Thanks to NetGalley and Joy Revolutions for an ARC of this novel; all opinions are my own.

3.75 Stars

I’m a huge Talia Hibbert fan and I love her spicier novels, but since I’m a huge fan, I wasn’t not going to read her first YA novel. Did I like this more than her spicy novels? No, but this also isn’t targeted for my demographic. Is it still a great novel? Yes. Yes it is.

Quick Synopsis: Celeste is invested in competing in and winning a wilderness retreat competition to not only win a full ride scholarship to study law, but to also show her absentee Father that she can and will be better than he could’ve ever expected; that leaving her and her mother and sister was the worst mistake he ever made. Unfortunately, she has to deal with her ex-childhood best friend Brad who has decided to participate in this competition as well. They’re always at each other's throats, but this competition might just bring them closer together than they thought.

Trigger warnings: absentee Father, strained parental relationship, abandonment

What I liked:
-The dialogue is absolutely incredible. It’s hilarious and quippy and quirky and I wish I was this funny.
-I really enjoyed how unique the characters are. I mean, Celeste is literally a conspiracy theorist TikToker, is stubborn as hell, and is overall confident in herself. I loved it.
-I loved how these two went from friends to enemies to lovers and how stubborn about the process they both were
-Brad is incredibly emotionally intelligent and really helped Celste get there as well
-Brad’s parents were so supportive and overall just great.
-I normally don’t enjoy books set in high-school --I’m older it’s just not my thing anymore -- but I did enjoy this.
-Given the age of the characters, I liked that she didn’t add any spice. Very appropriate.

What I struggled with:
-Out of all the names you can choose for a main character, she picked … Brad… I mean..
-The beginning was quite slow. It wasn’t until ~55% in that I was really invested in the story.
-I still don’t fully understand how these wilderness retreats relate to a law degree but it was fun so I just went with it.

This was a very fun, engaging YA novel with fun characters that I enjoyed even as an adult.

Such a great YA romcom! I don’t normally read YA but, as I’ve realized over the past two years, I need to read everything Talia Hibbert writes.

Celine and Brad were childhood friends but had a falling out years ago. Now in their last year of high school, they are reconnecting because of several different scenarios. The biggest being a competition which would result in a full scholarship to whatever university they choose if they come out in the top three competitors.

They were fun characters, each with flaws which they need to come to terms with, but I just really loved them as a couple reconnecting. Their families and friends were also fun and supportive, which is something I always look for in a book.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Watch for Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute to come out January 23, 2023!

I love Talia Hibbert and I’m very excited that she’s ventured into YA with this book (and I’m excited about the new imprint she’s publishing with, too). This book was great—funny, devourable, woke, diverse, with relatable, deeply developed characters. I especially appreciated the portrayal of OCD in the book and the fact that while it is a light-hearted romance, the teenage characters are grappling with real, messy life stuff and complicated emotions and family lives. The friendship between Brad and Celine was so well drawn and charming. I can’t quite put my finger on what’s keeping me from giving the fifth star but something about this book wasn’t as utterly amazing and compelling as it would need to be for a full five stars. That said, it was a good read that I got through quickly, and a great book for teenagers—definitely one I want my own kids reading in a few years.

I loved Talia Hibbert’s characters and sense of humor in the Brown sisters books, so I was eager to see how she’d do with a YA book. Celine and Brad’s story was very sweet, and I liked getting both their POVs in the first person. They both had distinctive, humorous voices, and I laughed and smiled a lot as I read this. The portrayal of Brad dealing with his OCD and practicing what he learned in therapy felt genuine too. The author talks about her own OCD in the acknowledgements.
Celine and Brad fight with themselves as much as they fight with each other, and I was glad the spotlight was on their learning to be kind and honest with themselves and each other (rather than dumb love triangles and drawn-out angst).
This had all the things I loved from Hibbert’s adult romances. I figured it would be tamer than her adult fare, and it was. No sexy times, just smoochy ones.

Talia Hibbert's YA debut is everything I ever needed from a YA romance. The banter is bar none, but running underneath all the hi jinks is so much heart as Celine and Brad both work through their own self esteem issues brought on by an absent father and sometimes-paralyzing OCD respectively. HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS AND UNFAIRLY CUTE is the story of learning to trust someone else (and also yourself) as only Talia can tell it. I went from giggling hysterically to wiping my misty eyes and back in 2 seconds flat, in front of all the strangers on the train.

Celine and Bradley's mothers are best friends and so they were best friends growing up as well, until they had a horrible falling out when they were 14. Now they are in their last year of school, and suddenly their constant antagonizing of each other starts to take on a different tone. They both are accepted into the same wilderness experience program to compete for a full scholarship to uni and find themselves somewhere in between hating each other and being best friends. They each begin to question everything they thought was certain -- the fight that tore them apart, their changing friendship, and their plans for the future. This was a sweet romance with some important points about living life for yourself as opposed to others expectations. Recommended for grades 8 & up.

I roll my eyes. “You’re the bane of my existence. Did you know that?”
She grins. “I hoped.”

If you need me, I’ll be quietly giggling to myself in a corner remembering lines from Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute for the remainder of the year.

Hibbert’s young adult debut follows Celine and Bradley, ex-best friends who pretty much see the other as the enemy these days. While Bradley is seemingly the perfect guy—star football player, totally in control of his OCD and coming out on top of all of his classes (except for the ones he shares with Celine)—Celine is obsessed with conspiracy theories, is a successful content creator and determined to not let it get to her that Bradley abandoned her for the it-crowed years ago. So when Celine signs up for a survival course in the woods to make her scholarship dreams come true, she’s surprised to find Bradley right there beside her. Forced to work as a team to get the chance to win the grand prize, Celine and Bradley find themselves reluctantly working together. But as they’re trudging through the muddy woods, they also dredge up the past and the events that broke them apart. Has too much time passed to let bygones be bygones and reunite, or are they doomed to repeat history?

I mean, we all knew this was going to be brilliant, right?

It’s tough mentioning everything that made this story so extraordinary. Do you want authentic mental health representation? Hibbert delivers it in the form of Bradley, who lives with OCD but is never reduced to that and instead manages his OCD perfectly well with the mechanisms he has learned work for him over the years. Do you want a story that delivers escapism in spades? Hibbert throws you into the wilds of the English and Scottish forests where shenanigans ensue. Do you want a nuanced romance tinged with rivalry? Watch Bradley and Celine go head-to-head for a scholarship…but always put the other first instead of ruthlessly going for the win. Do you want discussions around dreams and aspirations that might not align with what your family wants for you? Both Celine and Bradley have this idea of who they want or need to be in order to do right by their family, but as they soon learn, nothing is ever as it seems.

And that’s not even all that Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute offers its readers. Intrigued yet?

Hibbert effortlessly carries over her British charm and verbal sparring matches between characters to the young adult genre. Celine and Bradley are unique, fleshed-out characters that feel so real they could jump right off the page and into your life. While Celine is leaning more towards sarcasm and suspicion, Bradley appears to be a bit of Golden Retriever: witty, sweet and the kind of guy you want to hang out with. Both struggle with self-esteem in different ways: Celine with spiked barbs, and Bradley with self-flagellation because he’s scared to pursue his dreams of becoming a writer. Even beyond that, there’s so much depth to the characters and the more they interact with each other (and the closer you get to finding out what tore these ex-best friends apart), the more you learn what makes them tick. From Celine’s troubling non-relationship with her father to Bradley’s fear of following his academic dreams, there’s much to be gained from watching them both face their demons (and not just each other). Celine and Brady’s rocky reacquaintance features a ton of snarky deflection, personal growth on both parts, vulnerable talks that will leave you feeling wounded and yet strangely understood at the same time, and a love that’s worth fighting for. I can’t imagine anyone reading this book and not falling head over heels for both protagonists.

Lest you think this book is too heavy in subject matter, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is also jam-packed with hilarious one-liners, awkward face-palming moments and so. much. pining. that will have you scream “kiss already” at least once when the tension gets too high between Celine and Bradley. This feeling is helped along by the fact that pretty much everyone in Celine and Bradley’s lives are rooting for them to get together, which just honestly made me smile like the Cheshire cat.

Altogether, I really can’t think of anything that would have made this book any better. If you’re in the market for an exhilarating childhood-friends-to-enemies-to-rivals-to-lovers romance with two characters who have amazing chemistry, a story that features vulnerable topics such as individuality, family relationships, aspirations not working out quite the way you think plus insightful OCD representation, then Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute needs to be on your TBR!

Don’t miss out on the laugh-out-loud childhood-friends-to-enemies-to-rivals-to-lovers romance that will warm your heart this winter!

I absolutely love Talia Hibbert so I was really excited to read this one! I’ll be completely honest, the first 40% of the book, I struggled to get into the story. Part of it was Celine’s brutal hostility. I loved her confidence and work ethic, but she was a bit too mean to Bradley for my taste. Bradley, on the other hand, I adored. I loved the OCD representation and how his friends and family worked with him to try and help him through the intrusive thoughts. But about halfway through, the magic happened. I LOVED Celine and Bradley’s friendship (and beyond). Celine was still a badass, but her words weren’t as harsh. I really liked her friendship with Aurora as well. I liked the themes of doing things for yourself and not to please or get back at anyone else. There was a lot of good humor in this book as well. I think fans of Hibbert will enjoy this one! Just a head’s up, it is a YA geared book so if that’s not your genre, be prepared.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

First, if you've ever read a Talia novel then you already know it's going to be amazing.

This was no exception. I'm invested now in every story this author will ever write.

This was a fantastic debut YA for Talia Hibbert. It had all the feels of her adult books mixed in with typical high school feelings.

Bradley was a stand out character for me! I loved that he was bi and I loved the look into how he was managing his OCD. I thought Talia handled his OCD exceptionally well.

The romance was absolutely adorable. I spent most of the book just smiling at my Kindle because of all their banter and cute moments.

One thing I wish we had gotten more of was the months in between time jumps. This would have given even more of those cute Bradley and Celine moments and I think that would have made it a 5 star book for me.

One more thing that may seem small but really bothered me was the Kanye West reference. Given his current status and all of his hateful speech I just wish that another hip hop artist had been used. Fingers crossed that somewhere along the way that gets changed.

Overall though I would recommend this to fans of Talia’s other work as well as those who haven’t read her yet. I think this is a great book for young adults but can also be enjoyed by readers of all ages.

I will start off by saying that YA usually is not my cup of tea. But this book- this book was like a steaming hot cup on a chilly day. It was EVERYTHING I needed and more. I loved the best friends, to enemies, to lovers trope. The banter between Brad and Celine made me cackle, but there were also deeper conversations that were really well written. I also enjoyed the mental health representation. Talia grabbed my attention with the Brown Sisters series and has definitely kept the momentum going with this book. I will automatically read anything she writes. This is a must read, even if YA isn’t usually your thing!

I've enjoyed every Talia Hibbert book I've read so far and this one was just the same! I believe this was her first young adult novel but she did a great job with it. I loved all the characters and could imagine them so vividly, it felt like I knew them in real life.

I'm a sucked for witty banter and I absolutely love the humor and the witty banter between the characters and was nonstop giggling and kicking my blanket while reading this lol. I also love love loved the OCD representation and the discussion around therapy.

The book had a medium to fast pace which I enjoyed because I ended up reading this in two sittings and the only reason I didn't finish this in one sitting was because it was already two in the morning by the time I took a look at the time...

I really enjoyed Celine and Bradley's story and character arcs, and I highly recommend you guys checking this one out if you want a fun, adventurous YA read that under the surface also discusses important topics within familial relationships and growth.

I hate to give this book a rating because for 1. I love Talia Hibbert’s book and I feel this review is unfair because I had to DNF. And for 2. I requested this book not knowing it was her YA debut. I try not read YA romance because it just does not do it for me compared to adult romance and I know that is so lowly because of my age. Had I known it was YA i would have avoided this book like the plague. I tried to my best to push through but it honestly became a chore.

Like 5 pages to read taking almost an hour because of distractions and loss of interest. Talia is an excellent writer known for her witty banter and sarcastic characters with plus size representations. This book is no different from her other excellent works but it just didn’t do it for me.

4.5 stars rounded up!

This is probably one of the cutest YA novels I've read in... maybe ever? Celine and Bradley were charming, hilarious, and authentically themselves and I fell in love with them both. Celine was sarcastic, kind, incredibly driven, while sometimes emotionally avoidant. Bradley was athletic, creative, sweet, and of very particular. Together they had amazing chemistry and wonderfully hilarious banter. Aside from these two lovebirds, I loved all of the side characters and their development throughout the book as well.

I absolutely loved the mental health representation in this novel, and Talia Hibbert took so much care writing this in a relatable way that was easy to immerse yourself into exactly how Brad was feeling in times where he was really struggling with his OCD.

Hibbert's YA debut novel was absolutely fantastic, and I highly recommend this super sweet and refreshingly real novel! Thank you to NetGalley & Random House Children's for the ARC!

Absolutely loved this! A swoony, snarky, sassy YA romance. It was so cute. I absolutely loved Celine and Bradley. They were charming af with all the angst and pining one could want in a romcom. I loved the mental illness aspect and thought the author took great care to be sensitive and relatable.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Childrens for this eARC.

I was so excited to read this but Talia Hibbert is my literal queen and this did not disappoint!
They are so cute I'm ready for them to get together pls

I'm obsessed with them , that was the cutest thing in the world and I'm going to be smiling for the rest of my life. Literally had me smiling, laughing, giggling, kicking my feet in the air. Friends to lovers is the superior trope and I just love love love how mature Bradley was and patient and just not toxic !! A bi king !! And I love how protective Celine was of Bradley, how she was an academic badass and I felt for her babe, it's hard to trust people and feel your feelings.

They are adorable best friends it was so wholesome and natural. I was a little skeptical at first that this was YA but it's proof that Talia's romance stands on their own !!! We don't need spice to make it addictive. She's the queen of adorable couples , AMAZING non toxic men and banter and actuallyyy funny writing. I love her, I love them, my precious babies.

My literal only critique/complaint was that I wanted more of them together being happy cute and in love. I could read a whole sequel of them just being happy, no pinning on breakups necessary!

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute was an absolutely fantastic read full of laughs and relatable teenage experiences that made my heart content. Bradley Graeme is your pretty much perfect guy, he’s the star football player and comes out on top of all his classes, manages his OCD well enough except for the class he shares with Celine, his ex-best friend, who is obsessed with conspiracy theories. Now their relationship is academic rivalry filled with petty insults.

When an opportunity for a big scholarship comes up and Celine wants sign up to participate. And is surprised that Brad does it too. During this expedition, they are forced to work together and at the same time the closeness forces them to speak of the unspoken, what happened before in their best friendship.

I have loved Talia Hibbert’s writing in all of the books I have read by her and seeing Talia writing a YA romance novel, I loved this even more. The story, the characters, the progression are all aspects that were so well done.

I absolutely adored reading Brad and Celine’s moments together, when they argued, when they laughed together, and most of all when they realized how in love they were with each other. Seeing them scared to lose one another made my heart pitter patter and the way they resolved their relationship to stay together was all worth it.

3.5⭐️
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute was a cute academic rivals to lovers. It was also reverse grumpy sunshine. LOVE that it was a black high school/teen couple. We need to see more rep in the YA romance section. Me personally, I didn’t like the MMC’s name, “Brad/Bradley.” It was a cute YA book but, I’m sure in the coming months if I were asked about the book I wouldn’t be able to say much. Thank you Netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley, Talia Hibbert, and Random House/Joy Revolution for this Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review of Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute (coming out January 3rd!)

This book was SO GOOD. I was embarrassed to read it in public because the whole time, I must have looked like such a weirdo just grinning while reading lol. The 2 MCs had me laughing throughout!

I loved how the enemies to lovers trope was used so well. I like that trope, but I hate when authors keep characters as enemies for too long. I want them to get to the love part already! Talia Hibbert nails the pacing and doesn't drag out the 'enemy' part too long.

Also, as someone who works in the mental health field, it was such a relief to see OCD portrayed this way and not in the stereotypical, oversimplified, and often incorrect way that's often shown in media.

My only complaint is I wish the book was even longer! This is my first Talia Hibbert but I'm going to RUN to my local bookstore to buy my next!!!

Thanks to Random House Children’s, the author, and NetGalley for the free gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

OKAY so I had no idea this was a YA romance because Talia Hibbert’s other books were adult romances with -spice- so this took me off guard when I started reading. and no I usually don’t read synopsis and only choose books based on the author and cover so sue me.

The characters were so cute and I will rate this based on the genre because if I were reading this in high school or middle school I would have been OBSESSED haha.

The story was funny and had lots of relatable and cute characters. It touches on some OCD and parent issues that are more serious but has a mostly light-hearted plot with a bunch of high schoolers in love.