I loved them both. I got this ARC a little bit ago and I just got around to reading it! Worth the wait because it was so sweet. Talia Hibbert does YA and it’s wonderful!

4/5 Stars

** I received this as an E-ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review, Thank you!**

Cute, quirky, and easy to read. That is how I would describe this book. I will add that I think this book could've done a lot more with the plot and characters, I think for me I would've liked the book to go deeper into these characters. It felt kind of surface-level to me. Keeping in mind that this IS intended for Young Adults and is not supposed to be a super detailed book. I had a fun time with this cute YA romance. I really enjoyed my overall experience and just had a fun time relaxing with this book. I would absolutely recommend it for a fun, cute contemporary romance.

This is my first time reading anything by this author Talia Hibbert. I really enjoyed reading about childhood friends Bradley and Celine. Bradley and Celina were best friends until an event happen with the two of them and the they are now enemies. Bradley is a footballer dealing will OCD. Selina is a plus sized social media buff. I love the camaraderie going on between Bradley and Selina, these two are fabulous. Selina signs up for a course in survival in the woods and Bradley is also there. The two have to get along and work together. As the two navigate there way from being enemies to friends shows that the two have grown in their lives which is great making this book that much enjoyable.

This was a great YA and I will be looking for and reading more of Talia Hibbert’s work.

I received an ARC via NetGalley and Random House Children's, Joy Revolution Romance | Teens & YA and I am leaving my review voluntarily.

IT WAS UNFAIRLY CUTE ALRIGHT! MY HEART IS FULL. highly suspicious and unfairly cute is a very well written childhood best friends turned rivals to lovers young adult contemporary romance. it's everything you want in a book sets in highschool too. the giddiness i experience while reading celine and brad banters was very unreal!!

I was excited for this book, and while it was cute, it missed the mark for me a bit. I enjoyed the main characters and thought the friends to enemies to lovers trope was nice, but the characters read as very immature. I knew this was a ya book going into it, but they were still on the immature side even for that. Loved the positive family relationships and the whole idea of the competition. 2.5 stars, thanks for the ARC!

I was able to get this book as an arc from NetGalley, and it's another absolute winner. This is my first experience with Talia Hibbert, and what an introduction!

Cel and Brad are two mortal enemies who end up on the same combination camping trip/internship competition in their final year of high school. Friends in their childhood, they now avoid each other as much as humanly possible. Will the camping trip be enough to heal old wounds and get them to be friends again - or maybe something more?

This book is SO CUTE and I'm going to recommend it to literally everyone. Hibbert's dual perspective is precious and a hilarious look into both characters' teenaged brains. At the same time endearing and realistic, Hibbert does a wonderful job of showing Cel and Brad's journeys to understanding themselves and each other better. I can't wait until this is on our shelves and I can recommend it to my patrons.

3.5/5⭐

This was so stinking adorable! I loved Talia Hibbert's Brown Sisters trilogy and I was so excited to see that she was coming out with her first YA novel. This had all of the banter, humor, and heartfelt moments that you'd expect, as well as a good dose of mental health rep, finding your own path, and just pure fun.

The dual POV format worked really well; both Celine and Bradley are such likeable characters and their inner thoughts were so entertaining - I loved being on their journey with them! Brad in particular was hilarious and I really loved how he was written.

Reading this was such a great way to end the year - best friends to enemies to friends (who make out sometimes) to lovers is the trope I never knew I needed! There was less wilderness survival than I was expecting from the summary but I still enjoyed every minute of it and I can't wait to see what Talia writes next.

Thank you so much to Joy Revolution and NetGalley for the ARC!

I own the first book in this author’s adult romance series but haven’t had a chance to read it. We do have it in my school library as well and I’ve had students who really liked it. But I’m very excited that there is now a YA book by this author to add, because sometimes I have to be careful about adult books or similar in my library due to all the challenges these days.

This book grabbed me right away and I think the students will be happy I got it as well! I really liked both characters. Celine had enough of the nerdy girl vibe, but also was confident enough in herself that she could deal with anyone thinking that way about her, for the most part. She was dealing with some family issues though, specifically her father abandoning the family. Bradley was a jock, but also a bit nerdy himself. He also had his own personal issues, specifically his OCD.

But what I loved was that both characters, even while having the shortcomings and worries and overreactions of a normal teenager, also were able to treat each other with kindness in areas they knew were specific hot spots for the other. One example was how Celine would seemingly unconsciously adjust or do things to help or make Brad not feel strange for his OCD actions or thoughts. Another is how Brad knew how she felt about her father, and really did things to help her not feel that way as much as possible.

And then there was the banter. It was perfect, I loved the snarkiness, how the two of them, Brad especially, really enjoyed the banter as a form of communication, even flirting at times. The way Celine tried to end their budding relationship at one pivotal moment made sense and wasn’t blown way out of bounds even as I was so frustrated with her for doing that! And then the part at the end when Brad gets hurt? Oh my gosh! I was pretty emotional with him and Celine at that point!

The way the author wrapped the whole story up to give them their HEA/HFN probably as teens, was just perfect in my opinion as well. And I love that things worked out for both of them, if even not in the way they’d originally planned. Even with her rotten father, I feel the rest of both characters’ parents were realistic and fit the story as well. Oh, and looking at the cover you’d think there’d be a lot about her weight? Nope, it was just Celine, and I loved it! And how no one else made any kinds of remarks or anything about that.

I really can’t wait to get my finished copy of this one to add to my library for my students to love as well!

It was a decent book. Not Talia Hibbert’s best work but still enjoyable.
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is a story of two teenagers who used to be friends, drifted apart after one became more popular, found each other again and fell in love. Celine is grumpy, sarcastic and a TikTok conspiracy theorist while Brad is a sci-fi writer who plays sports.
The book was annoyingly predictable, a little boring but still worth the read. There was a good amount of character growth which was nice to see.

This was an adorable YA contemporary romance. It was fun watching Brad and Celine reconnect on their adventures. I enjoyed Hibbert’s adult romances so I was excited to get a chance to read her YA.

Celine and Bradley used to be best friends but now they’re polar opposites. Celine jumps at the chance to participate in a survival course in order to show her dad that despite him not being a part of her life she is going to make something of herself. She just didn’t realize she’d be competing with Bradley who’s only participating for the scholarship.

I liked the friendships and the setting was fun. I loved the support that both Bradley and Celine had from their parents who were involved and each had a sibling that brought a lot of light to the story. I would recommend this book to other YA contemporary romance readers like myself!

I love Talia Hibbert's writing (the Brown Sisters trilogy is *chef's kiss*), I love romance, and I love a well-written YA novel, so I was super excited for the chance to read an e-ARC of this book. I was a little hesitant when I realized that a good portion of the story takes place as the MC's try to survive in the wilderness because, I'll be 100% honest, I am an "indoor activities" kind of gal and would probably not fare so well if I was asked to survive in the wilderness for several days. But, it turns out I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Brad and Celine and their cohorts as THEY embarked on a wilderness adventure that was part of a survival course created to encourage teamwork, leadership, commitment, resilience, and relationship building.

There are some heavier topics, like dealing with OCD and parental abandonment, but mostly the book is filled with well-developed & flawed yet lovable characters, witty banter, found family, laugh-out-loud moments, and the roller coaster of friends-to-enemies-to-lovers.

I definitely recommend this book. It was absolutely adorable and kept me smiling.
Especially recommend if you like:
- Dual POV
- Plus-size rep
- OCD rep
- Tropes: Grumpy/Sunshine, Friends-to-enemies-to-lovers

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reader copy. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC copy of this book.

This book was so freaking cute. A YA following ex-best friends as they are forced to work together in a competition for a scholarship. The characters had real issues they were dealing with and it was so easy for me to relate to some of the things that Celine was working through. The banter between Brad and Celine was so fun and snarky. They used to be best friends but fell out a few years ago and now whenever they are in the same room together their very intelligent selves quickly dissolve into toddler like antics.

I absolutely enjoyed this book and am so glad I had the opportunity to read it.