<strong>Celine is used to being seen as the 'weird girl'. 💕 </strong>She's <u>passionate about researching conspiracy theories for her TikTok Account</u>, plans to study Law, and is proud to be different. <strong>I loved that she was so headstrong and determined!</strong> Celine isn't interested in what other people think of her and so driven that she sometimes comes across as condescending and judgemental. She's still <u>got a good heart but keeps her feelings buried deep inside</u>, so no one can hurt her after her father abandoned her family. <strong>The story did a great job showing Celine's vulnerabilities</strong> and why she so desperately wants to keep them hidden.

<strong>Bradley's joined the more popular crowd but still has a soft side. 💕 </strong>He's a football player and on track to study Law like his father ... but not sure if it's really right for him. <strong>Brad loves writing, yet he's unable to finish his book and doubts that he's good enough</strong> to leave a very stable career choice. Despite being a top student, he works hard to maintain his grades and is annoyed at Celine's superior attitude. He's good at snarking back at her, but usually <u>a very kind-hearted and considerate person</u>! The p<strong>erfect sunshine to Celine's more grumpy personality</strong> 🥰

<strong>The ex-best friends to lovers dynamic was the perfect balance of angsty, banter, and swoonworthy 🥰&nbsp; </strong>Celine and Bradley <u>used to be best friends until a big fight tore them apart</u>. Years later, they are barely speaking to each other and run in completely different circles. When circumstances push them together again <strong>there is a lot of unresolved hurt and anger between them</strong>. Celine and Bradly might fight and snark at each other all they want, you can <strong>immediately feel the chemistry between them</strong>. I loved the fact that there was a good dose of angst but also some swoonworthy and cute moments. <u>With their attraction growing, Celine and Brad have to figure out how to find to each other again</u>! The book does a great job exploring their past and the difficulties of building a future together.

<strong>I also loved the focus on mental health, the future &amp; family expectations! </strong> Bradley has OCD and manages it well with therapy and medication, but still has difficult moments. Celine has trouble being vulnerable since her father left her to live with his second family. The hurt of being abandoned has left deeper scars than she realized. <strong>The complicated family dynamics and mental health were well explored here</strong>! Apart from Celine's father being horrible, we have a lot of supportive relationships! <u>Celine has a close bond with her mother and sister.</u> Bradley's family is very sweet, even though his father is unconsciously pressuring him to pursue Law. With college looming on the horizon, <strong>Bradley and Celine have to figure out what they want out of life</strong>, apart from family expectations and influence.

<strong>The element of the outdoor competition was so much fun as well!&nbsp; </strong> One of the things bringing Celine and Bradley together is an outdoor competition by Celine's idol. <u>The top 3 students receive a full scholarship, so each of them is determined to win</u>! I loved seeing the competition, as it <strong>introduced us to new characters outside of their friendship group</strong> and it was funny seeing them cope with the realities of camping 😂 I thought this would be a bigger part of the story, but it's more of a secondary setting, as the story spans several months and shows Celine and Bradley's daily life in their last year at high school!

<strong>IN CONCLUSION.</strong> ➽ <em>Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute&nbsp;</em>was a <strong>fantastic, swoony and sometimes angsty romance</strong>! Ex-best friends to lovers has now become one of my new favorite tropes, as it was so well written here. Bradley and Celine were great characters and it was so easy to root for them to be together and find the right path for their future 🥰

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children for this E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to like this book because I love Talia Hibbert's adult romance books. I found this book to be immature. Yes, I know that this is a YA book, but there's a difference between mature young adult books and immature young adult books.

Okay, so this is Talia Hibbert's debut into a young adult., She does a great job at tackling the genre, especially for someone who's written romance and erotica in the past. The chemistry between these characters was intense and their relationship with each other grew at the right pace (especially since there was animosity at first). This is different for Hibbert and not what I was expecting.

I enjoyed this one. I enjoy everything I read from Talia Hibbert, really. This was especially intriguing to me for the OCD representation.

This YA novel was so well done. It captured the real emotional intelleignce and maturity (and immaturity) of teenagers while rooting in humor and humanity!

I've heard so much about Talia Hibbert's books but never got around to reading one until now. Though I'm not a huge fan of romance novels, HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS AND UNFAIRLY CUTE is a wholesome, feel good coming-of-age romance that had me rooting for every single character.

2.5*
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy.
This is Talia Hibbert’s young adult debut, and I was ….. underwhelmed.
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is about friends turned enemies turned friends turned lovers, Brad and Celine. They are seniors in high school and both competing for a scholarship, which requires some time spent in the wilderness.
The mental health representation was amazing. Talia did a fantastic job showing the struggles of living with OCD, and thriving. This book also had some lovely family dynamics. I loved Celine’s relationship with her mom and sister.
With all that being said, I STRUGGLED to get through this book. I even DNF’d it at one point. I love the Brown sisters trilogy by this author, and I don’t know if I went into this book expecting the same level of enjoyment, or if this book just truly didn’t measure up to Eve, Chloe and Dani. I will admit that I don’t read alot of YA romance, but I have read some in the past that I’ve really enjoyed.
Overall, my enjoyment of this book is was gives it less than 3 stars, but her representation is what made it more than 2 stars.

I was a fan of Talia Hibberts other books but I couldn’t finish this one. I was lost after the first few chapters. This one was a miss for me.

I really enjoyed this first YA read from an adult romance author that I've really enjoyed. I like this trend of adult romance authors venturing into YA or writing stories that are more approachable to a teen/high school library audience. While this one has a lot of British-isms in it, I appreciated (for my students) that there was a "glossary" right at the beginning. The story was fun, and once it got going, fast-paced. I can't wait to recommend this one to my readers who are itching for adult romances, but maybe aren't quite ready for them.

I'm a fan of Talia Hibbert's adult romances, but her first foray into YA left me cold. I found it hard to suspend disbelief as much as the plot and character interactions demanded, and the entire camping plot was frustrating to me just on so many, some trivial, levels. More significantly, the set-up for why Celine and Brad have been enemies for four years seemed weak at best, considering how readily they get over it once they actually start talking again, and I found their squabbling before that point more irritating than cute. Not a winner for me, unfortunately, as much as I wanted to find it as cute as the title.

Thanks to the publisher for the advance review copy.

This book was really cute! I’ve read other books by Talia Hubert and I was excited to read a ya book by her and it did not disappoint! I loved how this book explored concepts like OCD and the feeling associated with a distant parent.

“ ‘You’re Brad Fucking Graem. I’d bet on you any day.’
His smile is the softest, sweetest thing, like a spilled bottle of relief. ‘God, Celine. You’re so lovely.’ “

This book had me biting my lip and fighting the urge to squeal, grinning like a fool. I loved watching Brad and Celine develop outside/regardless of the romance. To the surprise of absolutely no one, Talia Hibbert has done it again. Their romances are truly unmatched.

Fans of Talks Hubbard's adult novels will love her first YA outing. Hubbard's signature witty banter sparkles, and her love story between two teen teens kids is sweet and satisfying.

For some reason, when I picked up this title, I was expecting adult characters. I did not realize they were in high school until a few pages in and it threw me off completely. So immediately my expectations were definitely not going to be met, which was unfair to it and the author.

So putting that aside, I still had a good time reading it. The characters were loveable and realistic for high school rival/ex-friends. It was a cute, quick read that I'll definitely recommend to shoppers in my store if they're looking for something easy to get into.

Thank you @netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

DNF - I found the two main characters to be immature and frustrating. I was SO excited about this read because I have loved Talia Hibbert's other books and am always looking for a) diverse own-voices to hand to my students and b) books set across the world, as I teach World Literature. I got to about 35% before I had to put this one down. I didn't mind Bradley as much (although he still seemed immature) but Celine was SO frustrating. To me, the writing for why Bradley "abandoned" her was on the wall, and yet she was incredibly mean to him in a way that felt childish. I know these are teens, but that doesn't mean they have to act like children.

Despite this, I would still tell a student to try it and see if they enjoyed it more than I did. Why not? They may feel seen or heard in a way I didn't. Unless the content is inappropriate, I will never deter a student from reading, regardless of my personal feelings!

I really appreciated the representation in this book. Talia Hibbert is known for these in her adult romances so I'm so happy to see this is bleeding into YA. Celine did grate on my nerves at times to be honest but I think that's more of a symptom of it being YA than the writing itself. Overall, really enjoyed this book and I'm happy that we have authors are going back to YA.

I love Talia's writing, and it translated all to this YA story (though I'll admit I prefer her adult romances). Thank you for the opportunity to read this one - I'll also be recommending to my daughters and their friends!

I absolutely adored this book! The characters were relatable and so well-written, with Bradley suffering from OCD, and the storyline was great. What I loved most about the storyline was that it wasn't focused on the romance, but on Bradley and Celine's individual storylines and how they blended together. Bradley is trying to please his family, specifically his father, with his choice of degree and career while Celine is trying to prove her worth to an absent father.

One of my favorite aspects of this specific story that Talia wrote is that even though they stopped being friends and are now "enemies" Celine still does the things she has always done for Bradley with his OCD. That aspect made me so happy because she knows him so well, knows his needs and his tendencies and compromises and does things that support and help him. I love it so, so much.

Talia is one of my absolute favorite authors because she writes about people who deal with seen and unseen issues, diseases, etc. and writes them so incredibly well.

This was absolutely adorable! I absolutely love how Talia Hibbert can write a swoon worthy romcom that is light while also deals with heavy topics without weighing the book down.
This book was so darn cute. Friends ➡️ enemies ➡️ friends ➡️ lovers with so much banter in between!
Side note: I want to follow Celine’s conspiracy theory Instagram!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

*3.5 stars*

I love Talia Hibbert and everything that she writes, but I think her writing YA books is... not it for me.

Yes, I know it makes me sound a bit pervy, but Talia writes erotic scenes SO WELL that this book didn't hit all of my marks (*goes and hides in corner*).

Positives are great bisexual male MC rep (in YA, no less!), a fun enemies-to-lovers plotline, and a fun second chances love story. I related to the drive and pressure of wanting to live up to expectations in high school, even with a loving family, and I enjoyed each MCs dynamics with their friends and family.

Negatives are lack of sex (yes, I know it's YA but I missed it!), a long-ish story that dragged slightly, and the fact that I felt like both characters were in their heads a lot.

Overall, not even close to my favorite Talia Hibbert book, but maybe a nice read for younger readers.