3.5⭐️s
**Thanks to NetGalley, Thomas Nelson, and Zondervan Audio for access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. I received it after the pub date.**
Brynn is a popular tv morning show host, who experiences a fall from grace when her off-hand/rude comments are accidentally caught on air. The only way to “fix” her mistake is to return to her hometown and make nice with her old friends & neighbours. She quickly meets Sebastian, an unfamiliar local, who “hates” her for disrespecting the town and the people who welcomed him into their community.
-definite Hallmark-y vibes; the big-city woman has to go back to her hometown and learn how to be a good person again
-I thought it had a great opening, setting up her hosting job & the promised “fall”. I was looking forward to seeing how Brynn would redeem herself/have character growth, since she starts off pretty annoying/cringe with her stubbornness/lack of self-awareness.
-I’ve seen other reviewers call it grumpy x sunshine, which I’m not sure is that accurate. Brynn is fake sunshine (playing into stereotypes for ratings and her career) and Sebastian has fake grumpy moments (not so much grumpy, as rightly annoyed at a perceived slight)
-clean romance version of forced proximity (Sebastian is babysitting/chauffeuring Brynn around town, so they have to keep talking to each other) and enemies to lovers
Overall, it was a cute story with several fun pop culture references. The narrator did a good job, switching between Brynn & Sebastian’s voices.

✨ BOOK REVIEW ✨

ʙʀʏɴɴ ᴀɴᴅ sᴇʙᴀsᴛɪᴀɴ ʜᴀᴛᴇ ᴇᴀᴄʜ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ʙʏ ʙᴇᴛʜᴀɴʏ ᴛᴜʀɴᴇʀ

⭐️⭐️⭐️// 5

This was a cozy and cheesy book that was perfect between my mystery and thriller reads. All of the characters were (mostly) likable and it didn’t end like a typical romance.

My favorite thing about this book was the internal dialogue that the author included. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks so many things at once! 🤪

The humor, old band tees, and eye-rolling kept me listening even when I figured I would give up on it. I’m glad I stuck it out because I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Also, if you listen to the audiobook, the narrator is amazing 🙌🏼

Thank you @netgalley for this audiobook!

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for an advance copy of Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other by Bethany Turner in exchange for an honest review.
Bethany Turner's novel, Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other, is a captivating and entertaining read. The story follows Brynn and Sebastian, two high school students who are forced to work on a project together despite their mutual hatred for one another. As the two work together, they gradually come to understand each other and form an unlikely friendship.

Turner does an excellent job of developing the relationship between Brynn and Sebastian. Their interactions are both humorous and heartfelt, and the reader can't help but root for them to become friends. The book is full of unexpected twists and turns, and it culminates in a satisfying conclusion.

Overall, Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other is a charming and enjoyable read. Turner's writing style is engaging and her characters are well-developed. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a light-hearted and entertaining story.

First days on the job are tough for everyone, but no one has had it worse than morning show host, Brynn Cornell. An accidental on-air rant about her hometown of Adelaide Springs, Colorado, lands her in hot water with the network and viewers. In an effort to make things right, Brynn must return home and convince everyone she is truly sorry. Can Brynn make things right, or will her first day as morning host be her last?

Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other, written by Bethany Turner is a clean romance that features:
•enemies-to-lovers
•grumpy sunshine
•small town (mountains)

****Despite touching on some difficult subject matter (PTSD and emotional/ verbal abuse) this book is rather light-hearted. Turner does not go into great detail about either subject besides offering character development.*****

I had the pleasure of both listening to and reading Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other. While my preferred format will always be physically reading, I did enjoy the audiobook version. I felt Talon David did a great job narrating and making the story come to life.

Special thanks to Netgalley, Bethany Turner, and Thomas Nelson- Fiction for allowing me to read/ listen to this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really enjoy a multi genre storyline. Hate to love, romantic comedy, small town, workplace drama and more. Brynn has spent her entire life running from who she was and where she came from and unsurprisingly has morphed into someone who isn’t terribly kind or likable. Honestly I had a moment of thinking she was so rude that I almost stopped listening. So glad I continued. Sebastian lost his mojo and is hiding from life. They seem to be completely opposite and yet when Brynn make an enormous faux pas at work their paths connect and it doesn’t start out well. With some sarcasm, snark, honest emotions, wit, humor and a bit of self reflection, we get to a fun fabulous happily ever after. I didn’t spoil anything as we all knew it was coming! This was a really smart fun well narrated listen.

Finally got around to listening to this one and it did not disappoint! After messing up at her job, Brynn gets sent back to her hometown to try to save her career. Sebastian gets appointed to escort her around town. Their relationship starts rocky, but they both learn a lot about themselves and each other over the course of her stay.
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice Level: 🌶️/5
I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 6%.

The setup is agonizing. I appreciate that we're supposed to cringe a little as the heroine goes on this long soliloquy about how much she hates her home town. But I was cringing TOO much. She just comes off as unthinking and idiotic. How could you spout off so negatively in front of someone you hardly know? On the first week of a new job? I like smarter heroines.

I received this as an audiobook advanced reader copy, but I refuse to submit to bad books.

I really enjoyed this book. Even though I didn't necessarily like Brynn initially, once I got a better understanding of her background, it definitely made a difference.

Brynn and Sebastian are like two negatives of a magnet. They continually bounced off of each other because they couldn't understand why the other person did what they did. Any thing one person would say or do was automatically heard or received in a negative way by the other person. This all made for a true enemies to lovers trope.

I really enjoyed seeing Brynn fall in love with her hometown all over again. After learning some of the things her mother had done, it was easy to understand why she'd left Adelaide Springs and never looked back. Yet, you do feel for the friends she'd left behind. The fact that they will talk to her at all when she goes back speaks volumes about their history and how close they'd all been.

The slow burn way that Brynn and Sebastian go from being "enemies" to somewhat friends and eventually lovers was well done and gradual. This made it believable and more satisfying.

I found this story to be heartwarming and a testament to the resilience of friendship and love.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: I thought the audio was done well. I enjoyed the narration and felt it fit the characters. 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the ebook and audiobook. I voluntarily chose to read/listen to and review them both and the opinions contained within are my own.

Morning news on air entertainer Brynn torpedoes her career with disparaging remarks about her hometown on a live mic she thought wasn’t on. To keep her job and her reputation to her audience, she must return home to apologize and reunite with those she left behind. Sebastian has been hiding out in that same small town since he walked away from his own National News job six years ago and is given the job of driving her around town. Immediately from the start, they dislike each other.

Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other is a wonderfully funny enemies-to-lovers romance with fabulous character development and growth, a beautiful setting, and perfect chemistry between the two main characters. I think it’s a must read (or listen) in my opinion!

A cute easy to read romance. I enjoyed the writing, the pacing, most of the characters. The FMC was pretty insufferable most of the book but I think that may be the point. The references are all culturally relevant, easy to relate to. The reading was done pretty well with the various voices. Why does the guy on the cover not have curls though?

I enjoyed this enemies to lovers book. I really loved the plot and how it was brought together. The main characters were great but I even loved the background characters even more. This is a great, fun, quick read. I just reviewed Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other by Bethany Turner. #BrynnandSebastianHateEachOther #NetGalley

Fun read, but not the book you think it is - small-town romance, yes. Grumpy-sunshine, enemies-to-lovers? No.

Let's start with the positives: if you are looking for a small-town romance to give you those cute everybody-is-in-everybody's-business vibes, look no further. As a city girl through and through, this absolutely made me miss my suburban upbringing and (for approximately two seconds) consider whether I ought to ask my husband if we could move to the countryside someday...

The town is so cute and caring, as are the town people, that this will absolutely give you the warm fuzzies. You might even book a flight out to Colorado. If her marketing was on her side, they should have gone whole hog on the small-town angle for this book.

Which brings me to the negatives: Turner's marketing team did her SO dirty with this! It's pitched as grumpy-sunshine, enemies-to-lovers and it is exactly *neither* of those things.

Brynn is meant to be the sunshine in the grumpy-sunshine trope here, but she is an entirely unlikable grouch herself! The supposed grump, Sebastian, is waaayyyyy easier to root for. Brynn is a superficial, name-dropping mean girl with a serious attitude problem.

I think her save the cat moment was meant to be when she stood up for Orlee? But even the way she did that was so bratty and immature. She's meant to be late-thirties! How do you go through life that long being that unpleasant (wait- don't answer that. She's hot).

It's a grumpy-grumpy and that's not a trope for a good reason. Blech.

Okay, so what about enemies-to-lovers? Nope. Readers flock to enemies-to-lovers because they're looking for a slow build - they don't want instalove, they want to see the couple slowly wearing down each other's defenses and opening their minds to love. This novel did *not* deliver that.

Yes, Brynn and Sebastian hate each other at the beginning. But the short timeline of the novel, and the fact that they've never met before their meet-cute at the beginning, makes it hard for Turner to sell either the enemies or the lovers part.

It's an instahate (for no good reason, other than that they're both jerks) to instalove. So unsatisfying. The hate needed more seeding and longevity, the love needed more seeding and longevity.

Brynn and Sebastian go from hating each other (again, for no good reason) to falling in instalove in the course of ONE day. There's no gradual wearing down of defenses or coming around.

Despite these glaring issues, the book gets 3 stars because the small-town vibes were ~immaculate~ and ensured that the reading experience remained on the whole enjoyable, though unexceptional.

Thank you, NetGalley and Thomas Nelson, for the free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute story that yes, you can go home again. A big city news anchor, Brynn makes a faux pas and heads home to an unknown welcome. Heartened ex filed reported is given the task to drive her around to better her name. Surprisingly the locals embrace her for the most part. The jury is still out for Sebastian. She is humbled by their willingness to take her back in the fold. Thrown together Sebastian can’t help but see the small town girl on the inside of the glam. I liked this book a lot. Although the was no spice I don’t think it was needed here for them to form their slow bond from dislike to slowly loving one another. I was fortunate enough to receive the advanced copy of the audio version of this book. I thought the narrator did an excellent job.

I am absolutely positive I adored this book! It was the perfect amount of seriousness with laugh out loud funny moments! I loved the writing and the characters were really amazing! Please read this book! You will love it too.

Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to review this book! All opinions are my own!

This book was kind of eh. I wasn't really a fan of the main female character. She was a jerk in the beginning and she kind of got better but she still wasn't my favorite. I wasn't obsessed with Sebastian either which was kind of disappointing. Nothing really stood out for me.

I did enjoy the ending. It was really sweet and endearing. I also loved the small-town setting. The cover of this book really got me interested. Overall, it was a 2.5 out of 5 for me.

DNF

I tried more than once to get through this audiobook, I think I can safely say that there are plenty of good attributes to the story and the actors did a wonderful job with it. Unfortunately for me the pacing was just not working and I couldn’t for the life of me get invested.

The general plot follows Brynn, an up and coming newscaster looking to shake off her ‘small town girl’ image. She’s sick of being shoved into the typecast and says some not-so flattering things about her hometown that end up broadcasted and cause a scandal. Instead of being fired, she’s sent back home to help out around her hometown and garner positive PR. Sebastian was not born to the town but he’s chosen to make it his home and he’s, shall we say, not so impressed with Brynn’s attitude. Regardless the two have to work together to get tourism going and grow the “right kind” of attention for their community.

It really was all fine! I wasn’t offended by anything, I think the writing was pretty decent. The pacing was slow as heck though, and the characters and their chemistry were middle of the road. I think I could probably give this another shot at another point in time, in a different headspace but definitely for now: DNF at 60% I think people more into small town romances than I am would have a decent chance of really enjoying this, but I really couldn’t get into it.

Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other was a fun enemies to...lovers (?) story that was the perfect light and fluffy read to transition into the colder weather months. Unfortunately, the romance felt off. The titular characters go from hating each other to something that may have been akin to love, but it just didn't feel like it. The build up from enemies to lovers needed more work in the in between. The decision to make Brynn's point of view first person and Sebastian's third made the chapters feel clunky and really removed me from the story. It would have benefitted much more for two first person POVs and a dual narration.

So, this was my first audio book as well as my first review of an audio book and I was very, very pleased. I loved the dual POV from both narrators as well as the voice acting that sucked you into the story. This book was not only was sweet, but heartfelt and funny.

This book tells the story of Brynn Cornell, an up-and-coming morning news anchor who got caught bad mouthing her hometown when she thought the cameras weren’t rolling. Brynn is desperate to redeem herself and regain the approval of the public and decides to return to her small town to make amends. Upon her arrival she meets Sebastian, a newbie to Adeline Springs and a member of the city council. Sebastian is tasked with babysitting Brynn which aggravates him because she insulted the town he loves so much, but also believes the exposure that Brynn will bring to the small town will help attract more visitors to the area. Sebastian starts warming to Brynn as her TV persona starts to shed when she becomes reacquainted with the people she grew up with in that practically raised her. Brynn also starts seeing Sebastian in new eyes as she realizes that he was a renowned journalist who left everything behind to live a quiet life in Adeline Springs. Their romance is fun to see flourish in the beautiful mountain landscapes that are described through the story. Some of the tropes that are found in this novel are: forced proximity, enemies to lovers, small town romance.

Overall, this book is a sweet and wholesome romantic comedy. I laughed out loud and got teary eyed in towards the end over the sweetness of it all. I really enjoyed the pop culture references peppered in throughout the book, it was a fun touch that immersed you in the story even more. The voice acting was great and I found myself rather loving the audio book format from my first exposure to the medium. I would certainly recommend this book for someone that wants a sweet small-town romance with heavy Hallmark Movie vibes.

Thank you, Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Audio, for the audio book via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Sebastian is not the only one who hates Brynn.

Brynn is rude, mean, self-absorbed, and completely unlikeable.

Thank you so much for this ARC. I wanted to love this book but I had to DNF at around 60%. Unfortunately, I just have to many books on my TBR to continue with one that I’m really not vibing with. That is not to say I think it’s a bad book, I just don’t think it was a good fit for me. I do love a small town romance, slow burns, and enemies to lovers is my favorite trope ever. I commend the author for trying to have a unique execution for these tropes, it wasn’t for me. There are certain beats and qualities that I personally need from a romance. For example, good pacing, likable characters (or at least ones that start to show growth sooner than the half way point), showing attraction and/or sexual tension between the characters much sooner. I need to see more chemistry much sooner in order to be emotionally involved.

I also am not a fan of Brynn at all still 60% through the book. This is too long for me to continue hating a character in a romance. This woman is so insufferable and stupid. I’m so many ways. 1) just google this dude that everyone keeps telling you is a big deal! 2) just stop and think before you just say stuff. 3) listen when people try to warn you to not do stupid things. Brynn is supposed to be a grown professional. Her personality reminds me of a whiny spoiled teenager.

Another thing I typically love is a dual POV, but I struggled with the way it was done in this book. It felt so choppy. The FMC POV is written in first person past tense and the MMC POV is written in third person past tense. Each chapter ends with someone laying out a truth bomb or an insult and then just cuts to the other person’s POV. I personally just would have liked to see an inner monologue reaction to those. Sometimes the writing did back track a little so that you can see that when the POV switched back but by then I had moved on from caring. The narrator was great but I think I would have liked it better if there was a male narrator for the male POVs

The FMC also talks about hating being forced to use language like “fam” when she’s on tv but then uses the phrase “I was this many days old when I learned that” later in the story all on her own which is probably the most cringey and overused Gen-Z phrase.

The pacing was just too slow. Even with an intended slow burn, at 55% I expect to start seeing some chemistry and attraction and I didn’t. Any attraction I did notice seemed completely forced between the 2 main characters and I still don’t like them. I feel like at over the half way point I should start to like the characters, see some growth, and start seeing the sparks fly and getting excited for them to get together. I’m not excited at all. I’m excited for it to be over unfortunately.