Celine Bangura is set on the life that she wants to lead, which includes being a lawyer. When given the opportunity to chase her dreams of being a lawyer with help from her idol, she's all over it. She just doesn't expect her arch nemesis, Bradley Graeme, to also take the opportunity. We learn more about Celine and Bradley's past relationship and how they rekindle it.

I absolutely loved this book. The humor was witty and not at all forced and I really liked the character development. As a special education teacher, I appreciated some awareness for OCD, mentions of therapy, and the use of coping strategies throughout. I was rooting for Celine and Bradley throughout the book as they struggled to figure out who they were as individuals and with their relationship.

As a fan of Talia Hibbert's adult rom-coms, I was slightly skeptical going into this: her first YA release. I was so pleasantly surprised with this book. It was effortlessly funny and sweet. The romance was my favorite part but that's not to say that the plot wasn't intriguing and unique and the characters well-developed and loveable. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes but I may have a new favorite with this friends to rivals to friends to lovers although it's not nearly as catchy. I was in love with both of the main characters from page one and so deeply invested in their romance. Having both main characters' perspectives was a refreshing and welcome change of pace to the other YA rom-coms I've read. Each character had unique and distinct voices, even the side characters. It was real and messy, filled with teenage problems of first love, college applications, and familial expectations. Talia Hibbert can give me a YA romance any day of the week.

4.5 stars!

Talia Hibbert truly doesn't miss, and I loved this YA debut from her! Celine and Brad were so sweet, and for a YA book, the characters were very mature and well-developed. There was a great cast of supporting characters as well; I hope we see them again. I would love to see more after the ending of this book and hope we get to see more of this world in future books! Overall, a lovely, heartwarming, sweet, and totally age-appropriate (for the teens!) romance.

Loves:
- Second chance/friends-to-lovers
- LGBTQIA+ representation
- OCD representation
- Content warning at the beginning of the book!!!
- The glossary explaining all the British terms
- The publisher - Joy Revolution - is an imprint focused on telling BIPOC-written and featured romances

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children's/Joy Revolution for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

TW: parental abandonment, OCD

I loved this YA Book. If this was my last YA book I read ever I would say I closed it out in a bang. It was well written, super cute, loved the characters and what they represent. The parents were amazing.

I rarely read YA books and this isn’t my typical genre. The story was fun, high stakes scavenger hunt for your future. The writing was good and didn’t feel “dumbed down” for a younger audience. Celine and Bradley stopped being friends due to Brad being embarrassed of the “weird” hobbies.

I would totally recommend for a YA audience.

I absolutely loved this book. I wasn’t sure when I first started reading if it would be complete love, but these characters stole my heart.

This friends to enemies to lovers was just perfection. From Brad and him having OCD to the complex family relationships for Celine, was truely beautiful to read.

I loved their chemistry. I loved how they found their way back to each other. I loved their friend groups. It gave me a bit of Heartstoppers vibe it that context. It was just an absolute joy to read.

It is a true YA. So if you are a YA or love YA then I highly recommend! Definitely one I would live my kids to read when they are old enough.

Celine signs up for a survival course, hoping to receive a college scholarship. She discovers she's on the same team as her high school nemesis and ex-best friend Bradley. Can they cooperate long enough to keep each other out of trouble?

Well, this is just adorable. Smart, funny, and heartfelt, it delves into the angst and idealism typical of teens. The author is as adept at YA as she is at adult fiction, which is saying a lot. If you like romantic comedy, this belongs on your must-read list.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc!!

Talia Hibbert did it again! Not that I had any doubt. God, I enjoyed this SO much! The characters were so fleshed out. Bradley was such a cinnamon roll. So beyond sweet and caring. Even when he and Celine weren't friends anymore, you could tell how much he adored her. Celine was an absolute badass. She might have thought she was bad with feelings but to me, she wore her heart on her sleeve.

The conflicts were believable and everything was wrapped up perfectly, in my opinion. So hopeful and realistic. It was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster (for me!) but I loved it.

The pop culture references didn't bother me at all, and usually I'm not a fan of them. Everything that was referenced made sense. We're one day away from 2023 and people are surprised a TikTok "influencer" would end up a character in a book?

Anyway! I really have nothing negative to say. It was a pleasure being able to read this and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Talia Hibbert can do no wrong in my opinion. I wasn’t sure about her foray into YA because part of what I loved so much about her past novels is how well she writes the spicy bits! And while I still prefer adult romance just in general, Hibbert’s wit and humor shine through to make for a super cute and funny friends to enemies to friends again to lovers adventure.

I’m a big ol @taliahibbert fan - her Brown sisters series is SO good! So you can imagine my squeal when I got an advanced copy of her upcoming YA novel, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute 🥰 huge thanks to Talia, @netgalley and @joyrevbooks for gifting me this early copy! It is out on Jan 3 and I highly recommend you preorder it!

I am not a huge YA reader, but this hit all the right notes for me. Hibbert’s signature wit, humor and smart writing shone through aquickly fell for Brad and Celine. They are former close friends turned enemies, though the why is different depending on who you ask (relatable tbh). We quickly learn that they are both highly motivated and dealing with a lot. Fate brings them together for an expedition competition with a massive prize: a university scholarship.

Both Brad and Celine are incredibly well developed and were fun to get to know and easy to root for. I shy away from YA because sometimes the characters and their stories feel very surface level and that couldn’t be further from the truth here. I devoured it and couldn’t stop smiling when I finished.

Make sure to pick it up on Jan 3!

#scottonreads #goodreads #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #netgalley #ya #taliahibbert #joyrevolution #joyrevolutionbooks

It’s deeply impolite to brush your elbow against someone else’s back; that someone else might accidentally suffer a momentary but overwhelming neurological collapse.

I really can’t stand this girl. I wonder how long I get to walk with her.

Sometimes talking to Giselle is like having an angel on each shoulder while the devil lives between your ears.

“Mate. Just marry her already.”
Not a bad idea. Wait, no, I am a teenager. I can’t get married; Mum would cry.

Talia Hibbert never fails. I've gotten through most of her backlist and she has ALWAYS been an absolute fucking legend. And it is that incredibleness and that she's my absolute number one author of all time, that I was never, even of a second, hesitant about how phenomenal this book would be, despite my deep distrust of most YA romances.

Bringing back one of my favorite tropes, and a Talia Hibbert staple, is the reverse grumpy-sunshine where HE'S the sunshine and SHE'S the grumpy. Get a Life, Chloe Brown was my first read with this trope and I have been an absolute goner for the trope (and the book and the series and the author) ever since.

Brad, sweet amazing Brad. Talia said that Brad is who she wishes she could be when it comes to managing her OCD and I just... that makes me so emotional. Not for any good or bad reason. simply because I love how honest that is. That's one thing I can always count on from her, and her books, honesty.

Celine, was a super interesting character to read about and it is the simple fact that she was written by Talia that I love her so much; any other author and I would've been rolling my eyes every time she was on the page which was like 80% of the time. I mean, a TikToker who's very genuinely into conspiracy theories? But Talia fucking Hibbert had to go and make her so amazing and powerful and REAL that I ended up absolutely adoring that child.

I read this book at the end of 2022, and my one and only resolution that I'd made was not to mince my words with people anymore; it's not worth the effort when I know they wouldn't, and don't, do the same for me. And look at what line caught my eye 3 days after I'd made this resolution:

"So what’s the point of mincing words? You know what trying to keep people comfortable gets you? Heartbreak."
- Brad
I think I stalk Talia Hibbert in my dreamscape, that's the only logical explanation.

MVP: Neneh Bangura, an icon

Thank you to NetGalley, Joy Revolution Books and Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Really engaging. I loved the OCD representation that was clearly there but managed in a healthy way not only by the character but by the author as well.

The emotional intelligence and growth by both main characters throughout the book was so refreshing. They both made strides to being better people, but also realistically had it come slowly and in spurts.

The only thread that felt unfinished was the dad storyline. I felt like there should’ve been something else to resolve it since it carried such weight throughout the book. But perhaps that’s the point? Sometimes life doesn’t resolve and you have to make do with that is.

Such a cute YA from Talia. Well done.

Talia Hibbert does not disappoint in her YA debut.

Amazing chemistry ✅
Diverse representation ✅
Hilarious banter ✅

I fell in love with Celine and Bradley. Celine is driven, smart, sarcastic, and sometimes emotionally avoidant with a kind, vulnerable underside. Bradley is charming, sweet, athletic, and OCD. The mental health representation is nuanced and spot-on for both characters. I cheered them on as they went from ex-best friends to lovers and wanted to give them both a hug as they navigated personal challenges.

As a high school teacher, I can attest that Hibbert does a fantastic representation of today's teenagers. I'll definitely be recommending it to my students.

I received an ARC from Random House Children's and Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Received this ARC from Netgalley.

I thought this book was very cute. The forest environment was different & I appreciated that it wasn't the regular.

I've come to love Talia Hibbert's books and characters, so I knew I wanted to check out her debut YA novel. As usual, her characters are real and relatable, with insecurities and anxieties and other mental health conditions that so many people deal with.

This was an enemies-to-lovers, but with a little second chance romance mixed in? I enjoyed the dual-point of views from Celine and Bradley, which is always fun to get both perspectives and what the characters are thinking about the same situation.

I think if you've read and loved Hibbert's adult books, you will love this one too!

4.5 stars rounded up to 5!

Bradley and Celine are ex-best friends and nothing will change that, not even a survival course in the woods where the only people they know are each other. As they work as a team, not only will they have to get through surviving, but also maybe perhaps talking about their past and figuring out why this football (soccer for us Americans) and conspiracy-obsessed Tik Tokker are no longer friends.

I have to start by saying that I absolutely loved this book. I read the first 20% in one night and then the second night devoured the remainder of the book in one sitting. Some things that didn't make this a perfect five star for me was that I wanted more out of the competition portion and I wanted to see more of Bradley and Celine when they were best friends, but besides that I feel like Talia Hibbert scooped this out of my brain and made a perfect YA novel. I have read all of the Brown Sisters trilogy and so I already knew I loved her writing and her relationship building, but I do think Bradley is my favorite love interest of all of her books. I loved him so much, appreciated the OCD representation, and felt like he was a real person. Not to discount Celine either because I also felt like I knew exactly who she was, and I loved the journey we went on with them as a couple but also with their own self discovery. There's no one else I would trust more into a transition from adult to YA and I truly will read everything Talia Hibbert writes.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

To start out I want to thank NetGalley for this ARC in return for my honest opinion. I initially requested this book because I have read The Brown Sisters Trilogy by Talia Hibbert and I really enjoyed her writing style and lead characters. I have to say that I was NOT disappointed with Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute.

I found this story to be a page-turner for sure. I absolutely loved Celine as the main character and her "enemy" Brad. I enjoyed that the characters were once friends and we find out why that changed for them. I found their enemy banter back and forth to be entertaining and quick-witted which I really appreciated. I find that sometimes teenage characters can be very drama-filled over foolish things but with these two characters, I did not find that to be the case. I loved that there was depth to them, they each had baggage to carry. Take Celine for example she was raised by a single mother because her father ditched them for another family and has nothing to do with his first family. That is some real trauma to have to deal with especially when growing up. Then look at Bradley who carries an OCD diagnosis as a teen boy and how well he deals with it. As someone who also deals with an OCD diagnosis, I found that Talia Hibbert wrote the illness in a very realistic way. I found that these difficulties did not stop the main characters from going after what they wanted and working toward their goals. In my opinion, I found that to be very refreshing.

If you are looking for a story that makes you feel for the characters and all their flaws then I would definitely recommend picking this book up. I truly enjoyed this story and will definitely be recommending it to people. In my opinion, Talia Hibbert has written another great book and I look forward to reading more from this author.

Everything I have written above is entirely my own thoughts and opinions. Again I want to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

I’ll admit I was very surprised to hear Hibbert wrote a YA romance considering how spice forward her “Brown Sisters” series is but she’s a great author so I had to check this book out. For someone whose adult books are all over smutty BookTok this book is ridiculously wholesome; and I LOVED IT!!

Even with it being written as 2 alternating POVs this book is a quick read. The characters, Brad and Celine, are genuinely likable and relatable but they do have their idiosyncrasies to give them some depth. Big kudos to Hibbert for giving Brad supportive male friends which I don’t think we see a ton of in romance novels.

Overall, if you want something cute and light to read this is a good choice. I will say if you are NOT a regular YA reader you might find this book to be a bit superficial but it’s still a fun read and again, super wholesome!

Thank you to netgalley and Joy Revolution for a gifted e-arc in exchange for my review

What is there to say except that this book is tender and lovely and laugh-out-loud funny in the way that only Talia Hibbert can write? I loved Brad and Celine so so much, they are precious and just figuring things out and so large-hearted. I want everyone to read this book immediately

A full review will be published on January 6th @8:00pm on Instagram and Goodreads @abookwormsgarden.