I love an enemies to lovers! I think it's so fun always to go along with two people just figuring it out and trying to find common ground together. And this was no exception, I didn't always love the FMC I unfortunately found her pretty unlikeable. Which I don't love as I'm always trying to be on the FMC's side and this made it a little difficult. But! The character growth throughout really paid off and made me love the story even more. I thought the narrator did a great job bringing this to life as well. I hadn't listened to anything by this narrator before that I could recall and she's definitely a new favorite!

this book follows Brynn, a news presenter, who is sent back to her hometown (that she has a real love/hate relationship with) for work after she was accidentally recorded talking badly about where she is from. in a bid to save face, she is paired up with Sebastian, a man who moved to the town years after she left, so show viewers the beauty of the place.

it is a real enemies to lovers, forced proximity, SMALL (emphasis on small) town romance that perfectly lives up to all of those labels. it is emotional, funny, real and entertaining — particularly to listen to. it is also so so slow burn, which of course i loved. my only tiny tiny thing is that brynn is very unlikeable for probably 60% of the plot, and as someone who loves to root for an FMC, this was tricky at times. she redeemed herself with time, however, and the story was all the sweeter for it.

a solid 4 star read!

I really enjoyed this audiobook! The narration from Talon David was upbeat and engaging. This book read like a Hallmark movie and I could picture all the characters. I enjoyed the enemies to lovers trope. Although the story was predictable, it still made me laugh out loud a few times. I liked how Brynn matured throughout the story but also learned to be herself. I loved how in the end, the town welcomed her back with open arms. There was also more depth to both hers and Sebastian's pasts than I realized. Overall it was an enjoyable one to listen to! And now I want to read more of this series about the side characters.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ALC.

I was torn as to whether to give this 2 or 3 stars. I could see some readers liking it a lot, but it was just ok for me.

I enjoyed the narrator; she wasn’t the best but was better than some I’ve heard. However, I don’t understand why there was no male narrator for this book. The narrator narrated in the same voice for both the female and male’s narrative.

The story seemed fun at first, but then I started to really dislike the FMC. Then I felt whiplash when she started changing (or perhaps showing her true colors? I’m not sure tbh. I’m leaning more to changing because she was a snarky and sarcastic brat internally and externally). Then we find out their first moment wasn’t even real!? (The mention of movies being their inspiration in the car.)

The story was a bit slow to start (and the mention of TikTok 500 times in the beginning was over the top). This is a slooooowwwwww burn (without the burn). First kiss was not until ~75% in; I wouldn’t have minded that if this was part of a multiple books for same couple series. Unfortunately I was kinda bored by the time we got to the kiss. Then was bored after they finally started kissing; I didn’t feel any chemistry between them. There is no spice…at all. Close door romance is fine but the kissing lacked chemistry.

A big issue was the FMC POV is in first person but the MMC’s POV is in third?? I don’t understand this logic and it threw me. There were things that felt inconsistent/didn’t match the setting. I.e the PTA ladies were wild… in a town with 350 people. It was weird.

I did enjoy references to the 90’s and 2000’s. There were also quite a few 1 liners that made me laugh. I also liked the mental health rep; wish there was more elaboration of it, especially for her. Vague talk about Brynn’s mom being a jerk and having bad boyfriends…was there supposed to be an implication there? I can’t say.

The ending was rushed.

Brynn and Sebastian left me with a smile on my face when I finished the book, but there were some hard earned moments along the way. After Brynn makes an accidentally on-air comment about her home town, her career is on the verge of being dust. After getting back to her hometown, we learn about what caused her to say the comment in the first place. For me, it doesn't completely track, her quickly found happiness to be home compared with the truly mean things she said previously. That aside, her chemistry with Sebastian is great and they bring out the best in each other! 3.25 stars!

This is my first book by Bethany Turner and I absolutely loved her story, "Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other".

Brynn is an up and coming in the world of morning tv and when her debut goes horribly wrong - she is on the verge of loosing everything. Her only shot is to return to her childhood town - the town that holds so much pain for her. Thinking the world hates her there, can she find healing and redemption?

Sebastian has his own painful memories that haunt him and when he "sees" Brynn - he thinks the worst too - can he let go?

One thing I really like about this story, he feels so "true to life", I really enjoyed the read!

This book was good, but not great. I’m typically a huge fan of the grumpy sunshine trope, but unfortunately this one was not my favorite. I felt like the sunshine was kindof a mean girl for 80% of the book and the grump was a little too grumpy to the point where I never really LOVED him. So I definitely still enjoyed the read but not one of my personal favs.

El titulo, eso fue lo que inicialmente me atrajo a este libro. Y sí, realmente se odiaban. Tanto que, cuando había avanzado tres cuartas partes del libro, me preguntaba cuándo llegaría el giro. Y entonces apareció, de manera muy repentina y bastante tarde en la historia. Se sintió forzado y un poco incómodo. Para mí, hubo demasiada construcción para un final feliz muy débil. El desenlace se resolvió demasiado rápido y de forma descuidada. Mucho ocurrió en los últimos capítulos, y fue demasiado poco, demasiado tarde.
Brynn es un personaje interesante. A primera vista, es caprichosa y desagradable. Pero, a medida que profundizas en su historia, comprendes las razones detrás de su actitud y descubres su profundidad. Me gusta que no sea la típica protagonista femenina que encontrarías en este tipo de historia, aunque creo que no será bien recibida por la mayoría. De hecho, no comencé a simpatizar con ella hasta casi el final del libro.
En general, me costó engancharme a esta historia debido a su comienzo lento, su final apresurado y sus personajes poco agradables. Había demasiado odio y no suficiente romance para ser un libro romántico.

I DNF'd this book at 44%. The narrator had an irritating voice, and I had nothing but issues with the FMC.
Brynn was amazingly rude and selfish within literal moments, and constantly behaved like a legit child. She literally, the entire time, was disgustingly ignorant, impatient, and self-centered. I can not believe this got picked up by a publisher, given how terribly nasty this girl is. How can someone insult a person within 2 seconds of knowing them, and insult an entire town of people in a single second multiple times, sit there and compare an actual war zone reporter to her reporting during the Macy's parade, and manipulate people at every single turn? Literally I don't know how someone, let alone multiple someones, signed off on this book. The plot idea itself is fine, but the execution is poor. Sebastian was quiet and also a little rude pretty quickly, but at least he has a cute dog.

3.5 ⭐️

Brynn and Sebastian might hate each other, but to be honest, I kinda hated Brynn to in the beginning too. For the first few chapters all I wanted to do was shake Brynn and say “why are you like this?” She begins so prickly and self involved, it was hard to root for her in the beginning. However, with the explanation of her past, her attitude and defense mechanisms become understandable.

Overall, the story was cute and the characters were dynamic, but I was left wanting more from the story.
—
📺Small town romance
🎤Coming home
📺PTSD
—
Thank you Thomas Nelson & NetGalley for this complimentary ALC - all thoughts are my own! 📚
Publishers release date 9/5/2023

I wanted to read more books from this series to try get into it but I still there was nothing wow about it .. the characters are jarring and I get that the whole plot involves around them not liking each other but the rudeness was just too much, i liked the setting in terms of their hometown...
The audiobook was well done & made getting through this read faster

I am not usually a fan of the grumpy sunshine trope. But this book felt more like a grumpy/grumpy duo. The FMC was hostile and the MMC was grumpy and rude. The plot was interesting but the whole “she is just a young girl running away from her small town” feels over down and drawn out in this book. The relationship felt like it came out of nowhere. They despised each other until magically they just didn’t? The audiobook was okay, but I wished it had a male narrator for the MMC chapters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a complicated romance, due to the past & personalities. I kept rooting for them!
Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Thomas Nelson for this audio.

#BrynnandSebastianHateEachOther #NetGalley

town of Adelaide Springs. Brynn Cornell, television’s morning show sunshine, left her small town and the painful memories of her childhood behind and hasn’t looked back. But the morning she is caught still on mic putting this small town down she immediately falls from grace and is sent on an apology tour to Adelaide Springs with veteran camera man Orly Hill at her side.

The Adelaide Springs town council isn’t exactly excited about Brynn’s visit and have given the task of driving her around to youngest council member, Sebastian Sudworth, who found Adelaide Springs as his sanctuary after his own life imploded. He isn’t interested in making nice with someone who would disrespect Adelaide Springs and its residents in such a way.

But maybe what brought Seb to town and Brynn back wasn’t so terribly different after all. This is a fun read! Told with humor and heart, this story has poignant underlying stories that are woven into the fabric of the tale. This is such a good story! I very much enjoyed it and I do recommend it!

Brynn is a news anchor who is on the rise until she insults the small town she left behind while unknowingly on air. In order to salvage her career, Brynn goes home to show that if the residents of her hometown can forgive her, so can the rest of the world.
She reunites with people from her past that helped to make her who she is & meets a newer resident that wasn't there when she left-Sebastian. Brynn & Sebastian do NOT hit it off but he is popular amongst the other residents she needs to forgive her. He also has a connection to news reporting that Brynn knows nothing about. Can they put their differences aside or will Brynn's career end just before its peak?

Bookish things:
• Enemies-to-lovers
• Small town
• Redemption arc
• Broadcasters
• PTSD, therapy & therapy dog rep

My thoughts:
I was slow to warm to this book because Brynn was hard to like. But then I realized.. that was the point! She was hard to like until you began to see who she was under to TV persona she had created to leave her old life and past traumas behind and in order to be successful. Brynn and Sebastian's connection is so real and sweet once you get passed those initial prickly encounters! The other people in the town are precious. I'm excited to read the book about Cole and Laila who are Brynn's childhood friends who love her unconditionally despite her mistakes or efforts to push everyone away. I loved this book in the end! Such a great example of someone overcoming the traumas of their youth and making the difficult choice to let people in, heal & change for the better! The audiobook narrators were also fantastic & kept my interest throughout.

I enjoyed the story. It was a smooth and nice audiobook. I like the main characters, enemies-to-lovers vibe with classic rom-com energy. I would recommend it.

This was a very fun read for me. It has a lot of seriousness that is well handled with a light hand. Brynn and Sebastian were entertaining to watch as they worked through the trademark enemies-to-lovers trope. They’re both damaged in their own ways and together they found a way to heal and love each other. It actually made extremely small town life sound appealing.

Thank you to Zondervan and Bethany Turner for an early copy of this book in audiobook format. This has nothing to do with the narration of this book. Brynn is a very unlikeable character. and I did not enjoy the enemies to lovers aspect.

This small town romance was super cute. I loved that they slowly grow to like each other. At first neither character really make you invested but as you peel back the layers they grow on you and you really root for their love story . ❤️.

Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other is a very entertaining romance.. I loved the plot and the character dynamics. Recommend this book. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my ARC.