Talia Hibbert’s Brown Sisters books were among the first romcoms I’ve ever read, so when I heard she was making her YA romcom debut I jumped at the chance to read it early, and OH my goodness, this book did not disappoint. Celine is a rising TikTok star who makes videos about conspiracy theories. Bradley is a popular footballer with OCD that he works hard to manage. And despite being best friends as kids, they’re now mortal enemies. But when they both sign up to go on a wilderness expedition in hopes of winning a scholarship, they’re forced together again and have to confront the reasons behind their falling out.

I am highly suspicious of how unfairly cute this book was!!! (I’m sure that joke has been done but please let me have this). It was full of hijinks and wit and SO much charm I smiled the whole way through it. Sure, a lot of Cel and Brad’s problems could have been resolved with a conversation, but because they were teens protecting their hearts and their friendship I wasn’t annoyed about it the way I would be with an adult romance. This book comes out January 3 and you’re going to want to snag a copy.

Thank you to @netgalley and @joyrevbooks for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely adored. Couldn’t get enough of the relationship between Brad and Celine. Totally relatable in many ways. The banter and emotions were perfect.

This was so much fun! Having loved Hibbert's Brown sisters trilogy—which set a very high bar for adult contemporary rom coms for me—I was highly suspicious for her YA debut (see what I did there?).

But no need to fear! Because this was the perfect combo of snarky/sassy, charming and heartwarming. This was laugh out loud funny, true to Hibbert's style.

It's a friends to enemies to lovers teen romance with academic rivalry mixed in. Very fun stakes! Celine's and Brad's complete disdain for each other was so captivating. The way Celine was committed to hers (and his) role(s) in their rivalry was hilariously executed. In a "how dare he speak kindly to me—or at all—because we're supposed to be ~enemies~" kind of attitude. They truly seemed to find enjoyment in outwitting one another and getting under each other's skin. The banter was on point 👌🏽

I easily rooted for Celine and Brad from beginning to end—as individuals and as a couple. I truly cared for them and wanted them to find success, happiness & be in good health. Their POV's gave a lot of insight to their development. I was intrigued by their family dynamics, motives, inner thoughts and anxiety over their life decisions. I'm reminded about that crucial life-changing time of transitioning from teen hood to adulthood, and the pressure that can come with it.

Enjoyed learning about their friendship backstory. Both were hurt and misunderstood by each other. And even though they went their separate ways years ago, you can see how their intolerance for each other masks the care they have for each other deep down. I loved seeing elements of that care reach the surface and surprise them.

Celine and Brand were authentically themselves, and I loved that for them. They owned who they were, but were also receptible to growth opportunities. I admire them! And I appreciated the emphasis in caring for one's mental health, no matter what part of that journey you're on. Hibbert shared her OCD diagnosis in her author's note, and you can see how she wrote Brad's character managing his OCD with such care. Celine too.

Really enjoyed this one! Hibbert captured the world of teen friendships and young love so well.

[CW: abandonment, mental illness, bullying]

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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

TW: parental abandonment, living with OCD, school/career anxiety, broken arm, a bit of a tumble off a cliff

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f YA romance
-bi rep
-childhood friends to rivals to idiots to lovers
-wilderness competition
-forced proximity
-it is rude how attractive I find you
-the one allergic to all feelings and the one who feels everything
-just freaking adorable

Talia Hibbert took all of her snarky and sparkly adult romance writing skills and just easily transferred them into this amazing YA that I honestly adored. Bradley and Celine on paper look like opposites yet fit into all of the puzzle pieces each other, just seeing each other and understanding each other and their dynamic was funny and just adorable.

I adored Celine's snark, her understandable inability to trust, and her complete drive. And she definitely had no time to deal with her ex friend and now academic rival Bradley. But these two are forced to spend more time together than just their classes when they both decide to pursue a wilderness competition for an academic scholarship, and the friends they make a long the way.

Bradley and Celine, with their history, knew just the right points and words that would sting the most. These two both dealt with how scary falling in love is for the first time and i just enjoyed it all while they were like okay we'll just kiss one more time. Both were so soft for each other in accidental ways. Watching these two accidentally fall in love and figure it out was just fun, battery and just full of the sparkle that Talia just excels at.

I honestly can't wait for Talia's next book she is just a powerhouse.

Steam: 1

I’ve read some of Talia Hibbert’s adult books and absolutely adored them, so requesting her YA debut was a no brainer. Once again, Hibbert succeeds in creating a funny, heartfelt romance that I can’t get enough of. Her characters are complicated and lovable and definitely not perfect, which makes them even more fun to read.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute has everything I expected from a Talia Hibbert book -- incredibly endearing characters, satisfying character growth, delicious banter and representation of mental health that is both positive and enlightening.

The book follows once friends now enemies, Celine Bangura and Bradley Graeme, as they both compete in an outdoor expedition in order to win a prize scholarship. Through the trials of said expedition, their friendship rekindles and turns into more.

Celine's prickly demeanor contrasted with Brad's charm was so much fun to read -- I couldn't get enough of their chemistry and banter. Even more though, I loved how they both acknowledged their wrong doings in their friendship in the past and growing to make their relationship now even better. A+ character growth. I love to see it.

I think the best way to describe this book is to say it has a lot of heart and you can feel that in the characters, the story and in the writing. It's a joy to read and unbelievable cute. Dare I say, unfairly cute.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children's for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 25%. Normally I don’t mind a YA (I prefer adult romance) but something about this just felt extra young to me. All of the social media references felt too much and I couldn’t connect with the characters. I do love enemies to lovers with witty banter so I enjoyed that much while I read but unfortunately just not a book I could vibe with.

Talia Hibbert's first young adult book did not disappoint! Celine and Bradley used to be best friends and then a fight separated them. Now they can barely stand each other and find themselves competing for the same scholarship. I loved both Celine and Bradley! I loved their banter and their journey through all of the hurt feelings and misunderstandings. They also each had their own issues to deal with that I thought were handled beautifully.
I will definitely be recommending this book for purchase for the high school library! I really think students will love Celine and Bradley as much as I do!

Does. Talia. Hibbert. MISS?

The answer is no.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute was so stinking adorable!

Celine and Bradley were sweethearts to read, and I really enjoyed their hilarious back and forth as they navigated the highs and lows of teenaged angst, learned to give themselves some grace through their struggles, and also, well, fell for each other in the midst of it all. And not just our mains! Every character (um, actually, there were some losers sooo MOST aha) added their own sort of charm, and it made reading all their cute and silly and sometimes serious interactions with our protagonists and each other a damn good time.

Throughout the entirety of this book, I laughed out loud, giggled, kicked my feet, squealed, and even got a little emotional. A lot of care went into this from the absolute fluff of it all to the OCD rep and the importance of caring for your mental health and treating yourself kindly. The dialogue was fantastic (you know I’m a sucker for that good ol’ witty banter), the plot was fun and heartwarming, and overall, I just really enjoyed how the entire book came together.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is out January 3rd, 2023 friends! Pick up a copy, and hopefully you’ll love it as much as I did!!

CW: grieving an uninvolved parent, anxiety and mild panic attacks

I love Talia Hibbert and was so excited to see that she had written her YA debut! Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute follows Brad and Celine as they compete for a prestigious opportunity- a full scholarship to help them pursue their dreams. Yet they have unresolved history that is bound to make itself known as they are forced to rely on each other and adventure through the great outdoors.

I devoured this book! Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is funny and heartfelt. Talia Hibbert can truly write it all! Of course, the romance is scaled back from her adult books, but there is just as much pining and tension. Celine and Brad are the type of characters you wish you could be friends with in real life- they’re delightfully nerdy and relatable. Having a friendship break-up is rough and I loved how they had to work together to repair that damage, before they could move onto something more.

There is great OCD rep and LGBTQ+ rep (bi/queer) as well. Brad has many strategies that help him deal with his OCD, while showing how difficult it can be to manage. Celine is considering therapy as she works through the complex reasons behind her planned career choices. The entire book is extremely inclusive and shines a positive light on mental health and self-care. On a personal note, I was THRILLED to see a (side) character with celiac thriving and living her best life! Better than gluten-free bagels that don’t taste like cardboard.

Read Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute for a hilarious, heartwarming romance! I can’t wait to read whatever Talia Hibbert writes next! Thank you so much to Talia Hibbert, Joy Revolution, Random House Children’s, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

Oh Brad and Celine have my heart forever and ever.
The banter = top notch! I kept highlighting lines and wondering why I hadn’t thought of it yet
The mental health rep= I loved! Brad has OCD. I do not but having a brain that does spiral often, Brad’s inner monologue was very very honest and so relatable.

This book was funny and witty and so so sweet. It was so adorable and had me feeling warm and fuzzy.

Another Talia hit! But that was expected

Thank you to NetGalley and JoyRevolution for the eARC

This is YA novel published by the new Joy Revolution Imprint, which focuses on romances featuring characters (and authors) of color. It is also Talia Hibbert’s YA debut. Her adult titles are pretty steamy, but this novel is completely appropriate for teens.

The story is told in alternating first person POV. The main characters are Celine and Brad, who are former best friends entering their final year in high school when the story begins. Celine, in particular, is very focused and driven to succeed. When they both sign up for a survival course and end up in the woods together, sparks fly. Can Celine and Brad forget old wounds and reconnect?

This is a fun friends to enemies to “lovers” story, but the part I liked the most are the comfortable handing of a character with OCD that is well managed but still part of their character, and the message that it’s okay to change your ambitions and plans as you grow. Teens really need to hear that you can change your mind about what you want to do after high school!

I hope the author will keep writing YA novels – she does a great job of expressing the internal struggles that teens face.

I received an ARC from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Celine and Brad were best friends growing up, but have since fallen out to the point Celine doesn't even like to look at him. Then, Celine lets it slip she's applying for the Breakspeare Explorers Program and Brad decides to apply, too. He feels adrift, saying he wants to study law to appease his parents but not sure that's what he wants in life, and this seems to be a perfect opportunity to get a scholarship so that he won't feel obligated to study what his parents want him to (and to be able to have is own apartment since his OCD may make it difficult to live with another human male as they tend to be not...the cleanest).. Will the forced proximity make Celine and Brad reevaluate their feelings for each other?

Oh my, this book was just ADORABLE, and everything we love in a Talia Hibbert book--great characters, sassy banter, and fantastic love stories. Since this is a YA, we don't have any of the signature steam of the Brown Sisters' trilogy, but it's still so good! I really enjoyed this, and if you like Talia Hibbert, this would be a great book to share with younger siblings/cousins/friends/kids.

~ARC Book Review~

Thanks to netgalley for this advance readers copy of Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute. This book comes out January 3rd!

review: I really wanted to like this book. I read Get a Life Chloe Brown and part of the 2nd book in that trilogy but I really did not like them that much. I thought maybe I would like Talia Hibbert’s YA novel more but I don’t, not really. It’s not that the writing is bad or the characters are boring or anything I can really pinpoint, I just could not get into this book. It is a fairly short read, but I still took about a month to read it. If you are a fan of Talia Hibbert’s other books then I would definitely recommend this, but for me it was just kind of meh. Wish I could be more eloquent but thats really all I got lol

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Rating 3.5

These former best friends lost their way, and now are more frenemies than friends. Now paired together, these nemeses are out to win a scholarship to help them pursue their dreams after high school. Their temporary truce has the potential to lead them back to friends and possibly a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship as each has pined for each for a very long time!

This YA book is truly a coming of age story as Brad and Celine tackle real world problems before they face adulthood. While it has it heavy moments, it is also filed with snappy dialogue and laughter. Overall, it was good read but I'll stick with Hibbert's adult romances.

Thank you Random House Children's, Joy Revolution for the complimentary Copy.

I didn’t connect immediately with the story or its characters. At first, I was quite bored and uncertain as to whether I would like this book or not. But after realizing I might have felt like this because of personal circonstances, I took a break from reading it.

When I went back into reading this book, with an open heart, I read it in a sitting. Brad directly found me. It felt like he had been written with me in mind. I had forgotten how a character could speak to me so closely.

Eventually, as the story moved on, Celine grew on me too. Their friendship/relationship was unfairly cute and I was really rooting for them to declare their feelings to one another by the end.

It’s a great YA debut.

I adored Talia Hibbert’s YA debut, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute. Thank you to Joy Revolution and Netgalley for the e-ARC of this book.

Talia’s writing is exactly my style. I connected so quickly to both the writing and the character, Celine and Bradley. I was almost immediately laughing out loud, which is a great sign that I will end up giving a book five stars. Celine and Bradley have incredible banter, and Talia’s dialogue is so witty. It was giving Bant and Dec, the Archbishop of Banterbury, Bantersaurus Rex. An absolute delight. I also highlighted a tremendous about in this book, which is another great sign that I’m having the time of my life. The closing lines!!! To die for.

Talia is so descriptive in her writing style, and it easy to slide right into the story and feel as though you are right there with the characters. There’s a lyrical feels to some of those descriptions and her words are beautiful.

This book really IS unfairly cute 😩

Lastly, I love love love the relationship between the Bangura women. I will leave it at that because you really need to read this book for yourself. It has so much depth and is a YA novel that would be easy for anyone to pick up and relate to. Thank you for this wonderful book, Talia!

Bradley Graeme is popular and perfect in every way. Celine Bangura is comfortable outside the lines of popularity creating conspiracy theory TikToks and pushing the boundaries. It's hard to believe once upon a time they were best friends. Now they're rivals going head to head in academics and social circles. So when Celine signs up for a Survival Course that leads to a life changing college scholarship, she is surprised to find Brad is also fighting for the win. And as dirty and challenging as this course is, it turns out they must also face what went wrong in their past. Can they come out of this stronger allies, or will their rivalry strengthen further into a full on war.

I really enjoyed this book. Both main characters were very dimensional and had these real life relatable problems all wrapped up into a cute friends to enemies to lovers storyline. I was invested to see who won and I loved how they ended up coming together as much as they fought. I enjoyed that there was mental health storylines in both main characters. I am glad there wasn't a huge focus and detail on the survival course/challenge aspect of the book because I was more interested in the relationships, the families and friends rather than the grueling survivalist courses they were doing. Overall I thought it had a great balance and nuance. I'd definitely pick this one up again!

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review. This book releases 1/3

This book was so cute!! I really liked Celine and Brad. I don’t normally read ya contemporary anymore but this wasn’t set in high school so much and the author did fine with the descriptions so I could handle it. I did have to remind myself a few times they were in high school. I loved the mental health representation from this book and this book gave me Kasie West vibes.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is my first novel by Talia Hibbert and I really enjoyed it! This is a quick, fun YA romance novel that I would absolutely recommend to teens!

Celine Bangura and Brad Graeme are enemies, but it wasn't always like that. In fact, the two group up being incredibly close, but when Brad decided to play football and fell in with the popular crowd, he seemed to ditch Celine. Now seniors, Celine and Brad have one thing in common: both are academically talented.

When the two find themselves competing among other driven and successful teens in a scholarship program, the two have to reconcile some of their differences and they realize there may be more to their relationship than being sworn enemies.

This novel was cute. It definitely reads like a YA novel. I have no issue with that, but it may not appeal to an older audience. That said, it was enjoyable, the characters were quirky, and I loved seeing the two characters learn to love themselves as much as they developed feelings for each other.